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Angela The Agents of L-Corp might have a variety of opinions regarding Petra depending on how closely they work with the Control Team or their lives up until working for L Corp but at the end of the day, Petra's particular talents have been invaluable to L Corp for few people are quite as immune to psionic influence as Petra is--even with the aid of EGO Gear. She has undoubtedly saved several lives--some of whom she may not even be aware she has saved--simply by taking on work that would doom other Agents.

So when news came on from high there would be a Birthday Party for Petra, there was hardly any pushback--not even from the Sephirah. Malkuth and Hod (before her Meltdown) were plenty excited to have something positive going on, Yesod and Tiphereth were happy so long as it happened after work hours. Netzach and Chesed would have been for this party regardless of who it was for. Gebura and Hokma had their concerns and Binah was adamant that she be able to at least watch the party progress, but the party was happening. And that was that.

Angela has cleared out a lounge area a few hallways down from the Warpgate. Despite her warnings, she did not put up any new rules or regulations--she spent most of her time directing cleaning crews and ensuring the clean close of the day...so having Wod's help was a great boon. The Control Team helped Woz with decorations (Yuri's 'KYS' balloons with Petra's face blasted on them were denied) but they put up streamers and a big banner saying HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY PETRA on it in colorful letters. A pinata resembling Schadenfreude has been put up.

Rudolta tried to trot in carrying a sleigh of presents a few times but Yuri and Cinder pushed Rudolta back and said, "SHH NOT YET" at him in unison until the Abnormality seemed to get it.

As the party nears start time, Angela starts arriving with the Sephirah (minus Binah, Hokma, and Hod). Every Sephirah (including Angela) has a cone party hat on. Netzach even added magnetized a red nose to the center of his robotic boxy 'face', right under the singular leaky eye.

Hokma arrives shortly after, walking in with an unassuming man with short hair in a labcoat and a black shirt and slacks, along with a belt. The most assuming thing about him, actually is his familiar golden eyes.

"He shouldn't be here." Angela says.

"Miss Angela, I believe you have asked for many concessions. It is only fair that I make one of my own. He hasn't been out of his office in quite some time."

"Uh. hey Angela." The Manager says. "This is really something."

Cinder leaves a few minutes before the party starts in order to fetch Petra and is giddy with excitement though the rest of the Control Team stays behind to fuss over party details.

Myo is arriving with the guests. She is coming in her power armor, minus the helmet, and has brought a gift of her own in a small wrapped gift that she is handling carefully under her arm. The wrapping paper is bunny themed, obviously.
Timespace Riders      Control is a good deal more festive than it otherwise would be. The retainer Woz, authority on all things rejoicing, has made good use of the assistance from the Control Team. With so many hands to help, he's had plenty of time to work on the food.

     Having consulted with Petra ahead of time, there is a spread of foods available, each laid out on a folding table and resting upon a decorative white-gold tablecloth, provided regardless of the complexity, as if solely for the purpose of flexing. Among the heavy hitters are a spread of barbecue chicken, pulled pork and ribs, with homemade sauces available in a variety of heats and sweets (plus buns available for the pork), as well as deviled eggs and potato salad. A mix of enticing aromas rises from the table where it's all kept. But one rises above the rest, as if by providence.

     The star of his culinary spread is also where this attitude is most proudly on display--baumkuchen, the king of cakes. The smell is there, before the sight of the cake. Sugary, chocolatey, somehow, mysteriously, fresh out of the oven. A faint scent of apricot and rum mixes with the chocolate. The sight of it, resting on an ornate pedestal above the rest of the dishes, a simple, chocolate covered cake with sliced almonds garnishing the sides, belies how involved the process of making it is.

     For nearly an hour, Woz had carefully layered each 'ring' of the so-called tree cake, broiling each layer and carefully, exactingly watching.

     Little circular tables have also been set up, with tablecloths matching the white-gold motif of the one where the food is. Each can seat several people, and the only assigned seat is Petra's, noted with a little placard and placed in the center. Each table is within reasonable conversation distance of each other, while still providing room to get up as needed.

     All of this, for Petra, on Sougo's say-so.

     Sougo, meanwhile, had spent time beforehand, as far in advance as several days, coordinating with Petra on who she'd like to invite, and then getting with those people privately to discuss presents and load up the aforementioned sled of presents. As an additional precaution, he's posted up near the door, to intercept anyone coming in last-minute, to take their gift and leave it with Rudolta. That way, everyone's presents can be brought out at once, with a resounding cry of 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY!' when the birthday girl makes her appearance.
Kale Hearthward MIssion Objective: Don't screw this up.

That's Kale Hearthward's mantra in the days leading up to today. Don't screw this up. Pick out a nice gift. Wear a nice outfit. Don't say anything or do anything that'd ruin things. Petra Soroka is not terribly important to him, but she's important to some other people that he'd like to remain in the good graces of, and he figures he has to make up some points for what he's lost on Persephone's report card.

Complicating things a bit is that he's had some less than ideal interactions with the birthday girl *and* the facility's host, just a few days ago. Even if Kale can put Petra's actions aside by categorizing them as 'Elite stuff', he's not sure Angela would have the same view about *his* trickery. This is probably a bad idea.

Fortunately, something being a bad idea hasn't stopped him before. (Also, he wasn't able to get a refund on his gift, which ended up being the deciding factor.)

Kale arrives. He's in semi-formals, button up shirt, pressed slacks, and... well, he's wearing black dress shoes, sort of... clearly he's wearing his jet boots, but they've been painted black and have strips of fabric attached to make them sort of look like dress shoes. (No weapons, though.)

He walks in, carrying his large gift with both hands. He looks relieved to see the drop-off point right away, and puts it in the sleigh. (It's got sword patterned wrapping paper.)

And then after that, best to get the (other) hard part over with. "Miss Angela." He nods once to her as he approaches. "I'd heard of Lobotomy Corporation before, but I hadn't realized your facility was of this caliber."
Tamamo     Tamamo has dressed down for the occasion, rather than up, but it's only apparent if compared to her previous visits, and even then, hardly so. One might think it simply a more summery version of the same. There's less gold and fewer layers, lending more proninence to things such as bows and shoulders. She may not be Myo, but it's something of a battle dress for her, too. Officially, in a, perhaps, only technical sense, it's a witchcraft-user's garb, but that designation was made in a different timeline, on a very different world.

    Her arrival is, naturally enough, together with Lilian. It wouldn't be difficult to guess that her beloved's presence is the main reason for her own, but she does leave a present with Woz. It's simply wrapped in a very ordinary, modern style, as if she'd asked a store clerk to do it for her. It's a little too large to just contain a card, but not by much.

    Thereafter, the array of food has her attention, as does Woz, in particular, should he admit to having prepared it. "My, but I have not seen a cake of this particular style, before. Is it local? That scent is, hm... I wonder..."

    She makes sure to give a "Ms. Angela, how nice of you to arrange this," in greeting, as well as acknowledgment of the various Sephirot.
Powerpuff Girls Buttercup, feeling sorry for herself, had been laying in bed and calling people on the phone to harass them. Bubbles had poked her head in and turned on the light, elliciting a long groan from the emerald puff and a thrown pillow.

"You should go out and do something. It always makes you feel better."

Another pillow chased the sapphire Puff away, but Buttercup rolled onto her side and consulted her phone once again. 'Petra. Are you doing anything tonight?' Her phone barely registers a wait before the response 'Absolutely' push notifies to her lock screen she barely had time to switch to. She thumbs open the screen again. 'Oh. Can I come?'

Petra sends a screenshot of her own message a minute before rather than repeat herself. Buttercup sighs and rolls out of bed.

Having never been to L-Corp before, Buttercup travels through the warpgate with her gothy mood cut with a bit of expectation. Spooky monsters and danger was actually her speed, even if signing up for mercenary work wasn't. So, her expectation gives her the energy to throw on an outfit and show up for a party. If it's totally lame, well, at least she tried.

Not that she'd ever admit to her meddling sister it worked. She was already insufferably right constantly even if it wasn't so simple for other people.

Dressed in distressed black jeans, green socks and monochrome Converse, an emerald green shirt with ragged and darkened bottom hem with a black X across the front, and a dark letterman-style jacket with green sleeves to the dark leather back. Under one arm is a box wrapped in newspaper.

The Powerpuff Girl (singular) saunters in and starts looking around for a gift pile, spotting the Futuring Rider. "Oh, hey, it's the just-in-time duo." Notices the rough Puff, flashing a close-lipped grin at Woz. "Is there a gift pile you started?"
Petra Soroka     Petra *has* had birthday parties before. Of course she has. She's been to them too, because despite how weird and angsty she's been with all of the Elites, she's actually pretty socially competent! She's normal. She just chooses not to be.

    But, then, her idea of what a 'birthday party' is is shaped mostly by suburban America and partly by a research lab out in space, and over the course of the day, Petra increasingly realizes that she has no idea what to expect from tonight. When she tries to assemble a combination of thoughts that puts 'Elites' and 'birthday party' together, the vertigo caused by the discrepency in her schemata for each makes her head spin wildly.

    By the time Petra finishes work on Fragments of the Universe for the day, her thought-spiral has gotten so out of control that she's become convinced that she can't even use the word 'friend' to describe any of them. What the fuck is she doing here? In the multiverse, in this facility, with these people, expecting a fucking birthday party with *multiple* attendees that she's tried to fight to the death before. Why is anyone even tolerating her? Why hasn't someone killed her yet? What the fuck does a birthday party even look like?

    "Oh, hey, Cinder." Petra's mental state is normal, when Cinder finds her in one of the lounges down in Training for some reason. She is staring at a wall. "Is you being here my cue, ahaha?"

    When the elevator is nearly at Control Department, Petra suddenly squeezes Cinder's hand, tightly enough to hurt a little. It's a good thing she doesn't sweat anymore. Just before the doors open into the lobby, Petra exhales heavily, letting out some of the tension, drops Cinder's hand, and says, apropo of nothing, "I'm normal."

    Doing so gives her the steel necessary to step out into the hall, still in her work clothes, with her revolver strapped to the outside of her leg. The steel lasts for exactly one step, as she freezes again, taking in the scene, dumbfounded. She turns her head to Cinder, as if silently asking for confirmation, and when given, Petra jumps in place and actually proceeds most of the rest of the way to the table, her eyes caught by the cake more than anything else.

    "U-um. W-wow. This is-- this is a-a-- kind of amazing."
Kukuru Kukuru's here, too, for some reason! She probably wasn't on the invite list for good reason, but she's heard about the party through it being discussed on open channels, so of course she's going to make an appearance at the party today. After all, who doesn't love birthday presents? With any luck, the right present and the right show of love will be more than enough to convince Petra of the sincerity of her feelings!

... At least, that's what Kukuru would like to think. Even someone like her isn't so blind as to miss literally every single thing that's been said to her, though, especially with how previous talks and chance meetings have gone between herself and Petra for the past couple of weeks now. The urge to find and greet the belated birthday girl is strong, but-

'she's gross and pushy and never listens to anything I say, and I was actually trying to be polite with her for months.'
'How many times, Kukuru.'
'Yup.'

Instead, she waits for the flow of arriving guests and Sephirah to build up. It'll be easier to slip in and slip out that way. Thinking she's far smoother and sneakier than she actually is (despite wearing a bright yellow sweater and a black ankle-length skirt), Kukuru nonchalantly moves up to where Sougo's collecting the gifts to be left with Rudolta. She still manages to brighten up considerably upon seeing him, though, raising her hand in a light wave in greeting while glancing around with her head tucked down just a smidge.

"He-llo, Sougo. You and Woz and everyone really pulled out all the stops for this, huh? It looks so nice!" She chimes in, then closes her mouth quickly upon realizing she might have blown her cover (again) (already). If she sees Petra or any of the clerks in the meantime, she'll duck down to hide, but Angela and the Sephirah get brief, straight-arm waves in the air should she spot them without nearly as much regards to hiding her presence.

"If you need any last minute supplies, let me know. Okay? I should probably get going before... Um. Oh." She hands over her gift box: A long rectangular box, meticulously gift wrapped in obviously leftover Christmas paper that says HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS, but with each instance of JESUS crossed out and replaced with PETRA in blocky letters. It's light, and shaking it makes light ruffling noises as though something soft is inside. There's no signature or label on the box to indicate who it's from.
Rita Ma      Whatever Rita's feelings on a place like Lobotomy Corporation, she's doing her best to keep them off her face. A bolder-than-usual outfit helps: that daffodil A-line dress works nicely with her hair and eyes, and dark leggings set it off taking over from her knees. It's like armor, she thinks. Like smiling even if you don't quite feel it.

     But she does feel it pretty soon. So many of her favorite people are here, and also Kale, and Woz's preparations set an infectiously bright mood. By the time she's quietly slipping in and handing Woz a gift with floral wrapping paper, not small but not heavy either, her smile is already more genuine than nervous.

     "It is amazing," she says, very likely dealing sneak attack damage to Petra from behind. She slips up beside with a characteristically radiant smile, and tries to guide Petra over to a seat at the table before seating herself adjacent. Giddiness doesn't quite break the surface tension of serenity.

     "You've made a lot of new friends lately, haven't you? I bet it feels nice knowing they want you to be happy this much."

     If she catches Angela's eye (metaphorically, at least), she shoots her a grateful, slightly sad smile too. It means 'thank you for letting me be here'.
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki is, of course, not going to Petra's birthday party.

    She knows it's happening. It's just way too complicated for her to go, doubly as much after how things on the Infinity Train ended, and she wasn't invited in the first place. She doesn't hate going to L Corp. She even expects that she'll unwillingly run into the other girl while there in the future. But she just can't bring herself to go to something like this, when it's obvious how it'll go. No matter how she feels about Petra...

    ...crashing a birthday is too much for her.

    So it's very fortunate that she has an actual reason to not be anywhere close to there today, both for her own excuses to herself and in case her absence somehow gets held over her head in the future. Once again taking a rest day off from school to ensure her injury finishes healing up, Hibiki had found herself idly walking the shopping district of some completely unrelated world, not even fully sure of what she was doing it for. It's not like she's going to buy anything.

    And in fact, Hibiki is planning on simply leaving soon--before a STRAY CAT with a WEIRDLY SYNTHESIZED MEOW, and much more importantly, a MISSING PET COLLAR, darts out out from around a corner and sprints down the street. Blink. "Ah--wait a second!" She can't just let someone's pet run off when they're probably worried sick about it! So it's only natural she's going to pursue at full speed with only one thing on her mind.

    It also means she doesn't look very hard when all the passerbys are starting to look sort of blockier and bulkier as she passes them by. Or when her wild cat chase takes her off the road and down the alleyway. Or when the stage transitions from CITY STREETS to OLD FACTORY midway in a sudden warpgate-esque experience that she doesn't think too hard about, because she was there for Wendy's Woman and that kind of thing stopped being weird to her ages ago.

    So did 'abandoned' factories that nevertheless have working conveyor belt traps featuring crushers, jumps that are way too easy to miss and lead down into bottomless black pits, and platforming segments that involve bouncing off the heads of barely-functioning and sort of familiar-feeling robots to reach new heights. It's extremely on rails, which is exactly her style to the point she doesn't even think about it, as it means she just needs to press on until she reaches her goal at the very end...!

    ...and snatch up the kitten waiting patiently for her in the room at the very back! "Got you! Phew. You put me through way too much trouble, seriously...and now I'm gonna have to go all that way just to bring you...uh, back?"

    Was that something clicking underneath her shoe?
Eggman      Click.

     The rope is loosed.

     The cage falls.

     Thump.

     "Happy *birthday*, my dear!" Dr. Ivo Robotnik, alias the nefarious Doctor Eggman, says, as the walls of the false entryway fall away to reveal the truth to Hibiki. Eggman walks forward, arms spread wide. Orbot and Cubot are hoisting the cage up into the air. A sign suddenly dangles down in front of it.

     It is a comically crude crayon drawing of Hibiki's face looking angry and big black letters that spell out HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETRA

     And in very small letters on the side, 'by Cubot'.

     In big black letters the back reads, 'FROM DOCTOR EGGMAN,' with an Eggman Empire logo on it.

     In very small letters, it also says, 'Love, Cubot and Orbot', with their faces drawn in crayon beside it.

     "I couldn't decide what to get you, so I got you a hero to taunt." Eggman folds his hand over his chest. "I hope you enjoy yourself."

     "Ah, and, for the hostess," Eggman adds, offering Angela a small box, "I built a little upgrade chip. If you should like to project yourself into the Egg Carrier's beach and simply relax, you may use this at any time."

     "Dr. Ivo Robotnik," he introduces himself to the department heads with firm handshakes, "Alias Dr. Eggman, the worlds' most nefarious supervillain, ruler of the Eggman Empire. At some point I may have to take a look at some of your containment devices; might be able to make some improvements. I've been in the 'collecting energy' business for a long time, you might say."

     Cubot and Orbot, meanwhile, hand the cage off to some of the Eggman Empire robots busy sweeping up the Instant Fake Entryway and wander over. Cubot gives Petra a hug, while Orbot shakes her hand.

     "You have more friends than most villains," says Orbot, "Congratulations on somehow being more socially well-adjusted than *him*."

     "Oi, laddie," Cubot says in a sharp TV Scottish accent, "Cannae ye see the wee lass dinnae like bein' called a villain?"

     "It's a compliment," Orbot says grumpily, "She's got friends *and* she's a villain. She's not trapping people in cages as a birthday present."

     "Ahhh, the Doctor, he'd lahve seein' soom-wan trap the wee blue blunderer in a cage."

     "Anyway," Orbot says, nudging Cubot with his shoulder and then presenting a gift directly to Petra, because Rudolta is creepy as hell, "We also got you this. The Doctor doesn't know about it." It's a nicely-wrapped little box in Eggman Empire stationary. "We hope you like it."
Timespace Riders      Woz is dressed as he always is, in the somewhat apocalyptic uniform of the cult-slash-honor-guard Quartzer. That could be for a number of reasons.

    Sougo, meanwhile, is wearing a loose-fitting white short-sleeve button up, with navy stripes, paired with his favored hiking boots, a pair of rolled blue slacks, and a vibrant yellow web belt (evident because a loose end hangs from his waist, reaching his knee).

    Sougo has bright greetings for everyone, waving enthusastically and setting the matching black and white bangles on his right arm to bobbing merrily.

    "It is called baumkuchen, Lady Tamamo," says Woz with a courteous incline of his head and no small amount of pride. "Also known as the King of Cakes, and 'tree cake,' for its meticulously arranged layers. A German recipe, but quite popular in Japan, as well."

    Sougo fields the gift-pile question from Buttercup (after an enthusiastic hello), with a bobbing nod of his head. "Mm! It's with the Santa Reindeer. Rudolta." He looks one way, then the other, before leaning in: "I know it looks scary, but it's actually really nice and just wants to give gifts away."

    Petra's entrance draws a curl of Woz's lip. If she's impressed, then Sougo will be happy, and he has well and truly served his king well today. With one hand over his heart, he bows at the waist. "I am pleased to hear it, Petra," he says. He really is!

    "Happy birthday!!" Sougo shouts, bouncing in place, clapping, and no doubt starting a chorus of the same. "Um, hi, Kukuru," says Sougo, genuinely surprised to see her here. His expression shifts to one of concern fairly quickly. "Are you... sure about being here?"

    Woz blows one of those little party horns. He also has words for Kukuru, voice confidentially low. "For the sake of your own happiness as well as Petra's, I must agree with my Demon King's concern, though it pains me to do. It is most unwise for you to be here, Kukuru. I humbly advise that you make your retreat post-haste, while Dr. Eggman's entrance still holds the attention of the guests." He gestures with a subdued sweep of his hand to the other end of the hallway.

    Picking up on this, Sougo claps, chuckles nervously and takes a few bounding steps towards the center of the room. "Okay, everyone--hi, Hibiki," he asides, sotto voce, "--Rudolta, you can come on out, now! Haha!"

     Another Sougo, looking more bedraggled, appears, attempting to shoo-shove Kukuru hastily towards the door. He looks very resigned, so it probably won't work before someone notices.
Angela Angela and the Control Team's gifts are already with Rudolta though Myo seems a bit miffed that she just can't hand Petra the damn thing, but she ultimately relents as part of her ongoing campaign to actually behave at this party so she can go to another party. "Be careful, that's expensive." Myo says when she hands it off.

Angela is approached by Kale first. She nods to him politely, seemingly without any of the vitrol she held in her gaze before--but Kale is one of the few people who ASKED about coming to the party so Angela is inclined to leave THAT matter for later rather than litigate it now. "I am uncertain if that is meant to be an insult or a compliment but it does not matter either way. This facility is what it is and will fulfil its duties until the end. Thank you, however." She is NOT categorizing it as 'Elite Stuff' largely because she doesn't know what 'Elite Stuff' is. "Please enjoy the party. If you have critique, Chesed has a suggestion box for future events."

Angela bows her head to Tamamo. Tamamo has always been polite, more or less, by Angela's standards (Malkuth's eye slants away when she arrives mysteriously). "If this goes well we may host other birthday parties in the future. A break here and there from work life helps improve long term productivity. Plus, I wanted to. I hope you enjoy the party."

The arrival of a Powerful Puff results in some mild startlement amongst the non Control Team agents in the way that happens when the Hulk shows up to a birthday party, perfectly behaved perhaps--but still, you know, a walking wrecking crew but some chastizement from the Sephirah settles that down quick, particularly from Gebura).

Yesod bobs to Kukuru and waves a hand. "Understood. Thank you for coming." He says to Kukuru.

Angela sees Rita's smile. She (and Gebura, strangely enough) give her a nod of acknowledgement--maybe even more oddly, Angela actually gives her a brief and largely obscured (from the Sephirah) smile that may come off as a bit villainous (sincere).

MEANWHILE

"Yep!" Cinder tells Petra, smiling and squeezing Petra's hand back with a faint 'ow' when Petra's grip tightens to the point of actually hurting. "Don't worry, it'll be a good time!"

When they arrive and Petra 'asks for confirmation', Cinder responds with a big cheeky and friendly grin--she is absolutely enamored. But honestly, for pretty good reason if you think about it.

The Agents shout 'Happy Birthday' absolutely not in unison, it's this sort of happy birthday cascade, though there is a general sort of noise of alarm to when the cage drops and reveals a caged Bikki. Nobody in Lobotomy Corp was party to THAT part of the plan.

"How did he even...?" Yuri wonders aloud in wonder as she leads in Rudolta with the gifts. The horrible monster reindeer sleigh man thing (Human Santapede?) just watches silently as it wheels in the gifts. There is one particularly large one from the Control Team and Angela that takes up a fair chunk of Sleigh Space but also serves as a kind of platform for the other gifts.

"I...do not know if we can really beat Doctor Eggman's gift," Justin Rook says.

"Buut....we all worked together to make it happen. We made a card and Angela wrote one too." Random adds.

Angela briefly looks embarassed.
Hibiki Tachibana "Huh?"
    "Eh?"
        "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttt!?"

    Hibiki's confused shrieking, thankfully, is a lot less deafening on account of Orbot and Cubot hanging the cage up high in the party lounge. She's double-taking between quite literally everything while gripping the bars of the cage, including the sign she can't even read from this side no matter how much she tries to push up on her tiptoes and push her face against the cage to try to see. She's pretty sure she won't like it, though.

    "S-Sougo!? Hey, d-don't just say 'hi' and move on like you saw this coming!" It takes several seconds after hastilybefore things start clicking. There's...Sougo, Angela, the Sephirah...Kale? Buttercup? Kukuru under a sheet? .../Petra?/ Egg...man?

I figured she'd simply enjoy seeing one of her hated rivals humiliated and brought low before her on her special day.

    Oh. This is Petra's...

    A rush of different emotions flood through her head, and she's left completely slack-jawed and unsure of what to even say. Ultimately, after a lot of strain, the first thing is--

    "T-The cat wasn't even an actual cat!?"
Kale Hearthward "It was meant as a compliment, my apologies," clarifies Kale. That went considerably better than it had in Kale's head. "It genuinely is a nice facility. If you're ever giving out public tours, I'd be interested in seeing more of it."

... Wait, Eggman got Petra a *hero*?

Coming here was definitely a bad idea, just because Kale's gift feels woefully inadequate now. (Also he's jealous. Who does he have to impress to start getting caged heroes *he* can taunt?)

"(I'll save you some cake,)" whispers Kale as he passes by the CagedBiki. "(And good luck.)" That... seems to be about the extent of how much Kale's helping that particular situation.

"Doctor Robotnik," says Kale, approaching him next, actually more out of curiosity than anything else. "Someone I know only by reputation and radio. I would have expected we'd meet first across a battlefield, not across a party table."

"That was quite a coup in Indus. I don't suppose you have some pointers to give, to another aspiring conqueror?" Kale idly wonders when the next resonance surge is happening in Secundus, and what sort of gold rush there'll be this time with the current crop of elites.
Lilian Rook     Lilian is pretty sure this is the first birthday party she's actually been sort of kind of invited to on genuine terms, besides that of the two friends she's had since she was fourteen. The thought is both a little depressing and a little frightening, she realizes, once she is in the process of getting ready, which makes her very much grateful that it's taking place inside of L Corp. "At worst, I can always just make something breach and kill everyone there." she whispers to herself while finishing up her hair, a mantra of deeply relieving comfort.

    Lilian arrives with Tamamo, as she is known to do. It is absolutely not a secret at this point, and every time someone gets surprised, it secretly activates a few neurons for her. Her idea of the importance of 'a birthday' is woefully skewed by high society, however, and so what she also arrives with is a one-shoulder slit-leg formal black cocktail dress and crisscross heels, showing up with nails painted, makeup immaculate, jewellery worn in full necklace-earring-bracelet-hairpin set, a rare high-end replacement for her bag on arm, and enough back-bared to flash glints of tattoo ink when her hair slips aside.

    So the table makes her laugh, for one. Hand to the back of her mouth, she titters and points Tamamo's eyes in the direction of Woz's overdone presentation of merely American food, forgetting certain information briefly to say "Oh my goodness. Look at it! What do these people here eat? Does he expect all of her friends are from the suburbs of . . . what, Texas?" That happens to be state that pops to mind when she thinks of America. "That'd be one thing if he hadn't laid out those--" Lilian blinks. "Beg pardon, but is that baumkuchen?" The kusoki word will have to wait.

    Of course she has a gift. It is very small, and re-boxed in an unbranded decorative wooden case with wrapped bows holding it closed instead of paper. Lilian considers holding onto it for later, but ultimately decides to place it with the rest by some unspoken, invisible factor.

    Angela herself is of course cause for Lilian to (politely) wave and make her way over, thanking her (uncomfortably sincerely) for giving Petra a place to have this all happen. The manager by her side causes Lilian to near-imperceptibly tense from neck to toe, but she has ample practice greeting and making small talk with figures Like That. Enough to introduce herself and seem important (and saner than anyone in the City).

    Rita has her hurrying over to say hello to with equal profuse positivity. Holding her hand and leaning down a little to fix her with very firm eye contact, Lilian promises her with vague understanding that she can eat whatever she wants today.

    Kale is . . . she'll get to that later. Thinking about it right now is too much.

    Kukuru is there as usual.

    Buttercup, Lilian hasn't actually met. Once she's done with Woz, maybe she'll ask.

    Petra arrives when Lilian can already be in formation, everything exactly in place, and where she can greet her with softly self-assured 'I am with your gracious host, don't mind me' and 'I'll be watching' vibes. She can't help but respond to her amazement, though, with an accidentally sincere "If anyone gets to celebrate surviving the last year, it should be you, shouldn't it?"

    Eggman is-- "Christ. I have to get him that island." Lilian whispers bitterly under her breath, then interjects into the robot argument with "Sorry, but she's a heroine now." Firmly, with conviction, Lilian states, "It was a nice little run, but she's with me now, which means she's on the right side." without a hint of self doubt.

    Hibiki is--
    Hibi--?
    Lilian just about spits her drink.
Powerpuff Girls Buttercup, every bit the random celebrity at the birthday party as her general aura with the L-Corp agents gives the emerald Puff her usual level of expected awe. Having come to be mildly social - largely because Petra had said some kind things towards her recently, despite her own general state of morosity.

That it was caused by Petra seemed to have been paused because Buttercup was always doing things like this - diving into clubs and weird warehouses by the beach and 'venues' that turned out sketchy. Ace and the Gangrene Gang happened when she was in kindergarten -- her choice of dives only got more refined when she started doing live music.

So at the (corporate dungeon) Company Party for her (terrorist city-threatening) friend surrounded by (mind bending horrors beyond comprehension sealed tentatively under monitor, lock, and key) Buttercup places her gift down in the pile next to Lilian Rook while she declares Petra a heroine now, and finally breaks into a smile.

"Oh, hey," Buttercup begins, pebbly-warm toned. "So is it fighting the forces of e-" She gets out, and then Eggman's cage drops.

Buttercup just gapes as Lilian spits out her drink.
Petra Soroka "Uh. Hey Angela. This is really something."

    As per usual Petra fashion, the first thing she takes note of when looking around the room is the one negative element. She narrows her eyes at the Manager and takes a step forwards, past the cake, all of her awkwardness evaporating in favor of hostility.

    "Hey, what the fuck is he doing here?" She hesitates, backing off from her tone a bit, and glancing at Angela, then Justin. "I mean-- sure he's the manager, but it's not like he does anyone the courtesy of coming out when he could *help* anything. And it's not like I've met him."

> Kale

    In descending order of negative presences, Petra turns next to Kale, though her attention is pulled fractionally away by everything else, looking at the arrivals. "Wow, Hearthward, you'd come to my party even though I'm just a man-hating bitch?" Petra pauses, realizing that she's now singled out two men at her party sequentially to scold them, then mutters, "Well, welcome to the party, Kale."

"He-llo, Sougo. You and Woz and everyone really pulled out all the stops for this, huh? It looks so nice!"

    Petra sees Kukuru, of course. Petra hasn't even managed to grab a plate or chair yet, much less greet anyone she's particularly happy to see, and she's already looking a little sour. More at Kukuru than at either of the previous two presences, actually.

    "Come on. Seriously? Do you think you'll get pity points for sneaking into my party and acting like I'll fucking shoot you if I see you? Stop fucking pretending *I'm* the aggressor when *you* keep ignoring whatever boundaries I set with you? Go the fuck away. You can't solve things just by giving--"

"You've made a lot of new friends lately, haven't you? I bet it feels nice knowing they want you to be happy this much."

    Petra is, correctly, dealt sneak attack damage, cutting off in the middle of her sentence with a squeak. "R-Rita! Hi! U-um-- I mean, I guess, there are a lot of people here, but, really, most of them--" Petra rambles even while letting Rita push her to a seat, anger rapidly melting away into excitement despite the words coming out of her mouth. "I still kind of hate most of them? Well, they're better than some of the others, but, you know, it's not like a happy birthday is enough to buy me over to their side, so--"

> Buttercup

    Petra does end up veering away from her seat, though with tidal momentum continuing to pull Cinder and Rita along behind her. "Buttercup! You came! I--" Petra smiles, vibrating a little, though her expression does twitch when she scans over Buttercup's look more thoroughly. It's probably best to just stay upbeat, though. "U-um. Cinder, this is Buttercup, one of the Powerpuff Girls. Buttercup, this is-- oh my god, wait, I didn't even think about how Rita hasn't met Cinder either."

    Petra makes sure to keep Cinder close for the duration of her wandering, because talking about her seems to provide her an easy, simple baseline for filling conversational space. Particularly when trying to shield herself from the well-wishes and attention directed at herself.
Petra Soroka "If anyone gets to celebrate surviving the last year, it should be you, shouldn't it?"

    "I guess so! I mean, there was a while where-- no, nevermind." Petra beams at Lilian, all of her earlier nervousness completely wiped away. A new, different kind of nervousness encroaches on her expression and flushes grey in her cheeks, when absorbing Lilian's outfit, and her eyes fall to the ground momentarily before returning to Lilian's face. "Thanks for being here, Lilian."

"I couldn't decide what to get you, so I got you a hero to taunt."

    Petra's dual-girl-wielding party-wandering is interrupted by a loud thump, Eggman's announcement, and Hibiki's shriek. She whirls around, a piece of barbecue pork falling off of the plate she was assembling, and a drop of morphmetal unconsciously slides out of her sleeve to spear it before it hits the ground. She stares at the hanging cage, mouth hanging open, flicking her eyes between the banner and Hibiki's shocked face. In the moment where their eyes make contact, Petra is clearly as taken aback as Hibiki is, and there's visible uncertainty in how she should react, until--

    "Ahahahaha! Oh my *god*! I didn't even know I would *want* this until just now!" Sheer, unrestrained cackling. "Holy shit. You got tricked here by a cat? Ahahaha! You still owe me a present for showing up, you know."

    Petra returns Cubot and Orbot's greetings with hugs, despite the latter not initiating one. "Well, the villain thing is--" She glances at Lilian. "Complicated! But I guess it's still a busy birthday party. Glad to see you two." And she calls over to Eggman, with a happy little wave, "This is the funniest gift anyone's ever gotten me, Doctor, you're incredible. And, um-- it's really sweet of you, to do that for Angela, too."
Eggman      Eggman looks Hibiki in the eye. He Grins. The Grin shadows his face in a most unpleasant way - and for a brief instant, everyone can see the eerie, unsettling true face of the Doctor, the Grin that is the logo of the Empire writ in impossible shadow. He raises a finger and swings it from side to side as if to 'tsk-tsk-tsk' her, but says nothing.

     Kale speaks, and the Grin vanishes, and he's back to his normal smile. "Please. Doctor Eggman. I prefer it."

     He puts a hand on Kale's shoulder. "Why don't you tell me about your ambitions, my uppity little bird friend? I can't hardly give you advice if I know nothing about you other than your reputation as..."

     "Well."

     "An uppity little bird."

     Eggman's smile is broad, but of course, he's wearing completely reflective glasses, so who knows what he's thinking. Maybe he's testing Kale. Maybe he's just screwing with him. Maybe he's even being sincere.

     Orbot looks up at Lilian. The robot rolls back and forth for a moment, watches Lilian's reaction to Hibiki's presence, and then says, "Yeah."

     "You're definitely the hero."

     Cubot, who is much too dumb and much too nice to pick up on Orbot's sarcasm, says, "Aye, y'see! They dinnae like that. Only tha Doctor likes that. Elites're, yannoo, complicated n' sooch, with all sortsa feelings and backstoories and whathaveye. Ye dinnae call 'em villains an' heeroos anymore."

     Orbot rolls the lights that are his eyes so hard his entire head tilts in the process. "OK."

     "Ah'm seereeus!" Cubot pushes Orbot lightly, "Ye oughta apologize tae the lassies. The Doctor's oold-fashioned, an' soo are we, ye know. These newfangled sortsa-"

     "Alright, alright, just stop talking!" Orbot wails, "I'm sorry I said anything."

     Eggman smiles and waves at Petra from where he's talking to Kale. "It's my pleasure. I'm glad I could make you happy on your special day. And, as I said, Angela ought to feel included, too. She's very important to you. I felt that ensuring that you two could spend more time together outside the facility would also make you happy."
Kukuru Sougo's surprise isn't unexpected, and Kukuru throws another cheerful wave in Yesod's direction before keeping her head down again. "Yeah, it's... Don't worry. I'm just here to drop this off." She gestures at the unlabeled box, finally remembering to keep her voice down once Woz's whispering makes it a little more apparent that she probably hasn't been too quiet herself. "That's the plan, mhm. I didn't want to leave this sitting around at home, so.. Please. Let me know if anything happens and you need help, okay? I'll..."

She watches the first Sougo briefly as he moves on ahead, then presses her hand against the second Sougo's gently. "Thanks for worrying, Sougo. Wozzy." She smiles in sad appreciation, and doesn't need much more prodding before...

Petra spots her! her reaction isn't entirely unexpected considering everything that's already been said, and she doesn't respond right away. Instead, she swallows once to keep her smile in place, weak as it is, and nods once. "H... He-llo, Petra. No, I just wanted to leave a present for you, and..." She speaks, then stops partway through.

She could try to explain, but it'd just be an excuse. "... I don't think you'd do something like that, Petra, even if... You really could. Should. H-have fun, and sorry about everything." Sniffing once, she offers Rita a light wave in greeting, even looking apologetic for not greeting her outside of the radio, but before she can step through the portal opening in front of her feet...

Eggman brings in Hibiki in a cage, though, and Kukuru can't help but pause to stare for a few moments. "Wow... How bold of them. But if it makes Petra happy..." She murmurs to herself, even giggling softly for a moment. She doesn't linger much longer, though, even with her conflicted emotions play out on her face while she falls right into the evil-looking cloud that closes up after her.
Rita Ma      Rita eagerly twists around in her seat to reach up and squeeze Lilian's hand; she's already overflowing with sunny glee, but somehow it gets even a little more intense when Lilian tells her the menu's open. "Thank you, Ms. Rook! You're the best. Oh, and I really love your dress today! Even when I think you can't get any better at fashion..."

     She hurries to serve herself some ribs, with Lilian's leave, and tries her best not to swallow any bones.

     "I still kind of hate most of them?"
     Rita's smile gets melancholy around her mouthful of pork. "Mmmm..." Chew, chew, gulp. Incongruously dainty lip-dabbing with a napkin follows. Her eyes flick to Kale. "Well, you don't have to forgive them. But they want you to like them. It's okay to feel flattered by that, right?"

     "... I didn't even think about how Rita hasn't met Cinder either."
     "It's good to meet you, Ms. Cinder! My name's Rita Ma," she says, waving perkily before returning her hands to her lap. For a moment she sounds ineffably more formal; then she's back to normal. "Are you one of Ms. Petra's coworkers? How'd you get to be friends with her?"


     Hibiki's reveal leaves Rita stunned, post-gasp, for several long seconds. She glances between Eggman- who she doesn't recognize at all- and the captured heroine in clear half-frantic bafflement, until finally a rationalization clicks that she's contented with, and she pushes back her chair to stand up on tiptoes and wave.

     "Hibiki! I'm really glad you could come. I was worried you still weren't getting along with Ms. Petra, but..." Her hair-bouncing head-tilt and sunny smile are unbearably innocent. She bubbles over into a pure, sweet giggle. "You and Mr. Eggman are so thoughtful! Ms. Petra, doesn't she look really cute in a cage somehow?"
Futaba Nuki Shortly after that green weirdo disappears, a new green weirdo appears! Or at least a weirdo with a bright green leaf on her forehead. Futaba's somehow managed to get her directions mixed up, but she's here for the big birthday celebration! She's got a small orange box tucked underneath her arm, too, with a weirdly-orante label and signature on it that's barely legible, yet immaculately handwritten in flowing letters. Her clothes today are... The usual track jacket, shorts, and big dumb scarf combo! She's about to pass off her gift to Sougo, too, but she notices quite a few strange things.

For one, there's a lot of robots around. Some of them are entirely unfamiliar (generally the on local to LobCorp), but others bear the more familiar insignia of the Eggman Empire. It's not too hard to see, then, that Eggman is there in the flesh, and he's got a captive... Hibiki.

Immediately, that gives Futaba some conflicted thoughts. On one hand, this could be a bit. Maybe Hibiki and Eggman have something in mind to try and give Petra a truly special birthday! On the other hand, this could be real, and Hibiki might really be in trouble!

For now, though, Futaba's content to see how things go. After all, Lilian AND Tamamo AND Kale are all here, so things must be fine here. "Hey, Mister Woz! Nice party you've got set up for Petra here! Is... Uh." She can't ignore it completely, though, and she gestures at the Caged Biki before turning to Woz again. "How'd you get all /this/ set up, too? Pretty impressive stuff!"
Tamamo     'It is called baumkuchen, Lady Tamamo,'

    Tamamo doesn't have time to ask if that's a word from Goryeo (or is it Joseon, now?) before she's informed that it is, in fact, German. "Oh, truly? I should certainly like to hear of the particulars, should you have time."

    Hibiki appears in a cage. Tamamo does not have time to focus on food.

<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Yes, it was quite surprising. And rather thoughtful, I suppose."

    Tamamo doesn't sound especially insincere. There was certainly thought involved in selecting both a gift of this type, and capture of this heavily protagonist-coded girl, in particular.

    'Ahahahaha! Oh my *god*! I didn't even know I would *want* this until just now!'
    'Sorry, but she's a heroine now.'

    Hmm. "Yes, I see. In that case..."

    Tamamo first turns to Lilian. "You are quite right. As a heroine, she cannot very well be capturing rivals in cages. It is important to follow tradition at a party, no? And so, we must defer to Dr. Eggman's expertise in this matter, I do think."

    Next, to Petra. "Ms. Soroka, would you kindly take Tachibana-san's place in the cage? As your rival, this would make her tonight's villain. I do not know as to whether she will be suited to taunting you, but do not worry for that. It is no grave matter, I am sure, and you are both young enough to be forgiven inexperience in some matters." If not in others.

    Despite having no actual idea who she is, Cinder's right nearby, so it's her to whom Tamamo smiles and says, "Would you bring her a chair, as well? We cannot very well have her standing while eating from a plate. It was surely a small oversight that no table was prepared within the cage."
Hibiki Tachibana     Kale offers to save her some cake, and admittedly, that takes some of the edge off. Even when the rest of her feels the need to grab ineffectually in his direction as he moves past.

    Lilian and Buttercup's initial reactions are a lot more what she'd expect, although she's rapidly losing hope that anyone is actually going to bother getting her down from here. She's already red in the face for reasons even she's not entirely sure of.

    But her grip tightens on the bars, in that one instant where Eggman looks at her without the affable exterior. Her lips purse, and he becomes the second person she wants to reach out of this thing to grab, for completely different reasons than Kale. "You..."

    ...Actually, does she need any of them to get her out of here? She could just transform and break out with only a little bit of effort, if she really wanted to--

Ahahahaha! Oh my *god*! I didn't even know I would *want* this until just now!
Holy shit. You got tricked here by a cat? Ahahaha! You still owe me a present for showing up, you know.

    There's a moment where, when their eyes made contact, Hibiki almost hoped Petra would...she doesn't know. But it dissipiates into nothingness as she's promptly gloated and taunted over, and she's not wholly sure if she feels uneasy in her stomach because of that, or because she is in fact, giftless. Her head droops, and she loosens her hold on the cage's bars. "It's not like I /wanted/ t--"

    Rita attacks. And the magical girl trails off, mouth still stuck open, a few incomprehensible noises leaking out. She didn't want to come to Petra's party in the first place at risk of ruining it for everybody else. Really and truly wanted to stay away. But when faced with that...

    Hibiki puts on a shaky smile for Rita, and Rita alone. That's seriously unfair. What else is she supposed to do in this situation? "...Y-Yeah. I'm glad...that I'm here."

    Wait, what did Tamamo just say?
Kale Hearthward > "Wow, Hearthward, you'd come to my party even though I'm just a man-hating bitch? Well, welcome to the party, Kale."

"Well, Soroka, I'm impressed you'd *invite* me, even though I'm just a..."

Wait, Kale doesn't have a good line queued up here. Crap.

"Well, you know," he finishes weakly, when he can't think of a good way to finish that statement. A moment later, "Happy Birthday, Petra." He tries to make it sound sincere.

> Maybe he's testing Kale. Maybe he's just screwing with him. Maybe he's even being sincere.

Oh, Eggman. Eggman, Eggman, Eggman. Truly, you're to be pitied. You're all set up to play high level mind games and double, triple, quadruple bluff... against an opponent who's trying desperately to remember if a flush beats two pair or not.

"Yeah! I'm *from* an empire already. Was one of the four dark generals. That was - I liked that, that was more my speed. Doing the conquering, being at the front lines with an army at my back. Trying to deal with *ruling* places is sort of..."

Kale makes an ambivalent motion. "I mean, I really can't agree with the methods you're using, like at all, but turning everyone into obedient robots means you don't have to worry about that either, right?"

"But - dealing with logistics, leading the front line, second guessing the opposing forces... That's the sort of thing that gets me going. I just can't really *do* too much of that now, and..."

<B-anter> Dr. Eggman says, "Oh, yes, that reminds me, Mr...Hearthward, wasn't it? Really, part of the credit should go to Ishirou himself, you know. Why he practically *allowed* me to take over. So I appreciate the admiration of my work, but honestly, a great crafter does still need decent tools, and Ishirou is a very high-quality tool."

There's a long pause from Kale.

"... He's more of a low quality tool," he says, eventually. "Who doesn't know how to seperate personal from professional, and I thought you were above taking cheap shots like that."

"Excuse me," he says, with the same intonation as 'fuck you', as he heads over to a quiet spot in the room to try to do some radio damage control.
Eggman      "Oh, I am above cheap shots," Eggman says with a smile, "But I'm not above testing people who claim to want to stand where I stand and seeing if they have the right stuff."
Timespace Riders      Petra sees Kukuru. The Future!Sougo sighs and stops hurry-shoving her--after a frantic and farcical silent argument between himself and the present Sougo about where to usher Kukuru. Present Sougo lifts a hand up and musses his hair in mild vexation, before traveling briefly back in time for his ill-advised escape plan. On the return, he shrugs his shoulders lightly, as Kukuru leaves.

     Sougo and Woz had both heard that Petra had gotten a new place to live. Accordingly, they've both gone with furnishings, which she'll find when she opens their gifts!

     Sougo's present is a painting. Red-gold sunlight filters down from a sun which kisses the horizon. It bathes a gently rolling field of lilies, painting their white petals with its warm hues. Just on the horizon, a figure stands, barely within the range for the eye to see, sat astride a pale horse, clad in faintly visible armor. This knight faces the sun, set to disappear behind the horizon in time with the sun. A path is trod into the lilies, from the viewer's perspective to the knight, as if inviting to follow.

     Woz's gift, meanwhile, is a writing desk; an antique, it would seem. Dark wood, well-cared for, with a semicircular drawer that closes neatly over most of the writing surface, allowing for both tidiness and privacy.

     "Huh?" Sougo looks over his shoulder at Hibiki.

<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, audibly chewing her nail, "Still, to think she'd really fall to the level of stalking you to your birthday party . . . To think that Tachibana would really vent all of those feelings in this embarrassing way . . . Goodness, she's far more of a freak than I thought. What should I . . ."

     "Don't worry, Hibiki!" He puts on a resolute, dutiful face. "I'll save some food for you," he says. "Thanks for making Petra happy." He gives an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

     His eyes settle uncomfortably on the Manager. The old him would have tried to concoct some way to give him a second chance, but... people don't do well with those, do they. Maybe if he understands the kind of person he is, then he could... trick him into not being awful, somehow? But the last peek into the past didn't go so well, so... Sougo just walks right up to him, puts and arm around his shoulder, and hits him with the tried-and-true "Hey."

     "I cannot take credit for Hibiki," says Woz to Futaba. "That was our esteemed Doctor. The party is a celebration of Petra--therefore, it was necessary to source suggestions on food from her. As for the decorations, her many friends in the Company were of great use."

     And speaking of food, Woz is happy to indulge Tamamo's interest. "Certainly," he says. "I have heard that you yourself are well-versed in the culinary arts." A note of impressed esteem, here, in his voice. "I shall share the recipe with you. It is a challenge; requiring constant care, patience, minute adjustments. But--for one of your skill, easily done."

     Meanwhile, Sougo and the Manager, "We haven't had a chance to talk much, outside of work," he says. "If it's alright, we should keep the work talk to a minimum today. It's unhealthy to take that with you, you know," continues the Demon King. "So," he says, knowing exactly what he's saying, "You're one of Petra's friends, or...?"
Angela Angela says, "Understood." to Kale. The box Eggman gave her is in her hands and she is kind of in a fugue state as the respectable party now has a caged Hibiki in it. She's kind of already grown to know that she should just sort of... has to roll with this when it comes to Eggman but it takes some doing (Angela does not automatically preempt Eggman with Doctor in her head, not because she doesn't find him worthy of the title and more because she doesn't really see Doctor as a title considering who else she knows has one.)

She waves back to Lilian and preemptively attempts to explain. "Ah, the cage was not in our architectural plans. Apparently the facility was modified while we were busy with party plans." She seems like she's trying to PULL AWAY from Hokma and the Manager but keeps getting interrupted.

The Manager and Hokma greet Lilian politely, Hokma with more familiarity.

"Ah... Welcome." The Manager says. "I'm a bit of a wallflower so don't mind me. Have fun with your friends." Not that he really EXPECTS to be minded but he isn't really sure what to say to the Dame Commander.

She's asked why he IS here by Petra. "I had to get approval for the space and it seems he wanted to experience a party himself." She murmurs. "Do not mind it. He's not even him right now."

"He is not typically ''allowed'' to leave his office. But we are making an exception today." Hokma clarifies for Petra.

Angela has decided to deal with Hibiki being trapped in cage to pretend that it isn't happening, maybe a bit karmically. First she wants to give Petra her gift. She wheels out the large lets say vaguely BIKE shaped gift out.

"This is for you, Petra. At your convenience. I added a little something extra."

Myo meanwhile quietly moves towards Hibiki's cage, lights up a cigarette, and smokes by her.

"Hey, you don't mind if I smoke here, do you?" Myo asks. "You're a real good sport aren'tcha?"
Lilian Rook     'Thank you, Ms. Rook! You're the best. Oh, and I really love your dress today! Even when I think you can't get any better at fashion...'

    "You look so cute I could-- squeeze you." Lilian replies, adjusting course from the default with lighting precision. "Don't give me too much credit though~ This is just a variation on a classic~" she says, then manages a short laugh. The smile she wears watching Rita run off to the table is a little wistful, but mostly quite genuine. That'll occupy her attention on the side, but . . .

    'Wow, Hearthward, you'd come to my party even though I'm just a man-hating bitch?'

    Lilian's eyes narrow faster than most people blink. Her fingers curl as if she expects to be delicately squeezing her stress into a champagne glass. "Christ, what is it now? Did this happen on that godforsaken train? How is this the level we've sunk to?" She has, of course, instantly assumed Petra is correct and a victim. "Hearthward, you aren't even after women. Grow up."

    'Thanks for being here, Lilian.'

    Lilian smiles with unnerving warmth when Petra succeeds at reestablishing eye contact on her own. Even Petra can see how it mattered. "Thank you for being someone worth showing up for, Petra."

    Soon, however, Lilian is choking down what she can of the drink she actually had found, and being fine, actually with a lipstick check. "We battle forces." she says, slightly choked, at Buttercup's prompting. "They're evil." This is somehow not quite the same thing.

    While Petra is cackling and gloating over Hibiki's cage though, Lilian turns away, biting her thumbnail thoughtfully. Staring at the table, she stars rattling off thoughts to herself, voice dripping with cold dread, "This is is my fault. I have to take responsibility. I made Tachibana like this. I should have seen the signs back then." Lilian has only to glance to confirm what's going on. "Still, to think she'd really fall to the level of stalking you to your birthday party . . . that Tachibana would really vent all of those feelings in this embarrassing way . . . Goodness, she's far more of a freak than I thought. What should I . . ."
Lilian Rook     'Ahahahaha! Oh my *god*! I didn't even know I would *want* this until just now!'
    'This is the funniest gift anyone's ever gotten me, Doctor, you're incredible.'

    Lilian puts the plate she hadn't even loaded down alongside her glass, and starts to return. Looking at Petra, Lilian wears an uncustomary look of wary uncertainty. She looks to Tamamo, searching and unsteady. Back to Hibiki, and Petra really, really enjoying this; bonding over it with Eggman.

    "S-so. If that's the nature of this. As a gift." says Lilian. "Of a sort that. You clearly understand. The intet of." She sounds softly delirious, as if she can't believe she isn't totally confident here. She glances to Tamamo again, then back to Petra. "I suppose it isn't. She. Tachibana stays there next, yes? While we celebrate. And then?" Lilian keeps conversationally stumbling forward like a fireman fresh out of Chernobyl. "So now, do we, like torture her or something? Hahaha."

    'I'm sorry I said anything.'

    "I'm normal." Lilian snaps blandly at Orbot.

    'You are quite right. As a heroine, she cannot very well be capturing rivals in cages. It is important to follow tradition at a party, no?'

    Lilian sighs in relief. In that moment, she casually lets her hand fall away from whatever she was hovering around at her thigh, with the air of tossing aside a large rock. "Of course, Tamamo." she says, clinging hold to a plank that floated her way. "It's rather inappropriate for the good Doctor to bring before a genuine heroine." Clearly she still trusts Tamamo more than--

    'Ms. Soroka, would you kindly take Tachibana-san's place in the cage?'

    Lilian turns around in the instant before she doubles over coughing.
Petra Soroka "Yeah. You're definitely the hero."

    Petra's warmth towards Orbot vanishes instantly, and she clenches her fist, glittering morphmetal crawling out of her sleeve. "Shut the fuck up before I turn you into scrap. She's a heroine. Roll back your sarcasm and never fucking do that again."

"... I don't think you'd do something like that, Petra, even if... You really could. Should."

    Petra isn't actually comfortable with looking into Kukuru's teary eyes while Kukuru says that Petra should shoot her. Does everyone say stuff like that now? Is that my fault? Jesus. At least when I say people should kill me I mean it. She lets Kukuru leave without any further context though.

"But they want you to like them."

    Petra sighs, not disagreeing with Rita, while she nibbles through a bun. "That's the problem. It's kind of been the problem this whole time. I wish they wouldn't. I'm not *like* them."

"Ms. Petra, doesn't she look really cute in a cage somehow?

    Petra, gleefully laughing at Hibiki and fully engaged in Eggman's generous gift of mockery, doesn't register what Rita says for a few seconds, wiping tears out of her eyes and then rubbing her hands to hide the metal sheen from Rita. Her laughter dies away over a few long seconds, leading to a few longer seconds of silence, where Petra looks like she's trying to grasp the emotional whiplash of seeing a bomb go off in the middle of the party.

    "E-eh? R-Rita? That-- that's not-- I-I-I-I don't think you should say that, I mean, she-- the point is-- D-Doctor Eggman did that, not-- I-I-I mean-- a-ask Lilian?"

"I mean, I really can't agree with the methods you're using, like at all, but turning everyone into obedient robots means you don't have to worry about that either, right?"

    Petra finally notices Eggman and Kale's conversation, and the embarrassment at Hibiki's situation drains out of her face instantly. "What the fuck? Lilian? Are you hearing this?"

"Ms. Soroka, would you kindly take Tachibana-san's place in the cage?"

    "Wh--" Petra stiffens up, blinking rapidly. "W-wait. T-Tamamo. I-- that's-- b-but--"

    Petra looks mournfully at the cage, and at Hibiki, then back at Tamamo. "T-Tamamo. Y-you're joking, right? I-- i-it's my birthday party. I-it's my birthday. Y-you wouldn't do that on my birthday, right?"

    Petra's shoulders tremble, and her voice chokes up, while she moves to push her chair back and stand. "That's-- that's not-- f-fine. Whatever. I'll-- it's okay, I guess I-- I ate enough, already, I guess."

    Petra awkwardly shuffles towards the cage while trying very hard to ignore the fact that people are absolutely watching her do so. Glumly, she mutters while unlocking the cage, "Enjoy the party, Hibiki," and then slouches inside and sits on the floor, hanging her head.

    The gifts stay outside, much to her dismay. Petra smiles awkwardly at Angela and her large wrapped gift, and at all the others being presented, and just pulls out a cigarette instead. "You're fine." She says, aside, to Myo.
Eggman      Eggman gives Tamamo a very long look. There's a moment of thoughtful moustachery as he looks at Petra crawling into the cage. He glances as Orbot, who actually looks kind of frustrated and hurt, rolls out. He glances at Cubot, who is floating off after his buddy, confused. He watches the cage go up.

     Then he says, "Yes."

     "I suppose you're right."

     "You can never disagree with her."

     With that, Eggman walks out, hands behind his back. The cage falls to the ground a moment later as the robots stop holding it up.

     The present Orbot and Cubot got for Petra is a picture of Petra, Angela, Cubot, Orbot, and Eggman at the Egg Carrier beach, in a nice little frame, with the word 'FAMILY' scrawled on the backside. It is left, forgotten, on the table.
Powerpuff Girls Buttercup Utonium, of the Powerpuff Girls, is a living breathing person created elementally out of Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice. Despite the special ingredient in the concoction being a monkey-spurred magic sauce, her core ingredients involved, specifically Niceness.

Everything, even! So as the tactile emerald Puff had her gift set down, and light greetings traded, and the sort of background enjoyment of someone who didn't *really* know people and was there because they new Petra from 'work' (see: Townsville Terrorism and also the fine California standard of In-N-Out) and decided to keep hanging out with a fan.

It was normal, you see. Being asked to birthday parties early, or other public social events. People, generally, wanted Buttercup around because she was Buttercup. Even if she was the generally least sought-after Puff, for the expected reasons. Her sisters were accomplished orators and scientists and also were just about but not quite her equal at thrashing. Nearly equal in the arts, there really wasn't anything that set Buttercup apart from her sisters.

Nothing at all that Buttercup would admit to.

But she did find a seat at the party, and a drink, and was quite normally conversing with 'We battle forces.'
Buttercup, over a cup full of soda pop helpfully provided by Ohma Timbs-O, makes a soft 'ohhh'.
They're evil.'
"Heeeh?" Buttercup dutifully rumbles in aside to Lilian's answer as the drama plays out with regards to the cage. A substitution of positions? For the birthday girl?

Well, there's only one thing to do. Lilian, as Buttercup's only apparent confidant, must suffer a question in turn for the emerald Powerpuff Girl taking her simple answer in the spirit it was given: "So do you know a lot of robot girls...?"
Petra Soroka <J-IC-Scene> Dr. Eggman's voice is perfectly neutral. "Excuse me. I have something I need to take care of. Happy birthday." And then he's gone.

    "H-huh? W-wait, Doctor, I--" Petra's eyes widen, and she scrambles to the edge of the cage, voice shaking. "O-Orbot, Doc-Doctor--"

    There's not anything to say; they're already gone. Petra just pulls her knees to her chest and buries her face in them, turned away from the party.

    Happy birthday!
Kale Hearthward > "Christ, what is it now? Did this happen on that godforsaken train? How is this the level we've sunk to?"

Don't fuck this up. Just... don't fuck this up.

Correcting Lilian is... not worth it. Just let Petra have another win. It's her birthday. It's fine. Whatever.

And then Kale is off in a corner dealing with Ishirou - or rather, not dealing with him.

He leaves for like, *one minute* and he comes back to Hibiki outside of the cage, and Petra *in the cage*, and Eggman leaving in what is...

... Well, Kale doesn't have a lot of social cues, but he knows his *dramatic* cues front and back, and Eggman's sweeping off in a way that's making a very directed point, and he doesn't need to guess very hard to figure out who it's directed to.

Coming to this party was a mistake. Being anywhere near this party was a mistake. Not even *Petra* is having a good time now.
Futaba Nuki The unlabeled present that definitely isn't from Kukuru contains one of those wearable blanket things that used to be all the rage for a couple of months before disappearing just as quickly. It's immaculately put together, too, with high-quality fabric that rivals the really fancy Egyptian cotton stuff in thread count while being both lightweight enough to sleep and walk around in comfortably and  insulating enough to retain heat during the winter months. It's a bright green in color, and there's little smiling bullet friends stitched in!

It also comes with an unsigned letter, but the simple-to-read lettering might make it pretty obvious who it's from. "Sorry about everything. I'll make it up to you one day."

The orange present that's got Futaba's overly fancy signature on the label contains... A sickle? It's a pretty standard-looking ninja-style chain and sickle, actually, but what's more notable about it is that the handle of the sickle twists right off! Inside, there's a slip of paper with the username of a particularly active mod on a certain popular wiki that both Futaba and Petra happen to frequent. Beneath that is an unspaced phrase and set of numbers that are actually an obscure reference to a throwaway line in an older, but still popular fanmade visual novel featuring legally distinct likenesses of a teenage vampire princess, a murderous magitech war machine, a conspiracy-seeking monster tamer, a knight with a romantic dream, and (of course) a teleporting girlboss swordmaster.

A letter packed with this convoluted gift says "Use this wisely. Don't get your cover blown."
Hibiki Tachibana     "...Nah, I don't mind." Hibiki murmurs to Myo, pointedly waiting until Rita was looking away to just sit down cross-legged on the cage floor, an elbow on her knee and her cheek resting in her hand. Maybe it's because she has no idea who she is other than 'cool girl with power armor' that she doesn't feel like she has to puts on airs with her.

    Plus, she doesn't have the emotional bandwidth after the events that got her here to process every other conversation going on, like Kale and Eggman's, or even register Tamamo's ask of Petra as anything more than a joke. "I could keep on complaining and causing a bunch of crap in front of a whole room of people, or I could let them enjoy a birthday party." She doesn't vocally say anything about Rita, even when she's on her mind. Her attention is somewhere off in the direction of Sougo and the Manager.

    "...They only come one time a year," she says quietly, as if that's reason enough by itself.

    Her reluctant acceptance of letting things run their course is why she's surprised when Petra actually begins walking this way. "H-Huh? Petra...? You--?" Hibiki slowly gets back to her feet, looking utterly shellshocked as her eyes follow the other girl stepping inside.

    "Wait, y-you can't just do that then tell me to...you can't seriously actually be..." She looks over her shoulder, tilts her head at Tamamo, glances to see if Cinder is /actually/ getting her a chair--

    And by the time she's looking back, Petra is being hoisted up where she just was. Should she...do something? Should she have stayed in there...with her? Should she have said she didn't have to? No, that's stupid, she was /just/ gloating over her being stuck in there and tricked into coming here. She obviously didn't care. But it's not far enough off the ground yet that she couldn't reach up and--

    The cage comes down. Eggman is leaving. And Petra is... It all feels like it happened so fast, so suddenly, and so unexpectedly that she doesn't even know if it's even real.

    And she doesn't even know what to do but stand blandly beside Myo, taking in Petra's reaction from the front row seat and the wrong sides of the cage.

    Any chance of even reluctantly telling Petra 'happy birthday' today has gone entirely out the window.
Futaba Nuki Tamamo tells Petra to get in the cage, creating even more confusion in Futaba's mind. She truly doesn't know of the relationship between the two, or even that of... Almost everyone here, actually. She knows Petra and Hibiki have been clashing over reasons for fighting, with Kale over... She's actually not sure why there's something going on between them, but she can imagine it involves whatever's going on with Eggman and Ishirou.

At least there's some calmness around Woz and Sougo, and the people in this corporation hosting the party surely have something good going on with her. Turning to Woz, Futaba nods slowly while stroking her chin. "Yeah, that makes sense... Eggman's got a lot going on in his head there. Smart stuff, and that rep ain't just for show. But... Um." She gestures at Tamamo and Petra. "Do you know what that's about? Do they have a history or something?"

What makes it more confusing is the little she knows about Tamamo and Lilian. "Or is this some kind of other thing...?"

It's not some kind of other thing, if Petra's reaction to Tamamo is any reaction. Eggman looks significantly less Eggman-y than usual in his reaction, too, and that gives Futaba enough clues that something's real weird. She holds up a finger to Woz in a 'gimme a sec' sort of way, then beelines for the cage. Upon reaching it, she expands herself into the shape of a tent around where the cage had fallen, conveniently shielding Petra from (other) prying eyes while staring right at her from one of the inside walls.

"Hey. Petra. What the heck's going on?" Her eyes disappear from the inside of the tent to peer around from the outside, then move back in before she starts to whisper. "Do you need to get outta here?"
Angela The Manager, honestly, doesn't look like a supervillain guy or anything. He just kinda seems like ... a guy. He's decidedly average looking in every way EXCEPT for those golden eyes. "Yeah." He admits to Sougo. "That's fair." He kind of tenses up uncomfortably when Sougo gets his arms around him but he doesn't resist, due to being an aforementioned wallflower. He doesn't seem to be the sort of person to look directly into anybody's face for too long.

'Is he trying to get with me??' The Manager thinks in terror, cheeks pinkening faintly. "I'm---well we're coworkers." The Manager says. "I wouldn't say we're too close but she's one of our best workers, so I'm happy she's around. And she seems to make the Secretary happy." He quirks his head oddly at Sougo. "Tough for me to talk about things other than work when work's all I know really. You're the Demon King, right? For what purpose?"

Hokma notices the attention the Manager is getting and approaches Sougo, deftly taking one of his pincer arms and trying to remove Sougo's arm from around the manager's shoulders.

"Getting a bit friendly, aren't we?" Hokma bristles. "Still high energy, it appears, even after all your prep."

Unexpectedly, to Angela, Petra makes her own way into the cage. Angela blinks in a moment of confusion as Petra, unsure why she is listening--

--well no, she has an idea of why (it's the wrong idea of why) ((but maybe not THAT wrong if you think about it)).

"Miss Petra..." Angela frowns. "Are yuo certain, I can..."

She frowns, thinking about what to do about this development.

"...Dang, she has some leverage huh?" Myo says, not unsympathetically to Petra. "Guess the wrath of 'The Sun' burns hot."

Angela looks at Tamamo. "...Understood."

She makes her way to the cage and places her hands on the bars and starts squeeezzing.

Cinder is asked to bring a chair in the meantime. "I ... er... why is this happening??"

She does intend to do just that.

Yuri, as Eggman departs, says, "Hey." to him too. "You okay, Doctor? Don't forget your goodiebag." She offers him a bag of partyfavors.
Lilian Rook     'What the fuck? Lilian? Are you hearing this?'

    "Yes." Lilian replies blandly. "It's nothing new. He orbits the temptation to be a little tinpot conquerer every now and again. Pay it no mind." Her tone is, for a good while, retchingly dismissive. Black tar apathetically slathered over someone's fumbling art. "I try not to give him too much shit about it. We all spiral around bad ideas." slips out. But only to be followed by "We just aren't so pathetic as to look to the audience for approval while doing so."

    'So do you know a lot of robot girls...?'

    That one catches Lilian off-guard. "Beg pardon?" She turns, blinking, to Buttercup. ". . . Oh! No, no. Angela is a close friend of mine. Petra-- Wait, what am I explaining this to you for? You know she wasn't always synthetic. I suppose I don't understand your meaning."

    But . . .

    Unfortunately for Lilian, both the woman she loves and the girl who somehow ended up in her life despite everything she did are more or less impervious to her means of knowing their minds. Endless horrific conflict had spun from the latter, and the ambiguity Lilian is unused to helps her treat the former with more blind trust than she maybe should. She has no idea what's going on between the two-- Why Petra would listen to Tamamo on something this petty and pointless and sulk inside a cage on her birthday, but . . .

    Lilian can ask Tamamo later. Like Tamamo has many times to her. A kind of consideration she's come to appreciate. For now, the only thing Lilian can think to do-- the one gleaming thread she can seize in the black chaos of her feelings-- is . . .

    Lilian turns back to the table, slides out the empty plate she'd put down, and heaps it up with barbeque. Grabbing a couple of presents at random (okay, she smiles forlornly at Sougo), Lilian turns straight to the cage, and cuts against the current of the room, pushing straight out into the vacated circle, and entering the goofy apparatus right after Petra. In full view, she crouches down in front of Petra, hands her the plate, drops the cluster of presents beside her, and says "Later. Okay?"

    She shoots Hibiki the most visercally disgusted look she's worn in a while, as if she'd like to burn her ash through the bars.
Tamamo     'Y-you wouldn't do that on my birthday, right?'

    Tamamo's smile does reach her eyes. It is, by all accounts, genuine. She doesn't need to say anything else.

    Eggman gives Tamamo a very long look.

    Tamamo notices, but doesn't return the look. A genius like him should be able to instantly tell the quality of the argument she'd made. She's quite naive, quite stupid, or she's playing a game, but that little mystery isn't as immediately important to Eggman as what Tamamo said next to Petra.

<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Now, now, Ms. Soroka. You can hardly disagree with Lilian, now, can you?"

    It's true, of course. It's been obviously true for a good while, now. Petra made that clear, and Tamamo's been saying the same, if in other contexts and a quite different tone.

    The cage being on the ground is more convenient for everyone else, anyway. The most important moment of everyone watching it in the air has already passed.

    "Now, Lilian, is this not more appropriate?"

    Lilian turns around in the instant before she doubles over coughing.

    "Lilian? Whatever is the matter?" Tamamo reaches out a hand to rub her back. "Are you choking? Oh, dear...!" Immediately fretful, though she desists when Lilian recovers.

    Walking up to the cage -- or rather, to Hibiki -- Tamamo says, "Would you like to...? No, I suppose not. You are not the sort of villain to loudly gloat at a captured rival, after all. My apologies for the mistake." This affirmation of Hibiki's lack of villainy does not come with any sign of Petra's release.

    Instead, Tamamo makes sure only that Petra still receives her presents. It's her birthday, after all. Allegedly.
Rita Ma      "...Y-Yeah. I'm glad...that I'm here."
     "I'm glad you're here too, Hibiki," Rita says as she re-seats herself, and the most devastating thing is that she really does mean it. "You should try the pork! It's really good!" She can only have cooked food by the grace of Lilian's magic, and she seems to be enjoying it to the fullest while she has the chance.

     "You look so cute I could-- squeeze you."
     Rita makes another sunny-basking noise, and if there were even a hint of smugness in it, Lilian might infer that she knows what was swerved off of. But there's not. Probably. Instead, she says confidently: "I think you look really cute too, Ms. Rook."

     Rita's present, when it's eventually opened, contains two things: a souvenir t-shirt that says 'PLEASE DO NOT GO CREATURE MODE' with an image of a person in a comical pose, and a plushie of a genetically-engineered rat-like animal with yellow fur and long springy legs. What feels like ages ago, Petra let one of those run over her shoulders at a zoo. That was the last time things weren't so complicated.

     She only notices the game of musical cages halfway through, distracted by pork and the arrival of Rudolta, and glances around in bafflement to piece together what's happened. Queasy sadness seeps in as she does. A bone or two clatters down to her plate from slackening fingers.

     "Ms. Tamamo?" she says, with an uncertain glance to Petra and Lilian. Should she join them in there? She pushes herself up from the table, but the words come slowly, hesitantly. "Why would you tell her to do that? She was having a good time, and now she's really sad. I don't think that was kind of you."
Timespace Riders      The Demon King stuffs his free hand into his pocket, that his fingers might curl into an anxious fist without anyone seeing. This was supposed to be a happy occasion.

     Everything was perfect, right? Woz asked Petra what she'd want to eat, Angela made sure lots of her friends from work would be here, and he'd made an effort to have as many of the gifts given at once as he could. Even Kukuru showing up had only made things a little more awkward.

     So... why is Eggman leaving in that familiar way, why is Petra looking for everything like she'd beg him not to? He hadn't heard. He'd taken his attention off them for just a moment, and that was long enough for all of... this to happen.

     His fingers uncurl, because he forces him to, before the next thought, the first accusation that comes so easily to mind.

     Sougo smiles at the Manager, even though Hokma lifts his arm. He doesn't resist. "It's important to me, to be that way," says Sougo to Hokma, cryptically. "'High energy,' I mean! But friendly, too." The Demon King smiles, impishly.

     What purpose does he seek, in being king? "To rule over Time, and make it pass more fairly for everyone," he says. "Everyone's met someone who feels like it passed them by. Or who feels like they have to 'make up' for 'lost time.' And if you haven't met someone like that, you probably know someone who has. Some people would say... that everyone getting the same amount *is* fair, but 'fair' and 'equal' aren't always the same thing. I think the only reason you should be looking at how someone else spends their time is to make sure they have enough." His other hand now occupies a pocket, too, and he bounces on his heels, trying to keep up his air of friendly, pleasant energy in spite of what's happened. He meets eyes with Lilian, and his eyes are like hers, though he tries to hide it. Maybe if he tries hard enough, it'll spread. Maybe he can just trick everyone into being happy anyway.

     "In other words," he says, turning his attention back to the Manager and his Sephirah chaperone, "I want to make the world a better place. What about you two?"
Petra Soroka "Hey. Petra. What the heck's going on?"

    Petra, face pressed into her knees inside the the cage inside the shapeshifter-flesh-tent, still manages to sound bitchy, even through tears that she's gradually failing to hold back.

    "T-thab's gross. T-t-th-the, the shabeshibfting. I-it's fucki-gn weird to do that over me. I-I-I don't-- ib's my own birthday barty, I don't neeb to e-e-escape. W-why are you even here."

"I ... er... why is this happening??"

    Petra doesn't answer that question, but she does try to be less bitter at Cinder when she brings the chair. She doesn't manage, really, but it's noticeable that she's trying. "Th-thanks f-for the, the chair, C-Cinder." Petra does not sit in it. She just leans her forehead into the edge of the seat.

"Later. Okay?"

    Petra raises her head up to look at Lilian in disbelief when she joins her in the cage, silver tears openly pouring down her cheek-- if Rita sees them at this point, it's not even on Petra's mind to worry right now.

    "L-L-Lilian, I-- I-- I--" Petra's stammering doesn't manage to resolve into words before she disintegrates into sobbing. She puts the plate on top of the seat as a makeshift stable, scoots past the pile of presents without getting up, and leans her head into Lilian's leg while her shoulders quake from quiet tears.
Kale Hearthward > "It's nothing new. He orbits the temptation to be a little tinpot conquerer every now and again. Pay it no mind. I try not to give him too much shit about it. We all spiral around bad ideas. We just aren't so pathetic as to look to the audience for approval while doing so."

... Yeah. Kale doesn't... really have a good response to that. And maybe I shouldn't. That's... some food for thought.

Kale's still just standing there awkwardly. He goes to get food just so that he's not seen to be standing there awkwardly. What happened, anyway?

<B-anter> Dr. Eggman says, "I don't believe *you* believe yourself to be the heroine. I fully believe she joined you."

Oh. *That* happened.

Kale briefly wonders if, at this point, he can just... sacrifice more of his dignity in an attempt to make things better, not that he has much left. Trip and fall and faceplant straight into his plate of food.

No, probably not even that would help.
Tamamo     'I don't think that was kind of you.'

    Tamamo looks to Rita, eyes flashing with impending threat that immediately softens. "I can see why you would think so, Ms. Rita. There are times when one may take action that seems, without context, to have had no cause. One may, at times, misunderstand the reason for something having occurred. One might see a person being kidnapped by a supervillain and believe that they were only playing." That example surely has no relation to anything. "One might mistake not only crimes and play, but mercy and cruelty. One might see the one who warranted a far worse fate be spared and ask why they were not praised, instead."

    What she thinks, but cannot bring herself to say, is...

    You have witnessed others object when you chose men to kill, have you not? And you stayed not your hand for them, but scorned them.

    "Please excuse me." And she goes to Lilian.
Lilian Rook     'I think you look really cute too, Ms. Rook.'

    "Th-thank you, Rita." Did Lilian's voice just pitch up for a second there?

    'Now, Lilian, is this not more appropriate?'

    ---

    "I . . . Don't know." Lilian says. With Petra's head resting against her, she won't move any time soon, so all that carries with it is that her shoulders ball up, visible from behind. "It wasn't her fault Tachibana ended up in there. She didn't do anything. And we all came here to . . . celebrate, I suppose, that she'd stopped doing these things." She sighs. The tension is only replaced by exhaustion, as different sides of the same waveform. Her hand runs consolingly through Petra's hair, but leaden with unhappiness she can't vent at anyone. "Of course Tachibana shouldn't have been brought out in a cage. That's . . . That's awful. And Petra shouldn't have laughed, but . . ."

    Seated with Petra, hand laid on her shoulder, Lilian turns her head to glance back at Tamamo over her shoulder, gaze lucidly uncertain. "You know I don't really like it when people are punished while they're getting better, for not getting better fast enough, don't you? It just . . . It sort of feels like that, to me. Like we were supposed to be praising her for getting her life straight, but she still has to suffer for not having it completely and perfectly sorted just yet."

    'Everyone's met someone who feels like it passed them by. Or who feels like they have to 'make up' for 'lost time.' And if you haven't met someone like that, you probably know someone who has. Some people would say... that everyone getting the same amount *is* fair, but 'fair' and 'equal' aren't always the same thing.'

    Lilian breathes in sharply. A lot of things from longer than just one year ago are running on click-thrum gear-driven mechanical replay in her head, so loudly that one could almost hear it. This, that, the other thing. The apathetic stares, the awkward looks away, the pretend-it-isn't-bad. "I don't think it's fair to welcome someone into the fold, but not treat them like you would someone else you count as 'one of you'. Time doesn't count if it's tainted and useless, and it's the same with Belonging."

    She can't help but look to Hibiki. Cuddling up with the woman she invited and didn't even get to talk to. Just letting it happen. If she were really the heroine she'd have refused. Or stayed together. Who cares? It's just some stupid cage. It's a litle embarrassing, but that's it. Suck it up. It's her idiot fucking fault she fell for a literal cage trap anyways. She could have gotten out at any time, so she must have--

    "Oh. This is Tachibana's fault, isn't it."
Angela Cinder brings the chair and frowns. "Okay... This isn't fair but..."

CRUNCH.

That's the hand of Angela crushing the bars she's been gripping onto with her hands. She slowly lifts the cage up one handed, liftts it up over Petra and Lilian's hands and swings it to the side.

"She did not," Angela says. "Open her gifts yet. I prepared a thoughtful card. I want her to read it."

And she slams the cage down into the ground near her, enough to crunch it up in on itself. A pair of golden gloves materialize around her fists as she slowly, but firmly, presses the cave into the floor, crushing it further and further into itself before fanning her hand to the side and pressing it inward, more quickly now imploding the cage into the form of a small metallic ball. She keeps running her hands around its a singular smoking rock.

She lets it drop on the floor.

She turns back onto the room for one long moment.

"Are you brave enough to care about anyone?"

And then she makes her way over to Petra and will hug her unless stopped.
Powerpuff Girls Buttercup smiles lopsidedly at Lilian in the wake of the Dame Commander's bafflement towards her Robot Girl comments. She thought it was funny, and it shows, a light lack of thoguht, and the similar lack of social jousting grace.

Buttercup said it because it was mildly funny, and an icebreaker, and it got a reaction out of Lilian. "Well, you've got a few here now, and you're the person people were waiting for. Take it from someone usually at least *a* guest of honor." She observes dryly, swirling her completely alcoholless cup of soda and achieving an alchemic fizz because of it. Smug and affecting a calm broody, she obviously seems pleased with herself for a successful interaction. Until, well, the Petra thing is pointed out.

Buttercup just hadn't thought about it. 'She was just a robot all along' was something that had automatically connected between two green neurons and the Puff just hadn't thought about it any more. She already couldn't get a read off of Petra - she had chalked it up to Secret Robot status a while ago now. That there were multiple secret robot Petras was a fact that dropped in without argument (or correction) to the world of Buttercup Utonium.

And then Lilian gets up, and so Buttercup stays seated for a few moments. Things seem tense -- and her gift isn't in the pile. Really, the only reason she came was to distract herself from her own feelings, so getting both barrels like this from everyone else was, at least, distracting.

Buttercup's chair slides out noisily, and she takes real physical steps over to the gift table to pick up her newspaper-wrapped box. The comics are what she used to wrap around the gift, because it was the only part of the paper she actually enjoyed despite her father getting the whole thing every day.

At the cage, with Lilian and Petra, Buttercup holds out her gift, crouching down to deliver it through the bars. "You look like you got this, with heroes and villains and everything just for you, but if you'd like someone to save you... it is your birthday, you know. Usually on that day it's free."

Angela, then, obviates the issue of cages. Holding the present, Buttercup processes for a moment, and then gently puts her present down next to Angela and quietly heads back to the buffet table for more ribs. Buttercup has a powerful hunger for ribs.
Angela MEANWHILE

Sougo is talking to the Manager but neither Hokma or the Manager are looking at him. They're looking at the cage. Or, well, where the cage used to be.

''Are you brave enough to care about anyone?''

However they may affect the rest of the world, this does seem to affect the Manager and Hokma in particular.

Actually, for a moment, it looks like it's having an effect on ALL the Sephirah, even Gebura even if particularly subtly in her case. It's easy to miss if you aren't paying direct attention to them, and why would you be?

Unless you're Sougo.

The Manager starts crying as he sees the scene, tears flow down his cheeks and he seems surprised by this. "Wh...why?" He asks.

"Carmen..." Hokma murmurs.

Sougo speaks about being a King of Time. To make the world a better place. And...

"...I don't really care about the world. The world's shit honestly. The world needs to learn a lesson." The Manager says softly. "...But if I can save the people here... I would. Even if it cost me my life. "

Hokma sighs, polishing his monocle.

"You can reverse time, but you cannot reverse a tale. Bring them back to the point of where they missed their soul mate..."

"And the tale will become more dire in the retelling."
Kale Hearthward > "I don't think it's fair to welcome someone into the fold, but not treat them like you would someone else you count as 'one of you'. Time doesn't count if it's tainted and useless, and it's the same with Belonging."

> "Are you brave enough to care about anyone?"

Yeah.

Yeah. That's what Kale's here for, right? Proving he is. That he can start with one of the worst relationships he has, and dive into the deep end first.

He hasn't done too well at it. But... It's no different than a fight, right? Just because you stumble doesn't mean you should stay face down in the dirt. You need to get back up and keep trying, even if you think you're going to lose, because the alternative is just giving up.

It's sure as heck not for the food. He sets the plate down, and then goes over to grab his gift, and approaches.

"Hey. Thanks for letting me come," he calls in towards Petra. "We've, uh, got gifts."
Hibiki Tachibana     That look that Lilian bores into her is ten times worse than the one that Eggman delivered to her just a little bit earlier. Because, of course, she can instinctually tell why it's being cast her way, pushing aside the foggy haze of everything that transpired over the last minute.

    And it frustrates her enough that her teeth gnash against her bottom lip, her left hand tightening up enough that the strain pushes a jolt of pain into her still-healing shoulder wound. "...Fine. Whatever. I guess the best gift I could have given was being today's villain after all, since the supervillain isn't here for it anymore," she mutters under her breath, as Futaba shields the cage from prying eyes.

    The only reason Hibiki doesn't turn and leave right away is Tamamo moving close to her, and she can't make herself keep looking in the cage's direction for much longer anyway. The moment she does, she almost immediately has an immense mental exhaustion seep into her scrunched-up expression and her eyes drift off to the side.

    "...Yeah. No thanks," her voice is low. "...It wouldn't make anybody feel any better." Any questions she might've had about why things got to this point in the first place can't seem to make it to the surface, with how much emotional fugue is bearing down on her. When Tamamo steps away to join Lilian and Petra, she's fine stepping away and leaving things as they are. Just standing in here is making her sick to her stomach. Every step away makes her sicker. She doesn't even have a gift like anybody else to come over and drop off.

    Two things stop her, though. One is Angela mulching the cage, and asking that daring question to the rest of the room. The other is--

Oh. This is Tachibana's fault, isn't it.

    Both of those together, get her to stop in her tracks, slightly shaking. "...My fault? My fault...? My...fault. When I didn't even want to be here in the first place...?"
Tamamo     'L-L-Lilian, I-- I-- I--'

    "Can you not see how you are bothering her? Cease your clinging." Tamamo says to Petra, upon finding what is, in her own view, a horribly upsetting sight.

    How dare she.

    'She didn't do anything.'
    'Like we were supposed to be praising her for getting her life straight, but...'

    "You heard her, and you saw her. How can you--" Tamamo takes a moment. A breath. "We will speak of this later." Calling out Lilian's mistakes in public, in detail, is too painful.

    This, too, is Petra's fault.

    'I don't think it's fair to welcome someone into the fold, but not treat them like you would someone else you count as 'one of you'.'

    "It was you who told me she need not be forgiven."

    'Oh. This is Tachibana's fault, isn't it.'

    "We will speak of this, too."

    They really will have to talk about this, but not here. Not where she'd embarrass Lilian. How could she? If only Petra had accepted her punishment without being the crying and stammering. It's so horribly unfair.

    "Please do remember to open your presents, Ms. Soroka. I brought you one, as well, of course. You may contact me regarding it, at another time."

    Tamamo leaves. Sougo's wishes for happiness go unfulfilled.
Futaba Nuki "Yeah. I know it's gross. How about..." From within the Futaba-tent, a small raccoon-shaped creature wanders over to where Petra is, nudging her leg with its head. The leaf on the creature's forehead, the gold ring on its leg, and-"How's this?" Futaba's voice coming out of it makes it easy to tell that it's just her, but now in a conveniently and less-gross tent-face form!

On closer inspection, though, the tail is kind of stretched out to stay connected to said tent. "I found a neat little something you might like. Figured you might have fun with it, so... Uh. Happy birthday!" It is so awkward and stilted sounding, but she still offers to press her face into Petra's leg regardless.

A lot of what's going on is still going right over her head, of course, but the context she's getting from listening and seeing what's going on inside and outside of her tenty self is enough to let her know that there probably shouldn't be anyone else coming in at the moment. Lilian's cool, of course, and Cinder and Angela both seem to know Petra well enough (with the latter getting visibly angry), but beyond that?

She probably won't be letting anyone else in and out to see the birthday girl yet, Tamamo included/especially. Futaba won't stop Lilian from speaking with her, of course, but she's not quite ready to let Tamamo inside completely, either.

The face on the inside-raccoon disappears momentarily, and Futaba's face appears on the outside of the privacy tent. "Alright, just... Keep eating, people! Nothing to see here!" Futaba-as-a-tent calls out to try and divert attention away, adjusting her shape to provide extra breathing room for Petra, Lilian, Angela, and Cinder while she turns opaque to really block off sight lines for now.
Timespace Riders      "No," says Sougo, to Lilian. "It isn't fair. People know when they're being 'handled.' It's almost worse than being hated. At least that way, you know where you stand with other people. You're not... waiting for the other shoe to drop. I want everyone to feel like they got enough, and like theirs was just as good as everyone else's--"

     Lilian says that it must be Hibiki's fault. Angela asks a very important question that stops him in his tracks--and profoundly affects the Manager.

     "Tales are written one page at a time, Hokma. Even if they weren't... they aren't just the book, but the telling, too. So, let me pick up my pen. And let him pick his up. And if you're brave enough to do what Angela says, you should find one, too."

     Tamamo leaves. Sougo heaves a sigh, removes his hands from his pockets, and composes himself. "Petra, Hibiki, Lilian--I don't care whose fault it was, and you shouldn't, either. Finding 'fault' doesn't undo what happened. It doesn't fix anything. Angela, Woz and I put this together because we wanted Petra and her friends to smile. She isn't smiling. And the longer this goes on, the less people are. That's what's important, to me. So..."

     "First... Petra, Angela and I spoke to Doctor Eggman, a minute ago. Please don't give up, okay? And don't beat yourself up. Lilian... none of this is gone beyond fixing. There's no future, but the one we make. And Hibiki... if you need to clear your head, you know where to find me. I have a few ideas already."
Powerpuff Girls Buttercup Utonium is content to, upon Tanuki-urging, head back keep eating ribs, perfectly capable of cartoonish bone demeating tricks to amuse herself and others of the Control Team.

Upon the present pile, Buttercup's gift rests wrapped in newsprint. Inside is a display-quality shelf box in royal blue As Seen On TV colored-smooth cardboard with a frustrating trick plastic sleeve whose latch requires the zen patience of a master (or a collector's touch) to not mangle and chew or scissors through. Within the display plastic is a white oval glittering with 80's sparkles and silver four-pointed stars wrapped around the left side of the box and the top corner.

Inside is yet more plastic, thinner and clearer, holding a flask thermos - merchandise. Across the top is a title 'Utonium Special LIMITED EDITION Drinking Flask!' and beneath is a picture of a Goth Panic Buttercup in more black than green with thick eyeshadow and skull earrings on occupying a pop-out corner picture - clearly a phase, in her early teens. True to form, the bottle is Buttercup nuclear green and mascara black, with matte green finish and metallic black, giving the otherwise dull flask a flashy-sheeny look. A wide enough top to get a brush in means the whole thing won't get scuzzy. There is a red sticker added on with yellow text on every face, outside the plastic: 'First Edition!!!'

The note is simple, something written in metallic green ink pen on a folded piece of notebook paper: 'Petra, Happy Birthday.' printed with exacting care in the center, and then scribbled more beneath: I bet even a fan like you doesn't have one of these. And who knows? Maybe you'll need it.'If Petra ever gets around to opening the case, a certificate falls out of the box:

'Congratulations! This is the certified # 100 of 100 Genuine Laser-Vision (TM) Proof (R) Collectable 10th Anniversary The Powerpuff Girls Commemorative Flask.'

And in finer print:
'If product suffers damage due to improperly used Laser-Vision (TM) warranty is void and replacement will not be issued.'
Rita Ma      When Tamamo menaces, flinching doubt plays out over Rita's face. It linge throughout her talk and for several seconds later.

     But when Tamamo sashays over towards the other pair, Rita glances after and sees Petra's face, streaked as it is with silvery tears. Her expression sets into a queasy and apologetic resolve. (Her eyes then dart away, trying to forget the sight. Maybe that gleam was just the light.) Angela's outburst visibly surprises her, but it only cements her decision.

     She follows crisply after Tamamo, determination in her eyes and tension in her stride. Anyone can tell at a glance that Rita has fixed on doing something inadvisable.

     Just as she starts to reach out, just as her lips part to speak, Tamamo turns to leave anyway. Rita lingers like that, just where she was about to snag the bunrei's sleeve. It's likely after Tamamo's out of earshot that Rita finds her words again: "Yeah. I don't really know anything. ... But I still don't think I'm wrong about this."

     Eye contact with Petra remains perilous. She might see after all what she only thought she saw. So instead, Rita's forlornly apologetic look is directed to Angela and Lilian.

     "Please don't beat yourself up either, Mr. Sougo," she adds. She takes a deep breath, but keeps it quiet, hoping nobody will notice. Her arms cross stiffly behind her back. "It wasn't your fault. You were really good, and..."

     Finding her words gets harder. Rita smiles a fake smile, and shakes her head, and takes off after Tamamo. She walks thirty feet behind her the whole way, too far to invite conversation, but making certain that she does leave.
Lilian Rook     '...My fault? My fault...? My...fault. When I didn't even want to be here in the first place...?'

    "Yes, Tachibana, your fucking fault." Lilian hisses. "You got caught chasing a toy? In a cage? And transported coincidentally to Petra? Without transforming and easily breaking out? I'm on to you."

    "Pathetic."

    Angela crushing the bars and crumpling the cage up into a tinfoil ball, at least, was not on Lilian's bingo card. Having to stay and guard slash pillow Petra, a shiver runs up her spine from the horrible noise(?) and she blinks and shakes her head with the obvious look of a complex thought interrupted. For once, this is probably for the best.

    Lilian hesitantly accepts Buttercup's gift, attempting to smile apologetically, and only half-succeeding, and then the next, only shifting aside to (reluctantly, one might see) allow Angela room too. It frees her in that moment to let her stand up again.

    'It was you who told me she need not be forgiven.'

    Lilian flinches. Her fingers ball up by her sides. Nearly inaudibly, she whispers 'When thou speak from authority absolute, so must be thy judgement. Thy word remains true even if--'

    "I'm sorry, Tamamo. I did. And I still mean it. I just . . . I don't think one little party is about 'forgiving' her. I really wanted to let her have one day to breathe, and see what it is she's supposed to be aimed towards. Perhaps that's selfish of me, and perhaps it's not respectful of some people's feelings, but I . . . it seemed as if she was doing her best, trying to be less terrible, and we told her to not even bother. So . . ."

    'We will speak of this, too.'

    "I know, Tamamo. I remember what we spoke about before. It wasn't that long ago." says Lilian. "I know I said that you don't have to forgive her, or like her, or even be kind to her." She breathes out. Maybe it is just because Petra cried and looked pathetic. Maybe she should have laughed along and teased her a little and made it mean and funny, instead of getting hung up on her own feelings; on what she cried tears about two years ago in parallel. But-- "I also said, even more than Petra, that you shouldn't forgive me, either."

    Lilian stops and rubs her face. "No, you're right it can wait. I'm s--" She flinches, too, at Tamamo turning leaving. The thought terminates and her voice hangs for a second. "--logies."

    'Lilian... none of this is gone beyond fixing. There's no future, but the one we make.'

    "Yeah. Some people just can't be fixed." Lilian starts moving too, gaze lingering miserably on Petra for long moments before going to the door. "There's no future unless I build it all manually. I know, I know." She at least stops to squeeze Rita's hand along the way.
Kale Hearthward Kale's brought, whenever Petra does get around to opening it, a large wooden case that contains a set of dueling weapons.

There's a pair of shortswords, a pair of longswords, and a pair of pistols - all fairly elaborate, fully functional but with an eye to ornamental design over durability. They've all been detailed with gold (at least, gold of the karat level Kale can afford on his Paladins salary) and engraved with Petra's initials, as well as a blank spot on each weapon for her to get her crest or other symbol engraved.

There's an included note that Kale's available for instruction, if she feels like taking him up on that.

(There's another smaller note that he has a backup gift ready if she doesn't like this one.)
Angela It's probably telling that despite Angela's threats, she didn't even try to throw Tamamo in a cell or remind anyone of that promise. You might as well try to throw a sun in there (not that they don't have something close in the lower levels).

But first...

Hokma is quiet at Sougo's words, having no answer. The Manager doesn't even hear them. He's busy remember something else.

"I remember... a warm smile." The Manager says. "From someone who dared the world to be better. No... To be vulnerable. And to accept...everything."

He wipes at his eyes for a moment. "Ah..chem. My apologies Hokma. Something about this ..." He sighs. "I'm going to eat some cake and see if that's the best part."

Hokma watches after Angela a bit longer.

Did he give up too soon on her?

...Was he just frightened of ... caring more for that child more than the man he swore his heart and everything to?

He starts to extend a hand in that direction, then pulls it back.

Not brave yet, Benjamin?

"Not brave yet." He murmurs, sullenly making his way to the cake table.

MEANWHILE, ANGELA'S GIFT

The Control Team (and Angela) got Petra... an electric bike! It has a basket on it, AND a horn that makes honking noises when squeezed! It is suitable for moving around hte city!

A card comes with it from the Control Team signed by Cinder, Yuri, Random, and yes even Justin Rook. Cinder thanks her for being a good friend, Yuri says she's fun to be around, Random says she's been a real help, Justin says thanks for hearing him out. They've all signed their name. Cinder drew a little drawing of a Schadenfreude with an x-ed out eye and a stick figure Petra standing triumphantly on top of it.

Angela got something specific just from herself and just for Petra. It is a smaller less expensive gift. And handmade. A leather writing journal that Angela made herself--expertly, but not perfectly. If one were to look carefully you can see a bit of the adhesive glue while turning the pages. There's at least a hundred twenty four pages in that journal, so it's still pretty thick.

Tucked away in that book is a second card from Angela herself--well not really a card, it's a folded up piece of paper in an envelope. It reads...
Angela My Dear Petra

Birthdays come and go
More ephemeral than a candle's light
We celebrate these passing days
As a way of enduring the night

What is the purpose of this day
Is it presents and play till tis over by morn?
Or is it just an opportunity
For me to realize I am glad you were born?

You defend and fight so passionately
I must find it impressive
So on this day you made special
I offer one last whisper in this missive

Thank you for being my friend
The remains of my heart for girls like us
Yours till the end

-Angela
Petra Soroka     It doesn't really matter to Petra what anyone else is saying or doing, while she leans against Lilian. Even Tamamo's words go in one ear and out the other, something that would bring even more tragedy to this birthday party if Tamamo had phrased her comments in another way. Only Lilian's manage to cut through the teary haze, and even hers register as off-kilter and disjointed, her mind unable to wrap itself around the words being targeted at Tamamo and in defense of Petra.

"Like we were supposed to be praising her for getting her life straight, but she still has to suffer for not having it completely and perfectly sorted just yet."

    That feels normal, actually, to Petra. She *did* accept the geas under those terms, with that feeling in mind. Every inch of improvement should be won with a mile of blood, because it won't ever stick otherwise. She just wishes Eggman hadn't been caught in it.

"Time doesn't count if it's tainted and useless, and it's the same with Belonging."

    That's something that Petra agrees with that Lilian actually *meant*. Petra swallows hard, presses her face against Lilian with a shuddery exhale, then shakily pulls back, wiping at her face, still curled up into herself.

"Oh. This is Tachibana's fault, isn't it."

    "W... wait, no, that isn't..." Petra is woozy, exhausted, still rubbing at her face, but in her dazed state she automatically makes motions to defend Hibiki. "I-it can't be Bikki's fault, I... I mean, it's my fault, obviously. Th-that's how these things work, that's the point."

    Angela ripping the cage up makes Petra flinch and cringe inward, not at the tearing of metal or the violent motion, but at the removal of the cage itself. For a moment, she's no less miserable with the shell peeled away, just more vulnerable-- until Angela comes in for a hug, and Petra tries to hold on to both her and Lilian until the latter slips away.

    "There's no future unless I build it all manually. I know, I know."

    Tamamo leaves, Rita leaves, Lilian leaves, Eggman is already gone. Angela is still here, though, and Cinder is here, and Sougo--

"First... Petra, Angela and I spoke to Doctor Eggman, a minute ago. Please don't give up, okay?"

    Petra rubs her hand against her face, coughs, and then pulls herself up to the chair that Cinder brought her-- stopping centimeters short of planting her butt in the plate she put on top of it. Pulling that out so she can sit down properly, Petra takes a breath, pulls her face out of her hands, and stares at the pile of gifts, not meeting anyone's eyes but Angela's for a bit.

    "... Sorry. For all of that. Everyone. I-- I know that I fucking do this every time. I'm sorry." She bends down to put the first gift on her lap to open-- Angela's personal present. "So... thank you."
Hibiki Tachibana I'm on to you. Pathetic.

    "...That's what you think it's about. You weren't joking talking about all the 'stalking' stuff before." Hibiki makes a disbelieving, scoffing sound that nevertheless gets choked up, ruining the effect a bit. Still turned away, her head lowers. "You got me. I was working with Eggman from the start to do all of this. You have your villain to blame for all of it. There you go."

    There's no point explaining any of her feelings. They won't be understood, and she won't understand hers. There's nothing she can say that Tamamo won't be able to do better, outside of this messed up situation. And she's getting ready to resume leaving on the bunrei and Rita's tail. But...

I-it can't be Bikki's fault, I... I mean, it's my fault, obviously.

    In what world does Petra have a single reason to defend her? Why would she even say that? Neither her or Lilian have any problem heaping anything they want at her, whether she knows she has it coming or not, whenever they want. It doesn't make any sense for her to do it now, when Lilian hounded her again for letting her down, when there's every reason to side against her. It doesn't make any sense.

    She's made how she feels about her clear, so it's not fair for her to say something like that. Hibiki scrunches her face up with an entirely different brand of frustration, forcing one foot in front of the other and rubbing at her face with her jacket sleeve on her way out. Even with Lilian gone, she can't just turn around and look at her again. Not like this.

    "...Yeah, I do," she mutters to Sougo on the way out. "...Maybe I will..."

...

    A little longer than a day from now, there'll be an unmarked high-speed-delivery Multiversal delivery sent to Lobotomy Corporation - no listed sender, but addressed to agent Petra Soroka. Tastefully avoiding being a cage for very obvious reasons, it's actually a small traveling bag meant for animals, with the plastic 'windows' to see out of and everything.

    The actual gift is what's inside of it though; a tiny, white-furred baby chinchilla, skritching curiously at the exterior.

    A small note is packed away in one of the bag's pockets, too. In neat handwriting a little too meticulous and neat to be a certain someone else's.

    She doesn't know I snuck this in here, so don't tell her! But she was never going to say it herself. So from both of us - happy birthday, Petra.