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Lilian Rook	"East Corning" is one of those neighborhoods all of your favorite growing, gentrified cities have these days. It's built around the old Corning Plant, closed down when everything else closed down. The site was mothballed, then condemned as a biohazard, then cleaned up, then reopened with a LOOOOOOOT of public funding. It's now the centerpiece of the entire *neighborhood concept* as a "Lifestyle Center".     Of course, this all took the backing of NovaTech's new money to have the entire section of the city declared blight so developers could come in, knock over the old houses, put up cheap apartment complexes (complete with first floor office and business rental space, contact your local realtor), and generally 'freshen up' the place with Insta-pretty single family homes perfect for short term rentals on the app of your choosing!     Beautiful, just like Lampport was meant to be, right? RIGHT?     Right.     In any case, the Corning West Lifestyle Center *also* has the better Beanies on this side of town which is why Stanley and Charlotte have been spending more time there, rather than hanging out nearer to Charlotte's parent's house.     So place like that is the perfect place to notice.     The most deafening thing in the world is silence. The thought is easy to realize, in the very instant it matters. This makes sense when one considers that the deaf, by definition, are closer to hearing nothing at all. It's just that, when a day is like any other day in, a city seething with noise and motion from every corner and heat and scent from every concrete poor, for one moment, only to completely cease in the next, the quiet is like the detonation of a bomb. Like flattened ribs and burst eardrums and slow-dawning horrified ringing.     The moment, as with all deafening explosions, where your hands and legs incrementally separate from from your own awareness, only able to see them move and feel them by touch, and wonder if they're truly yours, comes in a wave of lurching disorientation and goes again before panic can do more than graze with its claws. When you hear the sound of your own breathing; when every little scrape of shoes on concrete and every little shift of your clothing bounces back to your ears, naturally desperate to tell you anything they can find, it just feels suffocating.     The silence is so heavy that each breath out turns the air around you to poison, unfit to be rebreathed. Keep moving, and try not to breathe so loud, lest you turn it toxic with your presence. It's so heavy that each footstep raises fine hairs like the report of a gunshot. Move no more than you need to; be quick and take no detours, and for god's sake don't walk so loud, lest everyone in the whole world notice.     Is that what you want? To have everyone, everywhere, stop and turn and look, and notice your toxic panting, your ruinous steps, the hammering of your guilty heartbeat, all the myriad other ways you break the peace and foul their city in uncountable microscopic ways? Of course not. Sure, you can't help but make those sounds, just by existing, but that's the whole problem, isn't it? You can't let them hear you prowling around amongst them. Exist quieter, or they'll notice.
Lilian Rook	It's like that for Stanley and Charlotte, already there, but it's like that for every single person arriving via Warpgate, too. And they will, but only the people they called out to, and even then, only some of them, because for some reason, an entire bustling city in the middle of a modern unified world suddenly pinging back no digital or radio response across the board is fine. This happens. They'll figure it out. It's not like you'll understand it anyways, so why even notice it? Don't notice it. It's not there.     But if you're here anyways, it doesn't take a genius to realize why everything is so quiet.     Nothing is moving.     Absolutely.     Nothing.     At all.     It's weird. You'd maybe expect some kind of filter. A greyscale, perhaps, or a nice sepia. Imaginary dust glittering in the air, brushed off old antiques. Or maybe some kind of background noise, steady and rhythmic. Perhaps everything should be cold-hued, or pitch dark. It's worse that it isn't.     It feels more alien, more strangely violatory, to see cars sitting still on the road as if parked, clouds of exhaust stuck in their pipes like fluffy diorama cotton. People posed like creepy fucking wax mannequins. A man's phone is perpetually halfway to the cruel pavement, like there's supposed to be a plaque explaining his plight on a nearby museum wall. Dogs on gentrified walks are framed picture perfect in competitive, badly-behaved snarling, spittle flying from their lips, teeth bared, in a way that humans aren't really capable of singling out in motion. God, when you look at it, isn't it kind of gross? These things are cute?     It feels like it could happen to you, you know? At any moment. Like you could get stuck here.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley already has his phone out, taking pictures inside of Beanies. Mainly because the nice lady behind the counter who was calling out his name for his white raspberry chocolate mocha had stopped midway through "Stanley" and was just in place, frozen, forever with his coffee.     "...I certainly haven't heard anything from Delilah about a Wish incoming, have you?" Delilah, of course, being the guide to The Reversal, but also the nice lady who drives the Velvet Room around in the Shadow World. Beep Beep.
Kale Hearthward	Kale arrives, taking to the air immediately. The jet boots are loud. Kale manages to tune them out normally, and assumes anyone working alongside him eventually manages to do the same, but... now, in the absolute silence, they really are deafening, aren't they? More than that, though, he's unnerved by the prospect of a city not in motion. Cities should be... well, they should be moving things. Grand edifices dedicated to the thousands and tens of thousands they store within, and the sheer impossible amount of movement it takes for that. People and things should be coming and going. Kale itches at his arms, absently. From up here, it looks like a model city, the sort of thing an extremely married man would set up in a damp basement. It doesn't look real, really. Focus. Kale shakes it off. It's weird, it's unsettling, but he needs to focus. From up above, he starts searching - using his enhanced eyesight and a grid pattern to start looking for any signs of movement, or anything that stands out.
Ishirou	Ishirou steps through, he should be resting... more, but something happened that needed his touch.  He can at least poke his head in for /just/ a moment.  It's not like he can help himself.  Something is wrong, something is new, something needs to be looked at.   When Ishirou steps through he's still dressed in baggy clothing.  An orange hoodie today, hood pulled and draped over his head.  A mask (medical) covering his mouth and nose. Wearing a pair of slightly oversized jeans with combat boots over his feet.  His hands are gloved, and passed the gloves the very observant can see bandages all the way up.  They also look /recently/ changed too.   So many things happen for Ishirou at once.  He steps in and his mind acknowledges something.  There is no internet, no modernity that he's used to when he steps through... worse... the feeling is... Crawling.  He pulls himself tighter, almost trying to visibly shrink.  He can't retract his presence any more than he is already doing.  It's awful, despite everything being still... the feeling of being observed is too awful.  Every angle, every corner... he can feel /eyes/ on him.  Judging him, demanding his absolute silence.   He's trying not to hyperventilate.  Why is this like this..?  What is happening?  Why... why... why..?  His wrists just start itching a tiny bit as the despair creeps up in him a little more.  He wants to look out farther, but something deep inside him tells him to stop moving.  Please just stop.  We can go back through, we can leave.  We don't have to be here... But, another part of him, remembers.  He remembers seeing Lilian's world.  When she fought Rita, when she was standing between the ticks.  How she felt, what she said... this is... just like that... Is this what she feels too?  He frowns, What is going on... He calms his breathing, despite the urge to just stop making himself heard.  He has to, he has to intrude here.  It might be related to her... if it is... He has to be brave.  Even when he's /absolutely frightened/ that he'll become like the rest of the people here any minute.  He pauses, closing his eyes.  He doesn't need to 'see' through them anyway.  He extends his senses out, he tries to /understand/ what is going on by examining as much as he can.  Even though he hears her scorning voice telling him how much of a voyeur he is.
Angela	There is an Abnormality that has shown up in past loops. It's called the Silent Orchestra. That's the thought that first strikes Angela as her Agents arrive on scene (though she is actually with the backpack today rather than overseeing them. The two of them, with their EGO Gear, are still nonetheless spooked by what is going on. There is Mikey, of course, who is wielding an EGO Gear from the Portrait of Another World. His suit is splattered with paint and he is wielding an oversized paintbrush as his EGO Weapon. He has youthful freckles and orange messy hair that looks like it hasn't seen a comb in his life. With him is another one, more difficult to pin down, who is wearing a big fluffy wooly outfit and cap along with a pair of goat horns across his head that Petra at least will surely recognize as an EGO Gift. They have dull green eyes and are wielding what looks like something that is part rooster and part cloud. It's an EGO Weapon called the Engulfing Dream but even Baba, the agent in question, could not begin to describe how it works. Just that they know how to make it shoot balls of light and it is constantly telling them to take naps. They are under observation from Gebura who seems to not be paying attention and having a smoke while she's distracted telling Shajo and Nonon what to do. Baba yawns as they arrive, dozing on Mikey's shoulder who seems content to support her with an arm even as they make their way into Lamport. "What a bummer..." Mikey mutters. "Guess we better check on Stan the Man with the Plan." "Does he have a plan?" Baba mumbles, drooling on Mikey's shoulder. Mikey frowns. "Well we're going that way anyway. Gives me the willies being here on our own." "Petra's with us..." Baba mumbles which they take as a sign as their odds being as good here as they're going to get. They intend to follow Petra and take her lead as she's the more experienced Agent in more ways than one here. Baba seems to be more susceptible to sleep due to the unnatural quiet whereas Mikey is trying to babble to fill in the space with noise in a futile attempt to fill the silence. Angela is coming by Eggpack and is being quiet for the moment, taking the time to note the surroundings.
Tamamo	<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, " I am rather curious as to how the world appears while time is stopped, myself. <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo hmm. "I shall accompany detective Friz."     Tamamo's never been to this world, before, and her previous encounters with Stanley were more distant -- having seen him on the Union Busan -- leaving her unaware of just what to expect. Rather, she would be, if he hadn't also supplied video. She more or less understands by what's portrayed, and spends a few minutes considering appropriate outfits before deciding that, given that almost all of the locals are presently deaf and blind, it would be presently futile to try and match them. Disappointed at this realization, she arrives in her usual fantasy miko-like attire, having been just fast enough to meet up with Friz along the way.     Now that she's here, she can see just what--     The silence is so heavy that each breath out turns the air around you to poison.     "Oh, is this... this cannot be right, can it?"     For god's sake don't walk so loud.     "She would have told me were it like this, surely."     ...in competitive, badly-behaved snarling, spittle flying from their lips, teeth bared...     Tamamo gives a wide berth to those animals she's never particularly gotten along with in the first place, even frozen as they are, and begins the first step of her search. There must be something occurring outside of the usual domain of natural law, though if it is not something recognizable as magic as she knows it, she can still search to find where the threads of Fate lead her. Everything here is being affected by 'something,' making every mannequin-like person a means of following that trail.
Charlotte Newman	With classes handled for the week, it's time for some socializing. A little going-out, a little grass-touching, as the joke goes. Her drink hasn't come yet, she's halfway through a quaint little tiramisu when everything goes silent.     Charlotte freezes, then snaps her gaze up and out the window overlooking the plaza. Her brow knits in concern and confusion, shooting a look when Stanley's voice breaks the silence, "...No, no I haven't." Would that woman ever contact her in a way other than a sterile push notification to her phone, anyway?     She snatches up her purse and jumps to her feet, phone already in hand. She hesitates, feeling uneasy just by the sound that made. Like speaking just now, getting up, any noise is somehow violating this silence. It isn't the first time she's felt distinctly unwelcome, though this degree is-- something else.     Steadying herself, Charlotte pushes an errant lock of hair back behind her ear, pulling up her phone and thumbing through the apps. Biting her lip, she gets a radio warning from someone who-- previously had always meant well. It's enough to give her pause.     After a moment, Charlotte swipes her device down in an arc, prying open the glitch-riddled fissure between This Side and the Reversal. She does not enter it; Charlotte has to at least see if it's going to work with everything else frozen in time like this.     Even the sound of her purse clasp clicking feels far, far too loud as she puts the phone away.
Kukuru	It's been a while since Kukuru's made her way into Lampport. Things have been pretty quiet on that front, after all, and kids do need their alone time, so it's not like she's needed to poke her nose into things here as long as everything's okay. Plus... 'You can't mix petrol and fire and care about them equally.' She's had a lot to think about since the last time she came here. Still, it really has been A While too long, and Kukuru did manage to finish today's work early. It couldn't hurt to take a little walk around, just to see what things are like without having to worry about wishes wrecking things or turning the landscape into a weird beige hell. Instead, she has to worry about things being unnaturally silent when she arrives. She doesn't notice it at first as she ambles along, half-awake and trying to wake herself up with a flask filled with almost nothing but lemon juice and sugar. Just a drop is enough to shock her awake, and then Kukuru realizes that things aren't moving right. Nothing's moving. Why is everything stuck like that? She doesn't hear anyone else, either, and she's suddenly more conscious of her own movements. The rustling of her clothes with each step. Maybe she should worn something less frilly today. She closes the flask, but... Was twisting the cap back on this thing always so squeaky? No matter how slowly she does it, it's still loud enough to drown out everything else she isn't hearing. It's getting creepier by the moment. She inhales, slowly at first to try and not make too much sound, but she starts hearing other people. The radio, familiar voices, growing anxiety. If she stays here all day trying to be quiet, she'll never be able to help them. One more inhale, and then Kukuru closes up that flask with a loud clack of metal on metal, slips it away, then circles around one of the stopped people to see if everyone really is stuck and unresponsive by waving her hand in front of his face. Seeing that phone on the way to the ground, she does what any responsible (?) person would do and tries moving it up and back into his hand. It'd be a shame if he broke his phone and lost so many important contacts and precious memories, after all! "How weird..." She murmurs while watching the footage provided by Stanley through her own phone. Trying to come up with a solution, Kukuru takes a deep breath, then shouts as loud as she can considering how drowsy she is at the moment (still pretty loud, but not in the hoarse way), silence be damned. "If you can you hear me, say something back! And... Meet us at the Beanies!" There. If anyone else feeling that dread can hear, maybe that'll help. Maybe her footsteps can even help guide them towards the meet up point.
Touta Konoe	The change is so surreal. It happens so fast in the moment that one passes through the Warpgate. The feeling of reality just shifts all at once, as if everything around you shifts how you interpret the world. The feeling of losing one's body in the rhythm of the silence. The abnormality that is being encased in the deafness of the world, where you only can take notice of you, yourself.     What...No...It can't be here...We'd see it...I don't even see the Pearl!     It's only been a few days since the incident with Titanomachia and he's already feeling such a similar out of body experience. He has to keep muttering to himself, doing anything he can to add sound to this empty world. Anything he can do to keep his sanity, to keep his thoughts in his head and not out of them. His hand constantly taps the back of his blade to the ground. An exercised attempt at simply keeping his body moving, to keep that connection bridged. Though such an attempt fails. He can't hear his own voice, he can't feel the sensation of the tap. The only thing on his mind is... Pearl.     "Touta...It's not the same..."     A voice cuts through the silence, to reach out to Touta. It only makes sense that the one cutting would be his blade, Kurobo. "It's not here...None of it is here...This is something else..."     Taking in the words of the blade, there's a small inhale that's taken. Then a gentle exhale. It's true...There's a sensation that wishes to silence, to keep that silence. Something that surely could have forced Touta to keep with the quo of stillness. To become still, to become silent. Though, he's been that. He's lost himself in that kind of surrealness so vividly and so recently. One might even argue that it's for the very reason that he's experienced such painful 'tranquility' that he's able to opt against it. "It's fine if I'm loud...It's okay if they can hear me...It means...I'm here..."     As if in defiance of this silent world, even when he does not need to, he takes the largest breath he can, and then just casually exhales as he starts continuing on. Doing all he can to find others. After all, he's not the only one here right? He'd sift through the stillness of this world otherwise till he can.
Stanley Padgett	The portal to the Reversal opens, and Stanley, who has been steadfastly trying to ignore the D i s c o n e c t t i o n clicks his teeth together, sitting on a table and sipping the strangely hot mocha that refuses to slosh in the cup.     "The fact that so many people are coming makes me think that we're stepping into something... big." He looks to Charlotte, and murmurs. "Hit up Isaac and Chastity in the group chat, see if they're okay?"
Friz	"Rogers, what is this? Why are we going here? I'm not a scientist." "I got a message too, kid." "How did *you* get a *message?* You're a..." "I know. That's why we're following it. Anything on my wavelength." "It could be a hint." "It won't be. But it's where we gotta go." "I don't have any paid time off to go." "Kid..." "Time is about to be the least of your problems."     Friz's emergence from the warpgate is cautious and stressed, a total contrast to Tamamo. She looks like she's gotten maybe three hours of sleep, and she's doing this on her normal sleep hours. She spends a while walking the streets, just confirming that this is real. She wanders, muttering into a tape recorder and examining random frozen phenomena. She's lived the life of Not Disturbing the Moderately Wealthy, and this demand that she stop existing, or at least stop moving, hits her. But... still, there's a driving motivation. She tries to go towards a patch of real plant life, in front of one of the ready-made insta-homes. She tries to sink her hand into the soil and substance of a richly fertilized garden growing things out of climate and out of season.     She just needs, badly, to know that nature still exists. But the soil is solid. Like a chunk of concrete. She jams her fingernails into her palms, tearing up slightly as she makes a low, stressed noise through gritted teeth. Back to work.     She stops near one of those dogs that Tamamo's understandably giving a wide berth, kneeling and resting a hand against one side. This is a mentally-driven phenomenon, and Friz has no ability to deal with mentalism... but she *can* communicate with pets, at least. Are these minds frozen too? Or are they... affected in some more significant way by the phenomenon? Is there any hint in them?
Petra Soroka	Petra, despite her string of interactions with the Newport gang, has never been to Lampport. She'd never quite managed to answer any of its calls for help, and even though she'd tried, never managed to answer its calls for community, either. She's never gone before, and wouldn't be particularly inclined to go now, except that when the call is put out... <J-IC-Scene> Stanley Padgett | okay so i think uhhhh all of lampport is time stopped, except me and char     "Huh. That sounds like it has something to do with Lilian." Petra has no reason to think this, besides the fact that she assumes the entire world and all of its people and happenings revolve around Lilian as much as she does. She looks over at Cinder, hanging out in the Chinchilla Lounge together while Cinder's on break, and shrugs. "I should probably go check that out, I'll come by again if it's not too late after." <J-IC-Scene> Angela says, "May I come with you? Some new Agents are on the way and I'd prefer if they did not completely lose their minds." <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "Oh! Meeting the new agents, yeah, I'll swing by the office and grab the Eggpack."     And so Petra steps into Lampport for the first time, while the entire city is immobilized. She didn't have time to change out of her EGO suit, still wearing the grey suit and trenchcoat, with the glowing blue heart on the chest, and her orange-green heart hairpin affixed to her head. On her back is the Eggpack, as it often is, and the screen of the bulky metal contraption gives Angela a way to engage with the world outside.     Petra is almost certainly the lead of the pack of new agents, but immediately after arriving, Petra halts and looks around wide-eyed, her mouth slightly open. It's not disgust, like the others. It's awe, and unrestrained fascination. "I'm so fucking alone, all the fucking time, off in a world of my own that I can't live without anymore, and everything I ever did, everything I am, that makes up every part of me, just makes me even more alone; even more that there's nobody like me."     The goal of helping the citizens of Lampport is massively secondary to the real reason why Petra is drawn here. Understanding just a little better, the way that Lilian interacts with the world, requires stepping into the picture frame to experience it, even if it's just as a tourist for a day. The people of Lampport were already not-real to Petra from the start-- being frozen in place and posed like exhibits isn't unnatural to her, it's enthralling. Feeling like she rots and poisons the world around her isn't new, either.     Petra's pace through the city is likely slower than Mikey and Baba would prefer. Occasionally she veers off the side of the road, fascinated by the way that something is frozen in a moment of movement that usually blurs in real-time. Curiously, she gets up close and uncomfortably within people's personal space, stares at smoke and fluids and flame, peeks over shoulders to look at phones, more akin to someone who loves pausing movies every frame than someone indulging in the fantasy of 'time stop'. She looks a little irritated when Mikey insists on reminding her that he's there by talking, but as the voices of the other Elites converging on the location drift through the eerily silent city to add some texture to the world, she relaxes and refocuses on the mission.
Petra Soroka	"Ah. Well, that's Kukuru's voice, so looks like we're close." Petra doesn't exhale carbon dioxide, of course, that would be a wildly inappropriate inefficiency for the Silver to grant to her. Instead of letting the air in front of her stay clear, though, Petra intentionally takes a cigarette out of her trench coat, lights it, and leaves a trail of poisonous tar-black smoke coiling through the air behind her, like a black mark smeared across the canvas.     When Petra joins the gathering group of Elites, it's a little longer than she have taken, but she doesn't appear bothered by that. She flicks ash off her cigarette, leaving it hanging in the air, and sighs as she scans the group of people that she largely doesn't like very much.     "So. What's like, the procedure here."
Angela	The Angela on the Eggpack is more adorable than in person. She's been chibi-ized for maximum cuteness though she still remains as stern and aloof as usual. After her close call with Gold Rush she has now elected to only wear the equipment rather than the weapons to try and acclimate. In time manipulated areas such as this, she refuses to engage without some level of mental protection. Baba seems pretty chill with the slow pace. Indeed, thanks to Baba, Mikey is actually kind of relieved they aren't moving too quickly since that would mean waking up Baba (Mikey has wrapped a bunny patterned blanket around their shoulders). But he definitely stays close. Angela is on Petra's back but she does inquire of Stanley. "Yes, please tell us of any proper procedure for the other side. You did not have the time before but we have a surfeit of it now." MEANWHILE Cinder pets a chinchilla. It's not really relevant to what's going on here but suffice it to say, it's a very adorable chinchilla (in other words: It's a chinchilla).
Tohru Adachi	Time's stopped? Time's stopped. At least, according to a couple of brats. Stan and Charlotte, who were they again? Oh right, a couple more persona brats. Maybe he should do them a favor, as one persona user to another? Hell, he's pretty sure one of them is even a Watch member, that's double the reason he should potentially lend a hand.      Adachi rubs his chin in contemplative thought for a moment, his eyes looking down, or rather, up??? It's uncertain where he's currently looking, given that he's currently standing in a lightless void, with his only real source of illumination being countless yellow eyes all staring at him. As he looks around and notices just how creepy this place is, a thought crosses his mind that he should really consider finding a new apartment rather than just hanging out here.      A more important thought, however, is that he's decided to visit Lampport, though not to help the kids or to uphold his duty to the Watch, but more so just to check it out. Who knows, maybe today is the day that good ol' Adachi might do something actually heroic.      Pfft, probably not.      A shadowy door opens up near the Beanies as the Detective and a couple of cartoonish looking knights pour out of it. Does he really need the back-up with so many people on the scene and seemingly no immediate threats? Probably not, in fact, he didn't even ask for them, they just kind of followed him. But it's too late to awkwardly shove them back in as the door behind him has already shut, so he's simply going to feign the confidence that he intentionally brought an entourage.      "Alright, maaaaybe turning the clock off and on again won't fix this, so let's just see what the good ol' Watchies have to say."      Pulling out his phone, Adachi tries to get a signal here, which earns an immediate frown. Without taking his eyes off his device, he immediately raises one of his legs up and swiftly kicks one of the knights that followed him in the back of the head, causing it to trip forward a bit before they all seemingly get the point and begin looking around for... They really don't know, anything that just sort of stands out.      The Ex-cop, in the meantime, simply begins calling up Watch members in the surrounding areas. Maybe they saw something or someone weird come here a couple of hours ago, or perhaps there's some sort of weird dome surrounding the city that you can only see from the outside. There's only one way to find out though, and that's through seriously talking and working with people.      Kind of gross, honestly, but he promised he'd improve himself somewhat, and honestly, it's actually kind of enjoyable sometimes.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley frowns at Petra as she arrives, but doesn't seem in the mood to rehash stuff right now. She's here in an official capacity and that's... well. He'll deal. Angela gets a softer smile, and then he settles in on the coffee shop table.     "Okay, that Portal over there will take you to a... shadowy mirror of Lampport. Or at least it usually does. It's all smoke and noir and neon and the Shadows are Usually pretty tame. But now? With all of you here? This seems like we might be stepping directly into a... uh, 'Distortion'? I think we were going with? So that's all out the window. Every one of those has been different, with different rules going on. So it's usually... go in, get a good peek of what the heck's going on, and come back... and make a plaaaaaan..."     Adachi gets a *look* and something in Stanley's brain is screaming at him not to engage. Now's not the time.     "So we'll go in as a group, figure out what's up, and come back out." Okay?
Kukuru	So many familiar voices. So many familiar faces. Kukuru's face lights up at seeing most of them, too, and that dread from earlier gets pushed away momentarily as she settles into an easygoing smile while greeting them all in rapid succession. "Ah, Stanley! Charlie! It's been so long... Have you been eating okay? Sleeping enough? Studying for your... Wait. Did you graduate yet?" "Petra! And Angie, too~ Oh, are these new Agent friends of yours? Welcome, welcome. If any of you get hurt, just come over to me, okay?" "Kale? Ishirou! It's okay, you're safe now. It's pretty weird outside, though... But I'll be as loud as I need to be, if that's what's bothering you." "And you're... Touta, right? Oh, make sure to drink more water if you're going to get mushed up like last time." Friz is one of those she doesn't recognize too well, but her protective instincts kick in regardless. "Dear, be careful with your hands. Really, you'll be okay! As long as we're together, nothing's gonna be able to hurt you for long." Adachi is also an unfamiliar one, but he gets a friendly wave nonetheless from Kukuru. She also looks rather interested in the Heartless, watching them for a while but stopping short of actually following any of them anywhere. Tamamo is the only person here that actually has Kukuru freezing in place for a moment. It's hard not to remember what she had heard from Eggman a fair bit ago, and there's a brief twitch on her features, like she needs a moment to compose herself before she goes back to smiling tensely and waving towards her as well.
Lilian Rook	It's such a small thing to notice, at first.     Where Stanley takes pictures, the first few snap fine, and each successive photo is granier and granier than the last. Details alias around the edges. Miscoloured artifacts bleed into the image like charred embers. People's faces go first, then everything else. And then, at one point, when the photos are just about a black screen; they revert to crystal clear. Picture perfect, actually.     But now he can't send any of them. They don't save to memory. It doesn't work.     Where Kukuru, Adachi, Touta, Petra, get close; too close they'd get punched if they were this invasive normally; the way people look, clearer than clear, razor sharp high fidelity of every thread and pore your eyes can never fall on in motion, starts to bother them.     Because it's easy to see at first. To gawk and marvel at a single blobby frame of a match or to see a milimeter film of sweat gather in the contour of someone's gross pore divots. But the third time isn't as clear as the first, and the sixth time not as clear as the third. First people, then other things, losing a little detail with each re-examination. It's as if the surface of everything is dusted with a faint coating of slightly incoherent movement. Invisible particles you can't see or describe, moving backwards and forwards in axes you don't understand, coming out like a gauzy patina of nauseating static.     It stings to the touch.     Even where Ishirou reaches out with his extrasensory perception, it's no less like this. Because even if he doesn't touch them, doesn't take photos, doesn't move, just feeling around those people is like sliding his hands around in a bag of raw meat. They're so still, so perfectly cooperative for his candid photo, it's as if their motionless bodies are screaming to tell him every little thing he didn't ask.     He briefly looks at a man, and thinks about how he's cheating on his wife. His gaze skims over a pair of children, and knows all about how one is beating the other while their parents aren't looking. An innocuous glimpse past a woman driving her car tells him her exact height and weight, blood type, and ongoing pregnancy, like she's going 'do you want to see the ultrasound?'. A teenager behind him divulges the last thirty sites he'd visited, shivers of revulsion.     Paradoxically, despite being stopped, everyone around him is information overload. That woman's shitty day at work, that old man's persistent ache, his wife's forming blood clot in her weird, gross, withered up veins, and the way that the guy turning the corner definitely thinks he's a fucked up creep, dressed in a hoodie like that.     §What did you expect? That they'd look at you and think you have nothing to hide? They know, stupid. They're just deciding whether they can be bothered to go out of their way to hurt you!§
Lilian Rook	Kukuru picks up that man's phone, feeling good about herself. She wouldn't want anything bad to happen, right?     It should feel better to do that.     There should be like, a warm, comfortable glow in her chest, right?     God, that phone weighs a million pounds. Covered in his slimy palm sweat. Gross. Why did she bother again?     Yeah, what was the point? He'll never even know she saved his phone, right? He'll just go through his day, thinking he imagined it; her help is completely fucking invisible. He'll drop it again later. And now her hand feels gross and slimy and it stings and . . .     §It's ridiculous, right? That he gets to be special. So careless, so stupid, and you just wipe his ass for him. He must be the luckiest man in the world right now. Why? It's only because you made him so. You could just decide not to, you know.§     For an instant, the invasive feeling in the back of Kukuru's mind intensifies to the point of synthesthesia. Lukewarm, delicate fingers on her shoulder, lovingly reassuring, that spread prickling numbness through her. An imagined voice without any real sound, but that hits her like the first rush of a shot of morphine.     §You don't actually have to, you know! You don't have to help him or anyone if you don't want to! Try it out! Just spike his stupid phone into the ground! Step on it and grind it up, and he won't even know the difference. It'd be what he deserves, and you'd totally enjoy it~ Let him have a second of bad luck for once. It's his fault for making you go out of your way.§
Lilian Rook	The agents babbling are spared precisely nothing. The sound of their own voice is like scraping nails on a chalkboard, Jesus Christ. Do they even hear themselves? How do they tolerate talking at all? Every time their open their mouths it's like tasting puke. Like your stomach dropping because you know you're lying and you're just hoping nobody heard it. Flinching in reflexive embarrassment and revulsion with every little word. God just shut up. Or better yet, change how you sound. If you can't talk more quietly, at least talk more normally.     §Is that really true, Touta?§     A prickling, stinging, pleasantly numbing finger to his cheek, from the side. Digits lingering on the hilt of kurobo; he knows that weight as a resting hand; a light one. §Because they don't know you're here, right? Even if you scream at the top of your lungs, they won't hear you. They won't see you, or notice you. They'll only know you were here after, right?§     He could swear that he can hear the rasp of Kurobo's blade gliding free of the Saya. When he glances down, there's nothing at all amiss.     §They won't see you, but they'll notice if any single little thing is amiss. From their perspective, you're invisible, but if you move something, just a little bit, just the wrong way, it'll look like an instant jump to them, right? They'll know, and they'll get scared, and you don't want to be there~ So be really quiet, okay? Or you could just, you know . . .§
Lilian Rook	Adachi's calls are anomalous, too. In that he is able to call the Watch just fine, and nobody picks up. His calls don't even go to hold; there's no tone or robot on any line telling him the line is packed. It's as if everyone is stoically ignoring their lines, when he starts prodding for details. He knows it's because this place is fucked up, but it's really easy to imagine, right? Like they're all watching him call them, smirking, waiting for him to figure it out on his own and regret it. Yeah, it's not like anyone ever liked him. Ex-cop and all. Something really bad is about to happen and they couldn't be more excited. They wouldn't risk ruining the moment he finally falls.     Friz touches grass and it just kind of sucks. This is what they all talk about? How does this solve anything? Like yeah it's a figure of speech, but it just hurts. Fuck this. Why'd she come outside? It's just another fucking reminder that everyone speaks a different fucking language from her. Like they can say 'touch grass' without thinking for a second how she can't. They enjoy it and she doesn't get to, because it sucks just for her.     The dogs are nothing unexpected. And yet not any better. Because of course she can't hear them. If she were to try to explain it, even the impulses between their synapses are frozen. Without a delta, there is no thought. It's so eerie. That they can just . . . turn off like that. Even dogs, man's best friend, the creatures she spent years of her life on. Gone. The shape of a dog without the meaning of 'dog'. Props. Little plastic models.     §That's kind of what it feels like, right? Hard, rough, cheap, chemical-coated plastic. You're familiar with that, aren't you? Poor girl. You really thought Earth would be different.§     The words are horrible, but listening to them is like burying her face in someone's warm, protective, understanding shoulder. It fires dopamine reserved for having just cried.     §Don't you realize that hope was what made you miserable? You imagined something beautiful just so you imagined you couldn't ever have it. Why make yourself so unhappy like that? The sooner you realize that this is all there is, and you can have anything you want, the happier you'll be.§
Lilian Rook	It's Petra, trailing smoke behind her, flicking ash, pacing around and bathing in the imagined experience of naked, abhorrent contempt, who really sees it.     The cigarette plucked from her, folded up in on itself, and snuffed out of existence. Wiped away like a smudge of charcoal dust. The flame audibly hisses on contact with nothing, and dies out.     Fingertips, like silky smooth anaesthesia and the slow death of breathing in smoke, grip her chin. Something rests weightily on her shoulder. Vibrating against her back. Purring in her ear. Pouring liquid lightning and ice and shuddering touch into her brain and down her spine.     §Hello Petra~ You're begging for it like always, I see~ Hey, tell me real quickly. How many of these people would you kill? It's all set up for you, you know. Nobody can prove it. You've been enduring them for so long; that must be why you're here right~?§     But nobody else sees that. If asked, there's only really one thought.     What cigarette?
Lilian Rook	Kale, up in the air, is so very far away from it all. Nobody looks up anyways. He's loud, but nobody can hear it. Probably. The air cone behind him-- does that collapse after? Does everyone know, automatically, later? Do they find out after the fact and loathe him? When time unsticks, is anyone going to be okay with him?     §Don't worry about it! Nobody ever paid attention to the noise you made before, right?§     It feels like a tug at his jet boots. A 'playful' lurch that nearly sends him careening. Just to spook him.     §You know they were all just politely pretending they didn't notice you so they wouldn't have to tell you how useless you are, right? Now they don't even have to do that~ No matter what you do, it doesn't matter; they aren't even judging you right now, for the first time in your whole life! Isn't that great?§     But it's him, in the air, that can confirm what Tamamo feels on foot ahead of time. He sees ahead of her, the sole other figure moving on the streets. Someone he should know, pretty well, but doesn't, crossing the road in utter unconcern. Flipping through a book, even. Writing things down as she goes. There's a smart device open on one page, cradled in the gap, and a stylus held between her teeth. She cuts in front of a 'moving' car without noticing.     Tamamo doesn't need that to find her though. Fate is easy. All the threads lead right back to the same thing, after all. That same thought that's been with her for what feels like forever. The 'threads of fate' all knot in the same particular location, and she's never been able to pick them apart into something that makes-- Huh?     --Like wire tangled up around her heart. A throbbing core of smouldering obsessession. That's what it is, right? Because she never stops thinking about it. Struggles to force herself to care about anything else. Day in day out, it's always at-- That's not applicable though.     --There's no escaping it. Why trace a delicate weave when it all snarls around the same black hole that there's no looking away from. No denying. The one immutable, inescapable, obsessive desire that calls to her at all hours and drags her eyes inexorably back whenever she looks away. That tangle of thread, that vortex, is ruining her life. But she can't stop thinking about it. Just remembering it is a kick to the chest. A cold shot of fight-or-flight 200bpm longing terror that-- No, that's Lilian. On her way to the community center, actually? Maybe to talk to Stanley, even.
Kukuru	During Kukuru's inspection, she doesn't think too hard about the clarity drop at first. She's looking here, there, away, closer, struggling with that phone that shouldn't be nearly as hard to move as it is. She's probably just missing things while looking from the man's face to the phone, recoiling a bit at how strange it feels, trying to push that initial revulsion away, struggling to even remember what he even looked like by the time she notices she can barely even recognize his face as a face at all. He really should be more careful. These things are expensive! What if his phone had the only existing copy of a precious photo of his child in there? His parents? Wouldn't they be mortified if they found out he lost something so important? She's lucky she doesn't have to worry about these things, but... Someone like this probably doesn't have to worry about nearly the same amount of things she does, either. He probably doesn't have to worry about fighting anyone, about dreading that ticker showing thenames of another Concord member dying in the line of duty, or even just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He doesn't have to worry about trying to make everyone happy, fussing over their hunger and comfort, inviting them into his family. She's the one getting shouted at for doing that, talked down to for doing anything but that, hated for doing exactly that. Why does she have to be treated like she's dumber than everyone else for wanting to do this, even when so many of their problems could be solved by just joining her family? It's such a simple answer, so why does nobody else get it? Why can't everyone else care for each other without her encouraging them, pushing them, being one of the few people to even try and find the good in their disparate ways while they're busy trying to kill each other? Why does she have to try so hard when nobody else wants to try? Just this once. This phone's too fucking heavy, anyway. Instead of pulling up on the phone, Kukuru squeezes. She squeezes hard, ignoring her own advice to Friz, squeezing hard enough that she'd feel her fingers pushing into her palm after digging through the center of the phone. She squats down and keeps the phone between her hand and the ground, then pushes down, grinding it down until she can't even feel the phone between her hand and the ground anymore, staring vacantly at her handiwork afterwards to see if she can even recognize the phone anymore after that.
Ishirou	It's too much- Information about that guy's day, about how he's SO overworked!- for him to take in.  He's trying to -That lady, boy her kids are SO troubling her.  They're not at all like she thought raising them would be!- work through all of this information, but it feels like he's drowning in thoughts.  The feeling of -Hey you, weirdo, why are you dressed like that?  Little freak!- meat sliding around his extra senses feels so much worse.   He's trying to find something- Hey man, you should follow me on my instagram at- no shut up!  I am trying to find something specif- HEY THIS STUFF TASTES SO GOOD, IT'S LIKE IF YOU TOOK THIS ONE THING AND TH- I said shut up!  I am trying to find something specific!  There is a source of this I kno- Ugh, what is with that outfit?  I bet you're ugly, aren't yo- SHUT UP!   He can't.  He can't look for anything, there is just too MUCH to go through.  He can't even hear himself /think/ it's so awful.  So many stupid little details.  So many awful gross things to feel.  Worse, it's just revolting.  He shakes his head closes his eyes, and tries to block out the data.  It's worse because he can hear everything on the radio or the talking of other groups.  Or the nearby agents.  Or Petra and Adachi being awful.  Kukuru is just being loud.   §What did you expect? That they'd look at you and think you have nothing to hide? They know, stupid. They're just deciding whether they can be bothered to go out of their way to hurt you!§ He can't.  He can't.  He shrinks down even more, shivering.  He's trying not to cry but it's so hard.  He's trying to be brave but it's /so hard/ when everyone wants to tell you everything, but also hurt you.  He doesn't need to even consider the other elites, everyone there, except Tamamo, would do this to him.  After all, it isn't about how nice he is, or what he tries, or what he /intends/.   It's just like Indus.  He tried to fit in, but he couldn't.  He pretended to not hear the words, but he did.  He tried to pretend... tried to play ignorant.  That he was just some Pinocchio.  But he's known the real face of mankind for so long.  He wanted to deny it, so hard... wanted to believe that /something/ was good about them.   He's just on his knees now, hands wrapped around himself.  He doesn't want to live like this.  He wants... he wants his body back... he doesn't want a world where they look at him like this... he doesn't want a world where SHE despises him...
Tamamo	Things don't feel quite right, or rather, there's something here and there that's concerning, but it's not as if Tamamo's ever been in stopped time, before (and aware of it) to have a feel for what it should be like. She can't know whether or not it's supposed to feel like this. Rather than worry over that on her own--     "Oh! Lilian, you were here, after all! Whyever did you not say so? Here, please look this way!"     And so Tamamo puts aside the matter of staring-unstairing eyes and dogs (not hunting, thankfully) and follows the threads forward to that very familiar figure, breaking into a cloth-fluttering run to meet up with her sooner, and waving one arm over her head for attention. She's beaming with happy relief.     "I had wished to ask, is 'this' how it usually is, or is this not so usual? I have been quite surprised, today."
Lilian Rook	Opening a portal to the Reversal is sensible. After all, that's why all of this bullshit always happens. They always have to go there, and do a big stupid dungeon, and fight a Tyrant boss, and restore the status quo, and be completely ignored and forgotten about as everyone pretends this is totally okay. This is fine. If a kid dies where nobody can see, whatever. The fact that they haven't been called by Delilah isn't necessarily a red flag. Phones are being iffy here, and the reason why some people aren't frozen isn't obvious either.     Charlotte knows all of that, but gets a bad feeling anyways, when she opens the tear.     As if, maybe, there's something wrong over there too. More wrong than usual, even.     It doesn't really feel like a portal, now that she looks at it. More like a gaping wound. An entry wound, to be specific. It has the feeling of narrowing past the gate. Like she's just tearing a scab off and peering into the ruinous cone of a bullet tumble through flesh, crawling on hands and knees until she finds whatever hideous metal is lodged at the terminus of it.     Nah, it's fine. No issues with the game at all. It'll be nice to get off these streets that would like her to choke to death on her own noxious exhalation and stop making so much noise and go somewhere cool and mysterious and colourful and atmospheric. Anything but this, really.     §Aren't you forgetting something?§     Stanley 'hears' that one too, actually. A tap on the shoulder. From a well-meaning friend, always a sunny smile to see, always listening to all your problems. Their fingernail always just feels like it kills off a few nerves.     §You don't have to solve it too fast, you know.§     §Everyone you hate is frozen.§     §The lab is frozen too. Don't you want to cut to the heart of the mystery?§     §The bad guys can't do anything.§     §You could just walk to the university and check what the answers are on the entrance exam, right now.§     §That friend who needs help, and their shitty parents won't let them; aren't you kind of obligated to get them what they need?§     §At least steal some money or something, dummy. You could take one dollar from every wallet in this city, never have to work again, and nobody would even notice.§     §How stupid are you?§     §How well-trained, hahaha~§
Angela	Angela sometimes feels the same way as the greying text about the Agents but there's a Petra here--and she's simply observing through an Eggpack. She doesn't feel any of it, nothing but the dead of silence--outside of Eliites doing their thing, and a voice. She doesn't quite recognize whose voice that is just yet. Perhaps it's the distance or the distraction--Angela is still running the facility--at least until Tamamo-- ''Oh! Lilian, you were here, after all!'' "Dame Commander?" Angela focuses up, setting automated processes to handle telling the Manager how he's screwing up and associated processes. Efficiency drops 5 percent but now Angela is paying attention. So is Gebura, smoking as she quietly turns to focus on the screen. It has been theorized what it would feel like when the Seed of Light germinates and blooms into a tree. Gebura wonders if it'd feel a little like this. Quiet. Timeless. "Of course," Angela tells Kukuru, but is presently stuck to Petra's back and is going where she's going--as are the Agents. Mikey winks at Kukuru but-- --Talk normal? The feeling pushes into them and makes Mikey quiet down (Baba just passes out and has to be carted around by Mikey). Baba isn't frozen though sleeping standing up is also not ... too normal? "Dude... This is bad vibes." Mikey mumbles. "Shut up," Angela says 'gently'. Mikey obliges. Angela feels...unpleasant to say the least. That old familiar feeling that she cannot actually help the Dame Commander, cannot actually be there for her when she really needs it, presses against her psyche. You helped her before, Angela. But Angela isn't content with that. She wants to help her a lot of times, she wants to be there for her, she wants to be a part of their lives and-- But this is her wish isn't it? Maybe she doesn't actually need any help. Maybe this is just what she really wants. Angela's fingers curl inward and-- --A cigarette is snuffed out of existence. That jars Angela out of her downward spiral. "...Is this a no-smoking zone?" Angela asks, blinking precisely once. The Agents fall in behind Petra, EGO weapons lowered for the moment but definitely not put away. "zzz...Lead the way, Petra...zzz..." Baba snoozes. "We'll...cover...zzz..."
Touta Konoe	At this point, Touta was all but ready to make himself available to the group. He'd give a brief wave to Angelal and the agents. Even if it was at risk of getting him on Petra's sour side. Touta might have been checking in on Tamamo even though she seemed busy. Hell, He'd even reach out to Ishirou, cause from the corner of his eye he can see that there's that frown on his face. Not just a frown that looks like annoyance but...Genuine discontent. So he wants to speak. To encourage him, to let him know that his work is appreciated. Even if it was only something simple as Hey Ishirou...Keep looking out, kay? It really helps...     It's definitely not the best words that Ishirou's heard, but well...They're genuine. Touta feels like Ishirou just doesn't hear that he does a good job enough. He also wanted to talk to Stanley more. He seemed like he knew what he was doing, and didn't seem like wasn't afraid to have a laugh. Maybe he could ask Stan to fill him in more later about this place. Before any of that can even happen though...     He catches a glimpse at them. It's only for just a moment does he catch the view of those people still caught in the stillness, their features so sharp that for a moment he finds his eyes stinging from it. At first that visage so defined has him think of that Pearl iridescence once more. And again, he finds himself forced to say the words. "I'm here...I'm right here..." A mantra he tells himself as he starts to see the similarities fades as their expressions turn to static. It wasn't to say better. But it still reminded him that he was he--     §Is that really true, Touta?§     That sensation of a finger at his cheek catches his voice in his throat. A chill running down his spine as that question comes to mind. His eyes veer to the side as if to catch who it was...But there's nothing and no one... §Because they don't know you're here, right? Even if you scream at the top of your lungs, they won't hear you. They won't see you, or notice you. They'll only know you were here after, right?§     The sound of his blade unsheathing, his eyes darting down but just like before...There's nothing. Even the feeling of those light digits a moment ago leave no trace. "And you're... Touta, right? Oh, make sure to drink more water if you're going to get mushed up like last time."     His attention averts. His eyes on Kukuru. The one person that does see him. That does know he's here. That acknowledges his existence. "Ah...Oh, yeah...Don't worry about it. They might mush me, but I'll keep coming back."     It's the reassurance to her, he tries to give as he finds himself stepping away. Incapable of even noticing what was starting to go through her own head. He was already trying to decipher what was going on with his. Whether he should be asking Stan if he was sure they weren't already in this Reverse Side, or a 'Distortion' or whatever it was supposed to be. He could just grab him--     §They won't see you, but they'll notice if any single little thing is amiss. From their perspective, you're invisible, but if you move something, just a little bit, just the wrong way, it'll look like an instant jump to them, right? They'll know, and they'll get scared, and you don't want to be there~ So be really quiet, okay? Or you could just, you know . . .§     The voice comes again and with it leaves that last remark, as he finds himself looking at those faces once more. Those faces that wish for his silence, his ceased motion. Still, even with that he can't help but utter the question back as his grip on his blade gets tighter. "Or I could just...What?"     It's in the moment he asks such a question that he can see past those faces, as his eyes wander further does he see her as well. In fact, it's only as he sees her visage does he think to himself...That voice...It really did sorta sound like...Lilian Rook.
Petra Soroka	When Petra's vision starts blurring, it's not *faces* that tips her off first. It's everything else, the crisp lines of infinite hyperrealism fading until she can't drink in contradictory details of flawless realism and helpless voyeurism. She pulls back and blinks, rubbing at her eyes, metal sliding smoothly against glass optics.     Then she looks up at the prop's face, glazing over indistinct eyes to roam around their cheekbones and forehead. Oh. It really is Lilian. Petra presses her lips together, considering whether she actually wants to announce that. It's not like it'll actually help any of them understand her. They'll just gawk at the fucking show of her mind, gossiping about how fucked up she is. I won't give them the opportunity, not until I understand what Lilian's actually getting out of this.     From that point, faces smeared into unrecognizability around her, Petra's attitude shifts in an imperceptible, tangibly hostile way. Walking down the street with the agents chattering behind her, she doesn't even need the whispering in her mind to have loathing for them bubble up inside her. *This* is really going to be their first mission out? And all they can do is ramble like they can't stand the atmosphere and have to fill it up with *themselves*. Why do they think *their* voices are worth hearing?     Petra lazily holds her cigarette out to ash it against someone's arm, before it gets ripped away by the invisible force. She freezes for a moment, then relaxes, sliding both of her hands into her trench coat pockets, the smile on her face directed at nothing, as if no one else is even there.     Hey, §Exigent Serenity§! Does this count as a third time, even though you're the one reaching out? When §she§ asks that question, §she§ can tell that the first people who rise up to the surface of Petra's mind isn't any of the faceless, frozen husks, but the agents standing right behind her.     I'm here for Lilian, not me. Besides... Petra slows to a halt again, gnawing on the knuckle of her index finger. Breathing in the still air is intoxicating, and Petra's thoughts flow more freely than usual. Exigent Serenity feels all of it, the way that Petra latches on to §nobody can prove it§ and conjures up steps in her mind to kill Mikey and Baba cleanly so none of their blood gets on the asphalt, leaving her alone for the rest of the city. Well, not alone. But Angela's fine.     Shifting her thought process away from that requires enormous mental exertion, like physical tearing. Mikey and Baba see a shiver run down Petra's back, and she shakes her head, then starts moving again. Out loud, she mutters, "Not without knowing if she's here too."
Petra Soroka	<J-IC-Scene> Tohru Adachi says, "Man. Can we replace this guy with someone more interesting? Like, I'll take Phreak or Tachibana, but I'd be willing to compromise and take Berc or Xion... Actually, what happened to that one dude with the robot... Huh...." <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "God, right? Some of these people feel like talking to fucking chatbots." <J-IC-Scene> Tohru Adachi lights up a little, "Oh! Hey! You kinda get it. Amazing."     At least someone else here fucking hates them too. Without remembering who Adachi actually is, Petra feels like she vibes with him immediately. Especially here. Killing random nobodies almost doesn't feel worth the effort, you know? They wouldn't even have any reason to feel *afraid*. Stanley frowns at Petra as she arrives,     That's business as usual. Petra can't even work up any more animosity towards him than usual, rolling her eyes and gritting her teeth as the pair of teens open up the portal to the Reversal. Get it over with. I'm not here for you. "Petra! And Angie, too~ Oh, are these new Agent friends of yours? Welcome, welcome. If any of you get hurt, just come over to me, okay?"     "What happened to all that fucking hostility you had towards me earlier? You helped in the Ordeal, sure. That still doesn't give you permission to talk to me." "Dude... This is bad vibes."     "Shut up." Petra says in exact sync with Angela, considerably less gently. <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Oh! Lilian, you were here, after all! Whyever did you not say so? Here, please look this way!"     So Lilian *is* here too! Petra doesn't even consider the idea that Tamamo might not distinguish between Lilian and Exigent Serenity. She takes a breath in to try and steady herself, her thoughts still wavering and sharp and nauseous, swimming with the tempo of the static blur. Petra wordlessly reaches up to grab one of Angela's robot hands, squeezes it, then continues to hold it while walking to the Town Hall where Tamamo directed her.
Stanley Padgett	The phone stops working, and at first Stanley just... chalks it up to the little iFruit clone being a piece of trash from the gas station. But then it just starts failing in disquieting ways, and Stanley looks up at the others, at all the frozen people, at everyone who's milling around having their stupid goddamn conversations about...     He again refrains from starting shit with Adachi and Petra. NPC Stick Figures. Whatever, you two edgy jerks. Stanley Marigold Padgett is the bigger man in all of this. He doesn't have to take this, he's got... better things to do, like fix his dang city?     "Take it slow, Stanley." Stanley's mom is standing somewhere behind him, just out of his vision. She's been dead for years. "You're always in such a rush to get places. You don't even know where we're going today, silly!"     A sharp breath through his nose, and Stanley whips around to try and spot... whoever that was playing a trick on him. Nothing.     "Put your talents to good use, Stanley. It's what Mom would have wanted."     That was Dad. The last kind words the man had ever said to him, before shipping him off to his first house of horrors, the litany of family and friends that never ended until Lampport.     The intrusive thoughts had never ben this bad before, but now they just... push deep into his soft brain bits like those same nails, that deadening fingernail.     You're so well trained.     That last one is the one that cuts deep. He growls, and steps straight forward, into the Portal into the Reversal. "...shut up."     Anyone who's following him, who's never had the pleasure of this sort of travel? It feels uncomfortably like your insides are swapping to your outsides, like you're being turned inside out.But it's not your guts that are going to spill out all over, it's your soul, your psyche getting twisted around into positions that a yoga instructor would be jealous of if they were your superego watching as your ego and id do King Pidgeon Pose at the same time on a Twister Mat.     The portal spits him right back out, on the other side of Beanies. He is a paler shade of himself, color returning slowly as he stares at the group, and puffs out his breath. ".....ttthhhhaaaaaaaaat's new."
Kale Hearthward	> Don't worry about it! Nobody ever paid attention to the noise you made before, right? Kale goes quiet and still in the air. Well, momentarily still, at least. The tug on his boots sends him off balance a bit. > You know they were all just politely pretending they didn't notice you so they wouldn't have to tell you how useless you are, right? Now they don't even have to do that~ No matter what you do, it doesn't matter; they aren't even judging you right now, for the first time in your whole life! Isn't that great? Is it, though? Kale can feel the words pushing on him. He can feel this whole... thing, pushing in on him. What... you're saying is true. The response is thought, not spoken, not that he expects to be 'heard' either way. Maybe just making the response is important, for the sake of making it. People don't pay attention. But - I'm moving past that. As the words push in on him, there's an equal and opposite response - Kale's heart pushing back out. Giving him breathing room. The pressure's still there, but he can respond to it clearly. If I'm the sort of person who people think is useless, if I'm the sort of person they're going to ignore, if I'm the sort of person that's loathed, then - I can't change that. I can't demand that. But - I can change myself. I can accept that I can't get what I want right now, as I am now, and so I can work towards it. And I'm not going to let how I am now slow me down on the path to becoming who I should become. Kale, shielded by Persephone's wish to become bigger, uses that breathing room to clear his head and push back further with his best and worst trait: his confidence. And - there's Lilian. He - of course he recognizes her. Why is he feeling like he shouldn't? He'd recognize Lilian Rook a mile way (in this case literally). He takes a direct path down from the sky, heading towards her and Tamamo. > "I had wished to ask, is 'this' how it usually is, or is this not so usual?" Kale pauses for a moment as gears turn in his head. Oh. Then he finishes flying down and sets down on the ground next to Tamamo. "You're..." The phrase 'you're alright?' dies in his throat because obviously not. "... here." It's a bad save. "It's very, ah... quiet?"
Lilian Rook	That phone; that object of someone else's attention, affection, hanging on its every word and not yours; felt like the heaviest thing in the world a second ago. Yet it crumples like tinfoil in Kukuru's claws. She's strong, but it really was frighteningly easy. Treasured memories on photo, they're sort of like holes, or bubbles; things that used to have meaning, but are now just so much void, perforating the metal and plastic and making it easier to squish and fold. Like styrofoam. So very fucking fake.     Once she's done, the feeling of the phone in her hand, now absent, is replaced by the feeling of arms around her body. They feel like warm sunbeams and fluffy kettle steam, a little soporofic and prickly hot, but a jolt of something soft and living in a sterile plastic environment. The gentle squeeze around her middle makes all of her extremities feel cold and numb by comparison. It's the most sincere hug she's felt in a long time. Even if it makes her taste ozone, and it smells a little . . . irony.     §Good girl. I'm so proud of you, Kukuru. That must have been really hard to do. But it's important, you know? You have to take steps to be kind to yourself, too.§     §Otherwise you'll stop being 'you'. You'll stretch yourself so thin that you'll dissolve into the background, and never come back. I don't want you to become a prop for everyone else, Kukuru. I want you to stay 'you'. I appreciate you so, so much. Okay?§     By the time she can confirm that there is, in fact, nobody there at all, Kukuru opens her claws, and finds in place of the phone, a furled up flower bud, plucked from some stem, but still mysterious warm and bright and soft, having not begun to die and dry out in the slightest. It feels like it could still bloom, if she put it in water.
Friz	Dirt: That one only semi-routed through the ears, boss. Savvy: What? Wait-- who's there?! Grit: That is here with us. Moxie: Uncomfortable. Uncomfortable. Get away. Get away.     Friz jolts back from the animal, eyes darting around nervously behind thick glasses. She takes a deep, tense, anxious breath. Her heart pounds, briefly, but not in panic. It's in a kind of communion. Grit: If there's nothing left of soft soil and green grass for me, then my ecosystem has died, my tribe has abandoned me. Grit: If every face is a potential source of violence, then my tribe is banishing me, I am cast out into the savannah. Grit: I will increase proportional volumes of cortisol, and slowly reduce neurotransmitter volume to the medulla oblongata, fulfilling the essential function of conditioning my genetic lineage by the success of my tribe and its capacity to control the regional ecosystem, reducing probability of survival of the body. Grit: If that's true. Grit: But I wish for it not to be. So I ask for your mercy, instead. Grit: Don't say that to me, please. I surrender. Savvy: She-- you know, she doesn't actually speak for all of us. Moxie: Can I vote for surrender too? Savvy: It's not a fucking vote!! "Surrender" isn't even a relevant idea. Savvy: Moxie, god's sakes, Tamamo's got a lead, get us moving please. Moxie: Fine. Dirt: Everyone's talking about convening at the community center. Dirt: Follow Tamamo.     Friz follows.
Charlotte Newman	Charlotte takes a moment to walk a steady circle around the Reverse Side's entrance, making sure it's looking normal. As normal as a tear between reality and sub-reality can be, anyway. Seemingly satisfied, the girl nods once, "Right."     It's enough for her to flinch, that violatory sound again. The faint clicking her phone makes when she unlocks it again puts a frown on her face. The first thing she does is put it into silent mode; then she pops open the messenger. cNew> Hello? cNew> Everything around Beanies is frozen except for us. cNew> And some out-of-towners coming in after it happened. cNew> Are you guys alright? cNew> Chastity? Isaac? Alice?     Charlotte stares at the screen for a few silent seconds; partly waiting for any responses, or even the telltale dots of Someone is typing...; partly distracted and displeased that even the soft buzz of the phone's vibration wasn't Quiet Enough.     Others arriving-- others breaking the silence-- is a welcome interruption even if voices cause her to jump a bit.     "Ah..! Miss Kukuru," Charlotte takes a second to exhale, composing herself before the kindly Concorder, "Yes, thank you for asking. We're getting along great. How have you been doing?"     Kukuru calls out someone else, prompting the girl's posture to stiffen a bit, "Um. Hello, Petra." Angela? Red eyes wander across the two Agents accompanying the girl she already recognizes, "And friends? You might have to introduce me." She worked with Lobotomy Corp folks before, but they weren't in EGO gear at the time; she's not sure what to make of their equipment and doesn't recognize them. "So. What's like, the procedure here." "Yes, please tell us of any proper procedure for the other side. You did not have the time before but we have a surfeit of it now."     Charlotte stops, staring at the image on the Eggpack now. She hadn't-- realized what the device was at first, "Oh, hello." Stanley gets the gist of it out while Charlotte turns back towards the portal itself, chewing on her lip again.     Hearing, feeling a voice reach out to her that she feels like she should recognize, widens the girl's eyes with a sharp inhale-- and a sudden choke on rancid air that ends in some muffled coughing. She's in no position to stop Stanley from diving into the tear himself, much less help him when he tumbles out the other side.     "I didn't-- think it looked right--" Charlotte dips back, straining to hold back further coughing. With a grimace, she thumbs at her phone's screen, closing the... wound in the fabric of reality, as best she can for now.     Swallowing, the teen does her best to compose herself, clearing her throat a little in the process, regretting the noises she keeps making. The breath she takes is more to steady herself than anything. Only then does she cross where the portal had been, reaching down to help Stanley up if he needs it, "...You heard something, too?"     Her eyes half-lid, her gaze wandering aside, some mix of thought and shame. An idea she can't take credit for, while admitting to liking, "...They had a point, in a ...utilitarian sort of way..."     After all, what danger is there to an ultra-leveled final boss if they never get a turn?
Angela	Meanwhile Baba and Mikey trust Petra completely. Baba mostly doesn't see the shiver run down Petra's back because their eyes are closed. Mikey notices but keeps his trap shut after a double shut up combo. He is a complete newbie. Nevertheless, Angela will probably be--at most--mildly annoyed at Petra murdering them if she needs to--they're new enough that they haven't really been developed that strongly as Agents and the loss would be pretty minimal outside of the resources it took to...hire them? Petra hasn't seen any other hiring processes besides her own and, almost, Meika's. Something tells Mikey that he should really listen now that he's seen that shiver across Petra's back. Meanwhile Angela's lost in her own thoughts before-- Hostility? From ''Kukuru''? If it didn't come from someone she trusted she wouldn't even believe it. Part of her is grateful that Kukuru has the capacity for it--but most of her is frustrated as so many seem content to have her dear friend as an enemy. Angela's smile (at the on Petra's back comment) fades and she frowns but is, at least, prevented from getting too deep into her own head by Petra taking hold of the Eggpack's actuator arm. Angela lets out a breaht she didn't know she was holding. "We will see if the Commander needs anything. I suppose that is all that really needs doing." And saying it like that helps bring her some surety to the situation.
Petra Soroka	"And friends? You might have to introduce me."     Charlotte's exceedingly neutral question about the two newbie agents behind her jars Petra out of her reverie of imagining killing them. "Coworkers." A rod of silver morphmetal slides out of Petra's sleeve, then peels and flakes away to reveal Pillar of Creation. Petra wraps her hand around it, holding it loosely, to complete her EGO outfit rather than come across as threatening. A little bit to come across as threatening. "I don't have to do anything."     Petra does not bother to introduce the two agents to Charlotte before leaving for community center.
Tohru Adachi	Adachi, probably surprising no one, pays no mind to Stan's gaze, instead opting to return Kukuru's cheery wave with his own as he keeps his phone to his ear and waits for a response he never gets. Understandable, honestly, given various circumstances. Another frown sprouts on the man's face as he takes a moment to actually soak in the scenery. He really wishes he hadn't though. Stopped time sounds neat on paper, but standing here really hammers in something. It's quiet. It's so quiet, his mind is making up a buzzing noise in a desperate attempt to convince him that there's something going on here. He could live with the silence, the buzzing, but there's one other thing that he's come to realize almost immediately that makes what he's seeing actually kind of revolting...      It's boring. So. Utterly. Boring.      Something he probably should have figured out before he got here, after all, when time is stopped, nothing happened, but thinking it and being here is two different things. Even when he was living in what was essentially an empty cubicle, he still could hear things like his heater, or the couple upstairs fighting. But this? He already wants to get out of here, so he can only imagine what it's like for the people that live here who can still move...      Can a person actually live in an environment like this? Maybe, maybe. He doesn't really want to think about what that kind of person would be, let alone meet them.      "Tch. Whatever."      Adachi, growing frustrated with the situation and tired of his own thoughts, decides to take his mind off it the only way he knows how. Snapping his phone shut, he tightly grips the device before winding back like a pitcher as he then throws it full force into the back of knights helmeted head.      The phone shatters on impact, and the poor(?) creature grasps its head in shock, looking around with a vacant expression before returning to its rather lackluster search efforts.      Well, if the Watch won't support him, at least he's still got these guys. Probably the company he deserves, truth be told. Monsters just as cold and Heartless as him...      While true, Adachi visibly winces at his own unspoken pun. He eventually just shrugs before catching sight of Petra and Angela and quietly trailing behind the two. Better to follow those who have an idea than to just stand around doing nothing.      Despite his cruelty, the knights also follow after, limbs flailing as if they barely know how to move correctly.
Petra Soroka	Petra looks over her shoulder when Adachi throws his phone, curiously tilting her head. With one hand still squeezing Angela's, she taps a finger on her cheek thoughtfully. Even without Adachi himself being affected by the facial blurring, Petra's slightly-too-wide and slightly-too-steady eyes don't quite meet his, feeling like she's staring through him rather than at him.     "You know there's a million other phones around here that you could've thrown. You didn't need to throw yours."
Lilian Rook	Poor Mikey. §Like a trained dog. She isn't even a person, she's just a machine, and you can only speak when she says so? Of course she doesn't care about your feelings; you aren't even the same type of being. You're obeying lightning dancing around flattened sand, you poor, sub-human little fool.§     Poor Angela. §Can't they control themselves for five seconds? Sure they have jobs to do, but you're letting them out for a change, and this is how they act? You can't even reward them without them taking you for granted like this. It sucks, doesn't it? That you have to be rude to them. Cruel with them. You're forced to be the coldhearted machine they want to believe you are, because you can't be trusted without you controlling them. They're really awful, you know. You can't even reward them without them spitting in your hand somehow.§     §Everything in the world just stopped, and it's still the same as usual, huh? Even if there's only just a dozen people on Earth, they'll find a way to be bad to you. Isn't it sad? That you have to silence everyone, everywhere, perfectly, or else it you just can't get away from it.§     Hands fall on Ishirou's shoulders. Even through his medical mask, he smells smoke, tastes iron, feels battery acid licking at his cheeks. Those fingers seep their cold right through his many layers, soaking into his flesh, and at least leaving his hunched back blissfully numb.     §Oh Ishirou . . . You're never going to make it like this. What good did the power to see into everyone else ever do anyone? All you're going to find out is how horrible they are. How much they hate you. Wasn't that obvious? You're just no good at closing your mind . . . Everything everyone says, the whole world, just comes pouring in through your curious little eyes, until it's filled up every last bit of you, and pushed all the 'Ishirou' out.§     §Why are you still so curious, after all this time? Why do you want to figure anything out? You know they hate you, or you wouldn't be dressed like that. Isn't it long past time to stop thinking about other people? You don't need any of them at all, silly. Just look for the only thing you want to. Think of them like a bunch of ugly plastic traffic cones~ Just junk! Littering up your path. If it's too big to see past, walk around them. If they're not, just step on them~ Empty wrappers and broken beer glass; you know how to look past those, right? Try it!§     §If you can't do that, you might as well just listen to Petra and kill yourself. You don't want that, right?§     Touta can 'envision', more than he can see or hear, someone smiling behind him. Perhaps it's just the smile itself, hovering in the air as if left by the Cheshire Cat's vanishing. Lips and teeth graze his shoulder with invigorating, prickling warmth, and soothing, anaesthetic cold. Kurobo hangs heavily in his grip.     §You're way stronger than them, right? Why do you have to bargain with them at all? 'I'm right here, I'm right here', god you sound so pathetic. If you want to prove you exist even when they don't see you, then do something! Something shocking. Something they hate. If they all stop moving, and you get all this power, the ability to do anything you want to any of them, and all you can do is whimper for them to pay attention to you, then they were right to ignore you, weren't they? You aren't a danger. You didn't do anything. You might as well not exist after all!§     §No matter who they are, people listen when you hurt them, you know. Nobody would be dismissing you as a fence-sitter if you let them know they only live at your mercy~§
Kukuru	It really was that easy wasn't it? Something that might've looked like a completely thoughtless gesture, a selfish action taken in the heat of the moment, perhaps even a pointless one considering there's almost no chance Kukuru would even know who this person is. If she didn't recognize him before, she certainly can't recognize him now, and... She doesn't care to. It's odd, thinking about how little she cares about this person in particular. This one, whose day she might have ruined, perhaps even weeks or months depending on what was on that phone. It's not something she'd know, of course, since she's not the sort to be quite so connected to her phone, but... Why does she feel better? She's crying, but the feeling of that hug... It's familiar, yet not. It's different from the comfort she felt with Persephone, with the kids at Sapient Heuristics, with her family back home, even from the comfort she's felt with so many others she's embraced and been embraced by both within and outside of the Concord, both figuratively and literally. She doesn't even mind the odd taste of ozone in her mouth. The iron flavor is familiar, at least. "Y... You are? Who...?" Swallowing lightly, Kukuru hands reflexively come down around her waist, trying to feel the arms around her, even if she can't see nor immediately recognize who it is that's speaking to her. She's too focused on just the feeling of being comforted by someone, of catharsis from taking that moment to just let out so much tension on something so insignificant yet vital, and not worrying in the slightest about the regret she'll feel later. That's a problem for later. Right now, she's content to keep listening, eyes closed and just enjoying that warmth spreading through her core. "It... It was. I know I shouldn't have, but it felt... Right? Not for that person, but the... My head. My head feels better, even if it doesn't make sense to." She laughs while starting to sniffle and tear up, perhaps even a little too loudly, just belting it out until it stops sounding like pure laughter and more like she's jsut shouting her laughter. It's a strange feeling and even stranger sounding, but it feels good. She keeps at it for a while, and her hands are still trembling as she looks back down expecting to see loose bits of plastic and metal. Instead, she sees the flower bud. Kukuru is no phone expert, but she knows that sort of thing doesn't belong in a phone. Nevertheless, it feels right, just holding it and admiring its beauty. Holding it gingerly in one claw, the other slips into her pocket, retrieving a small plastic container and a bottle of drinking water between the digits of the other. There's a bit of juggling that goes on in order for her to get the container and the plastic bottle open, but she does manage to get the water and the bud in the container before closing it up for safe keeping. 'And I feel, perhaps, that there is a point in that you cannot possibly care about everyone at once - it will drive you mad.' §Otherwise you'll stop being 'you'. You'll stretch yourself so thin that you'll dissolve into the background, and never come back. I don't want you to become a prop for everyone else, Kukuru. I want you to stay 'you'. I appreciate you so, so much. Okay?§ Could that have been her? She looks around again, hoping to see Lilian, or to see the source of those encouraging words. "I... Thank you, dear. I won't... I can't just be a prop, no. Family's about give /and/ take, right? I'll... I'll make sure to start taking enough, too." Kukuru's going to need to ask someone that knows more about flowers on how to take care of this soon.
Lilian Rook	Kale in flight gets a moment of blissful, nerve-wracking silence. For an instant, the air displacing around him-- it doesn't even feel like wind, it's just molecules being pushed around, nothing so living as 'wind'-- feels as if icy fingertips trail around his throat. Fingernails slide between his feathers in the way that a dagger slips between ribs, but they slip from his skin without event.     §Boring. You're getting her to do everything for you. I suppose if you only want to think about keeping yourself safe, that's fine. And there's no shame in letting her of all people protect you. You'll regret it later, but, we all have that phase some time, Kale~§     For the time being, he is left alone.     Tamamo finds herLilian without any real difficulty. Despite staring down at both a touchscreen and a sheaf of documents instead of an exam book all at the same time, she cuts through the frozen pedestrians without even looking up; maybe it's their shadows in her peripheral vision or something, but it is a little startling to see how unhesitating her stride is, without looking, and without being able to hear.     "Tamamo! Hello!" says Lilian, muffled through the pen in her teeth for a second, before quickly making sure to remove it. "I didn't expect you to be here too. How are you--" She looks up mid-sentence.     And then freezes.     Her eyes flick away from Tamamo's face to the nearby car, then back. To a pedestrian unworthy of description, and back. Her grip, starting to shake, releases the stylus for a moment, and it stops halfway to the ground.     "--moving?"     Lilian flinches back in the instant Tamamo rushes towards her. For an instant, her eyes don't reflect any recognition of who she is. She steps back as if something lunged at her from the bushes. Tamamo feels a firm shove against her chest from in front, without an apparent cause.     And yet, there isn't even time to linger on it, because it takes only as long as a single thought for recollection to spark in those exact same eyes, and for Lilian to completely reverse course. She rushes towards Tamamo instead, folding her book shut in one hand. §A gentle push from behind§ sees her into it. Tamamo feels the imprint of a §warm kiss on the cheek§     "Hang on, what are you-- Are you okay? Tamamo? That's really you, isn't it? How are you §here/now§? Did something happen? Did I-- . . ."     Kale descending from above is enough for Lilian to squeeze Tamamo and turn her away, lifting her off her feet so she can bodyguard her, as if Kale fucking Hearthward were somehow some kind of time-manipulating supervillain responsible for all of this. Lilian barely has the decency to look a hair as if she felt it was a bit silly afterwards.     "It was until you started talking. Where did you come from? Were the Paladins alerted to something?"
Tohru Adachi	"Look, I'd love to toss that kid's phone if that's what you're getting at, but well... Huh, there really wasn't a good reason not to, other than I guess I like to remember that even if I'm pathetic, at least I don't hide behind a bunch of text and selfies?"      A cope beyond cope, and Adachi knows it. But he deserves it, just a little bit. He runs his own name through the mud with a smile all the time so why shouldn't he be allowed to have... Whatever this is? He once again shrugs, but not before reaching into his pocket and pulling out another folding cellphone.      "If you were worried about me being phoneless, that ain't a concern either. I got like, five of these things just in case."      In case of what? He doesn't say, but there are probably some easy guesses that can be made.
Ishirou	The hands that fall... the numbness that sinks into him.  For the moment it feels /nice/.  Some amount of comfort.  Some amount of attention... something in him felt like it was starving for so long, and was finally fed for the first time in months.   What /good/ was the power..?  Why did he want to fill himself with everyone else..?  Why did he keep trying to let everything in without a filter?  He told himself it was 'to know'.  To understand... to learn about people more.  But... He lived through Indus.  He knew what humans /really/ were.  He saw their depravity... he saw what they did to his fellow androids.  He /saw/ what they did to him.  The culture they made for the Androids, the pressure from their rotten society.  He kept thinking something was missing but was that it..?  Or was it that he was letting something be pushed /out/?   'You know they hate you, or you wouldn't be dressed like that.' ...They do.  He admits.  He knows it.  Nobody liked this form, he fooled himself into it.  He ruined himself.  He thought he could /be/ the new human.  The model... but they hate it.  They hate him.  Even now he knows that the real reason he even moved to this form was because of Petra.  Because he let her push a little of himself out. 'Isn't it long past time to stop thinking about other people?' If they hate me... if they don't think I should exist... 'You don't need any of them at all, silly. Just look for the only thing you want to.' ...I don't..?  If... 'Think of them like a bunch of ugly plastic traffic cones~ Just junk! Littering up your path. If it's too big to see past, walk around them. If they're not, just step on them~ Empty wrappers and broken beer glass; you know how to look past those, right? Try it!' I... but... §If you can't do that, you might as well just listen to Petra and kill yourself. You don't want that, right?§ ...No..!  He doesn't want to die.  He wants to live, he wants... He wants to be /real/.  Not just... human, not just a person.  An existence... that will be heard.  That can make Lilian's time in this hellscape so much easier... These people just... they were the way they were, it's true.  It's /sad/ but... she's not wrong.  They are these things.   Phony's dream is beautiful /because/ it would end people being like this.  It would give a world to Lilian that wouldn't be this horrible to be in.  He... Understands.  He can't look at these people, he can't accept their views because they're rancid, because it's collective garbage.  They're not /equal/ to an ounce of the love he has for Lilian, for Tamamo, for Go, for Candy.   Look at the people who just walked past him just then.  Tamamo he can forgive, it was Lilian.  Petra he could forgive, he had hurt her so much.  Angela was also here for Lilian.  The rest of them..?  They ignored him.  Why is he even pretending he is here for them?  He's not. He takes a step.  He's walking again.  He's running to try and catch up to Tamamo, Petra, Angela, and Lilian.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley *takes* Charlotte's hand. It is not a simple *help me get up*, it is something possessive, wanting, grabbing at his friend, and tugging her over as he recovers on the cold floor of the coffee shop.     The Fool can feel Charlotte's weight against him, her hands on his shoulders. She is something tactile. Something that isn't judging him right now.     The nattering of all the others on the radio slams into the base of his brain at the same time, and his hisses under his breath. "...they're all hearing it too, aren't they? Th-the whispers?" Motley hair shields his face from her, as he leans against his friend, his partner in all this.     He's shaking. "...this isn't a time stop, Charlotte."
Stanley Padgett	Stanley hisses. "...we're already *in* the Shadow World." The words fall against the cold floor of Beanies, all of the frozen people watching him with judging eyes, knowing eyes.     "We can't go there because we're already there."
Lilian Rook	§Who's the boring one, Tohru? You got caught before, so that's why everything turned out the way it did. Who's going to catch you now? Walk one block away and who's even going to notice? You can do whatever you want now, can't you?§     §If they don't notice, it's their own fault for turning their back on you. Not taking you seriously. After all, you're a killer, right? Right now, everyone here is your potential victim, and they're not even paying attention to you! Do they hear you at all? Do they think you won't do it? You should shoot them and nobody would know anything!§     §If that's boring too, don't you think you could get something really cool from this? You're a Persona-user too, you know. Remember how you felt when you wanted to become a police officer? Is that 'you' already dead? Isn't it long past time you deserved some kind of power? Some kind of respect? What do you think you could accomplish, now, if you really put your mind to it? Don't you want to find a TV and at least try?§     §Or have you lost your touch? Your spark. Maybe they only spared you because they knew you were already a walking corpse.§ Grit: If there's nothing left of soft soil and green grass for me, then my ecosystem has died, my tribe has abandoned me. Grit: If every face is a potential source of violence, then my tribe is banishing me, I am cast out into the savanah. Grit: I will increase proportional volumes of cortisol, and slowly reduce neurotransmitter volume to the medulla oblongata, fulfilling the essential function of conditioning my genetic lineage by the success of my tribe and its capacity to control the regional ecosystem, reducing probability of survival of the body. Grit: If that's true. Grit: But I wish for it not to be. So I ask for your mercy, instead. §Her(?)§: Oh, darling . . . §Her(?)§: I'm sorry, but wasn't everything dead before? §Her(?)§: You were born into an abandoned world. Everyone who mattered left for somewhere else, a long, long time ago. §Her(?)§: I can't bring your world back. But I can make you better. §Her(?)§: Happier than you've been in a long, long time. §Her(?)§: No more cortisol, no more adrenaline, no fear, no hunger, no violence, no tribe. §Her(?)§: It's like dreaming. A kind of dream you've never had. Where everything that could ever have hurt you was so long ago you've nearly forgotten what it was like. Everything around you is something you can have, you know. There are berries where you forgot to look. Prey that you'll always catch. It's really so, so easy. It's just that horrible, horrible people made you feel that it isn't. §Her§: I love you, and I love your sisters, so don't fight with them, okay? You're fighting because everything seems confusing and contradictory, but I can tell you how it's not really at all! If you'll listen to the little secret I can tell you, all of you will be able to get along~ §Her§: All you have to do is come find me. I only existed for no time at all. I'll always exist for no time at all. You can't find me if any time passes, so you have to find me now, okay? §Her§: Come talk to me where the bleeding is~
Kale Hearthward	>Boring. You're getting her to do everything for you... I don't - I don't need her protection! I can do just fine on my own! See? The § gets about half a minute's opportunity of Kale defenseless, having pushed away Persephone's protection, before he realizes what a *tremendously* bad idea that is and getting back underneath her aegis as quickly as he can. > "It was until you started talking. Where did you come from? Were the Paladins alerted to something?" Kale doesn't do a great job of hiding his reaction to Lilian acting as though she needs to protect Tamamo from him. Of all the interactions Lilian and Kale have had, that is... probably one of the ones that's gotten to him the most, honestly. "I came through the warpgate? Because we got a call? I wasn't expecting to find you already here..." He glances over at Tamamo. "Are - *you* alright, too, Tamamo? There's some... influences. I'm able to push them out, mostly." Mostly meaning when he's not goaded into letting them get a free hit in.
Tamamo	<J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "I, um-- I'm sorry, Tamamo. I think I have a-- a slightly skewed, perception, on all of this." <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "Yeah. I'll be more attentive. I'm being more attentive." <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "I see."     Knowing that she doesn't understand what she did wrong, Tamamo does not accept Petra's apology.     Tamamo feels a firm shove against her chest from in front, without an apparent cause.     She almost stumbles, but brings her foot down firmly, righting the remainder of her momentum as she stays in place. Twisting an ankle with shoes like hers is a serious danger, but that's exactly why she's so good at this. The emotional confusion of seeing Lilian back off from her is greater, followed by several other reasons for confusion, though she does relax -- visibly, palpably, her presence warming -- when they come close enough to embrace. Tamamo's own aura is enough to spread into the world around her, just a little, even if she doesn't mean it to.     '--moving?'     "Should I not be? The local, ah... elites, did send an alert about time having stopped all around them, as well as show pictures of themselves. Were you not...?" No, obviously, she wasn't here to see them. Tamamo's head tilts, her expression quizzical. Absently, her hand touches her cheek, and she leans against it.     Kale landing doesn't spook her, of course. "Well, now. I wonder... what should be done, considering..." She doesn't quite explain what she's figured out. There still must be 'something wrong,' though whether it's the one thing or the other is less clear.     "If you have not already discovered the reason for there being something unusual regarding this place, let us meet at the... community center, yes? It is where I expected we would be heading." She doesn't expect any reason to refuse that.     "Though I had some desire to see the world in just the way you had yet to share with me, I had not expected there to be an opportunity such as this. No, I suppose we cannot yet declare that desire to be satisfied. There must be something else at work, no?" Otherwise, it would be just the two of them.
Charlotte Newman	See? She's so fucking vapid.     Stick figure, chat bot, whatever.         Practically see-through.     An attempt at honoring a request and being polite is thrown in Charlotte's face. And not even by the person she was talking to. Her posture straightens, indignance crawling into her voice with an offended, "Excuse me?" Excused.     Charlotte sets her jaw in a tense, forcibly neutral face. The emergency of Pillar of Creation gets a brief glance before her eyes settle back on Petra's face-- and then the back of her head when the girl turns away. The slight puff of the cheeks, the severe curl of the brow, the only-slight yet tense downward curl of her lips.     The urge to call out Galatea is so intensely, intensely strong. Charlotte's curled fingers and shuddering shoulders betray her resistance.     After a solid minute, she sucks in a breath through her teeth, eyes closing. The breath chokes her again, shoulders bouncing with restrained coughs.     Helping Stanley up turns into Being Pulled Down instead, pulled out of her building foul mood with a yelp and a throwing out of her hands to catch herself, "Stanley, what--" This isn't a time stop Charlotte. We're already in the Shadow World.     She can feel Stanley's shoulders shaking, her train of thought completely derailed, "...What?" Her face falls, glancing downward with a little frown. The guilty expression of someone who had seriously considered what the whisper told her.     It's all fake. An illusion. An elaborate prank. Nothing she could do here would have any meaning at all. Not at NovaTech, not anywhere.     With a soft noise, she picks herself up, pulling Stanley to his feet a second later, "We should probably tell the others, even if they might treat us like dumb kids who don't know anything. Again."
Friz	Dirt: Dame Commander Rook here, boss. Savvy: Shit. What's our history? Dirt: Pulling up memories. Primarily the BCC cases. Moxie: That's not much for us to work with. Grit: It's not much for her to work with, Moxie. Grit: We're intruding on her territory. We've stepped into what is marked as hers, earned as hers, and deserved as hers. We are threatening its sanctity and continuity. Grit: Say sorry. Savvy: What? Grit: Apologize now. We have harmed a member of our tribe. Savvy: Apologize for fucking what?! Grit: I'm turning on the adrenaline. Savvy: Fine! Fine!!     "Sorry." Friz mutters, anxiously, gulping. "I promise I didn't mean to break this-- I know you've got a boundary. I didn't realize where it was, and I'm not sure how this happened, but I want to... fix it."     She holds her fingers to the rim of her glasses. For a minute, she turns away, staring out at the motionless car as if it were the face of something. Grit: Your gift is a treasure. A perfectly-crafted artifact meant for a specific person and a specific purpose. It is something I want badly. Grit: But I haven't wanted it enough to deserve it. And if I take it, I take it from someone who deserves it. Grit: But the gift is deserved by someone else. I want to follow you. I want to follow you. Help me find you.     "...Help me find you." Friz finishes muttering to herself. Then blinks. She was saying it out loud. She turns back around. "We need to go where the bleeding is." She mutters, uncertainly. "I don't know where that (or what that) is, but we need to go there (hopefully soon (so we can restore Dame Commander Rook's boundary) and quickly (I don't know what other damage this might be doing to what's Rook's, or to the world))."
Lilian Rook	'It's all fake. An illusion. An elaborate prank. Nothing she could do here would have any meaning at all. Not at NovaTech, not anywhere.'     §That's it? When you two are presented with the biggest opportunity of your lives; the only one that will ever matter; you're so, so scared of it that you'd rather throw it away than deal with the pressure of using it? I see. The thought that you could finally, finally have what you want is too much for young children like you to bear.§     §Haha, after all, if it were real, then you'd have to do something, and then you could fuck it up! And if it were real and you didn't do anything, you'd be a coward and regret missing it forever~ It's easier if it just goes away~ It's not real~ It can't tempt you~ Get thee behind me, devil!§     §That's a kind of training, you know. Indoctrination, invisible by inurement. That sort of thinking is why you'll never measure up to §she/I/us§. You'll never even measure up to Petra at this rate. Ah, not that most of you do?§     Despite Stanley rolling out onto the ground from attempting to hop into the Reversal portal, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the attempt itself. The Game still functions. He or Charlotte can open another at any time. He hadn't seen anything amiss, in that brief instant. The fact that he'd turned around without noticing and fallen right out, though, is too confusing to ignore.     It's kind of weird that he can almost overhear Petra. From jumping in and falling back out, he remembers a few words, slipping out of his brain already, like a fading dream. Specifically:     §Ninety points! You're nearly right!§
Tamamo	'Are - *you* alright, too, Tamamo? There's some... influences.'     "I had the feeling of something unusual, earlier, but... I would say that it is more 'strange' than anything. I do not know quite what to make of it." Tamamo answers Kale, while staying close enough to Lilian to link arms.     "There was, at first, the feeling of attentions that were not there. And then, it was the feeling of having a thought that something should be wrong, and yet, it was not. That something should be tangled, but was neatly tidied. That something should be missing, but was found. Is that the type of influence you mean?"     'We need to go where the bleeding is.'     Tamamo turns just her head to look toward Friz. "Is someone hurt?" She hasn't noticed Ishirou. He's been behind her, after all.
Lilian Rook	When Petra begins thinking those intrusive thoughts of their imminent, clinically dispassinate demise, it's Mikey and Baba who have to feel it. Fingers made of pillowy soft oxytocin and nails made of lukewarm cortisol, pressed down on a shoulder, tilting a head back, drumming thoughtfully on a throat, tracing down the orbit of a facial bone. They can swat at them or thrash or panic all they like, but nobody can see whatever it is, and nobody cares, and honestly, they're kind of not really sure it's really their either. Maybe they should just try to ignore it?     But that goes against their very primal instincts, because they can feel what it is. Breath on the back of their neck, reeking of iron and perfumed with soothing night rain. The gaze of someone else's eyes, prickling up every hackle, palpably wandering their flesh, looking for a clean way in. They can nearly hear the daydreamy giggle from nowhere. Feel the point of something sharp graze uncomfortably close to one eye or the other. In through the brain would work, right? If they fall over backwards, then that little bit of blood just pools in the skull. No mess.     Petra dragging her thoughts away from them conjures the synaesthetic sense of someone sighing in disappointment, mixed with boredom. Hands apathetically slipping off of them, brushing their clothes. Eyes turned away from them. They're beneath it.     Petra doesn't even need to know what they're feeling at all. That'd kind of defeat the point, right? All she has to know is that, when she stops letting her thoughts wander, pushes aside the intrusive daydreams that bring her sick joy, and reluctantly, gratingly, focuses on the Lampport kids, she is suddenly made aware of §someone§ turning §her(?)§ back on Mikey and Baba, just barely catching a glimpse of a shapeless, colourless, massless, undesigned §swordpoint§ dropping disappointedly from someone's eyeball.     Maybe it's because they're 'on her back' that both Angela and Gebura can see it too. Just barely. Only within that awful little bubble Petra projects around herself.     §That's true. There's so many of them, and only one of you. You can't stomp every bug in the world to death, you know? But surely there's a happy medium, isn't there? You don't ignore the biting mosquitos when you go outside, but you wear bug spray! What do you think that is?§     §Do you think it's worth sparing one that's already drank your blood? All fat and bloated on your arm, red with your stolen blood. Don't you just want to see it splatter~?§     §Ah, but don't get the wrong idea. You're not safe here either, Petra, so don't get too comfortable~§
Friz	"Is someone hurt?"     Friz answers Tamamo's question by pointing directly at Lilian and nodding several times, looking quarter-panicked or so. "Something bad, but I don't understand it."
Stanley Padgett	And if it were real and you didn't do anything, you'd be a coward and regret missing it forever~ It's easier if it just goes away~ It's not real~ It can't tempt you~     Stanley growls and takes Charlotte's hand, and starts to stalk out of Beanie's and towards the others, at the community center. "Fear no more the heat of the sun... Nor the furious winters' rages..." The thought that you could finally, finally have what you want is too much for young children like you to bear.     "Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages." He's mumbling... what play is that? as he tries to shove the incessant *voices* out of his brain. That's a kind of training, you know. Indoctrination, invisible by inurement. That sort of thinking is why you'll never measure up to-"Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust." The fact that he knows CYMBELINE of all plays is just a testament of how much of nerd Stanley Marigold Padgett is.     He finds one of Charlotte's hands, squeezes at it, and whispers. "...You're not fake. I'm not some doorstop. This is bullcrap." The walk isn't far, but there's chatter on the radio for them both to soak in and try to.... ignore the Voices. "...If this isn't the Shadow World. If this is really what Lillian's powers look like on the inside... why are we helping her?"
Petra Soroka	§You don't ignore the biting mosquitos when you go outside, but you wear bug spray!§     What *is* bug spray in this metaphor? Bug spray doesn't kill them, though. It just keeps them away. This is more like-- like swinging a flyswatter through a cloud of them. It feels good, but it's not really going to thin it out. Petra's thoughts wander for a little bit, focused on nothing, until a thought from earlier finishes catalyzing in her mind. Killing the newbie agents would get me a bad score on my next mental corruption test. I don't want that. §You're not safe here either, Petra, so don't get too comfortable~§     A mental giggle is shortly followed by a physical one, with no clear purpose behind it except for whatever psychic scraps make their way to other people. I said I wasn't worried. Not that I was safe. I know the difference. "Huh, there really wasn't a good reason not to,"     "There wasn't. His, Newman's, hers." To emphasize her last word, Petra reaches out to grab a phone from a pedestrian's hands beside her, pulling it away from her ear without looking at her. She crushes it in her hands, dropping the fragments to the ground, eyes unblinking at Adachi. "I'm not worried about you in any way. Be less pathetic and act less boring, and maybe you'd have a chance of that."     Petra is being *severely* affected by the §presence§ hanging over this place, clearly, from her glassy-eyed intoxicated expression, flushed grey. But that's *weird*, isn't it? She's supposed to be immune to that. She's supposed to make the people around her safe, too, but Mikey and Baba can't feel any of her itching aura. Instead she's drinking it in greedily, thriving on it.     Once Petra catches up to Lilian and the rest around her, it's clear that something is <disconcertingly off/rooted/internalized> about her. She grips Pillar of Creation tightly with one hand, and Angela with the other, the metal creaking between her fingers, and her lips part slightly while she quietly pants.     "Hey, Lilian. Hi. I knew it was you." Her wide eyes are nearly rapturous, staring at Lilian with barely-contained reverence. "I think something weird must have happened. I don't mind, but everyone else is acting like it's totally repulsive. I hate them so much. Is it always like this? With §her§ in your head? Maybe it's just background noise to you. Ahaha."
Charlotte Newman	"Shut up," Charlotte snaps at the voice, "If I decided to do what you're saying, you'd just change your tune and mock me for wasting my time playing pretend in a game that amounts to nothing," right there, out loud, "Or for being a stupid little girl with no agency, a brainless puppet who can only take instructions."     "You really set it up so that no matter what I choose, you get to belittle me for it," muttered this time, "It's not 'fear'. It's knowing your game and not playing."     Ninety-percent there, though... What the heck is that supposed to mean?     As she approaches the community center with Stanley, Charlotte's thoughts shift to that bit, tapping her lips in thought. Is it actually the Shadow World like Stanley thought? Or is this just the Reversal exerting influence on the Real, as has happened so many times before... just in a sudden, crazy new way? If this is really what Lilian's powers look like on the inside... why are we helping her?"     "Honestly," Charlotte sucks in a breath, suppressing a cough, "I want to say we shouldn't. She's really turned on me since Petra got out of jail. I have no real reason to help her with anything." The rest of that breath leaves as a sigh, the girl's eyes closing, "But... I don't like the idea that someone is suffering, and I could do something about it, and I choose not to." Eyes opening, she glances towards the Fool, "I've already failed at being that version of myself more than once. It's awful."
Angela	Poor Mikey. Mikey is from a Nest and as such has been filled with anti-machine stories his whole life. If he had a hammer and a nail he could... He grips the paintbrush tightly, looking over to the Eggpack. He could take that out and ''she'd'' have to shut up. But what about Petra? She surely thinks as lowly of machines as anyone from the City but somehow seems to think differently for Angela. He can't defeat Petra in a fight, not yet. It's bogus. He blinks blearily, wondering why he thinks that. Isn't she the hero of the Facility? He should get on her good side but... Mikey feels a fingernail across his throat. It scatters his thoughts about Angela away as he brings a hand to his throat. He can't cry out in terror. Gebura is listening too. He grits his mouth tightly and swallows it all down. Is this what ever day is going to feel like, he wonders, can he even survive that? Baba dreams. They dream of a silent space. They are bouncing along the clouds above the city, looking down as people, like clockwork, converge upon a community center. 'Hello!' they shout. 'I am up here!' but they do not look up, nor do they see them. They lay on their belly, looking down down down at the people below. Phones rain from the sky, shattering against the pavement. From each shattered phone, a flower sprouts out and free--electrical and beautiful, swaying gently in the wind. Baba feels the light bobbing of the cloud against their stomach and their lips, outside of the dream, twist into a smile just as they do within the dream. It's beautiful here, they think. Like it's a dream within a dream. They stay asleep but their feet keep moving. When the sensation of murder hits them, they wonder if that would be so bad. Just do it while we're sleeping so we can stay in this world forever. They think.
Angela	''We should presume all of us to be in danger, but as for her, it would be easier to ask.'' Angela is telecommunicating so she doesn't think that she CAN just ask. Lilian doesn't seem to be responding to the local frequency but-- A Poor Angela is sent out. Is this Lilian talking to her, or her own thoughts reflecting back at her? Angela is not an untalkative person. She can go on and on and on if she is up for it, but that doesn't mean she doesn't understand the benefit of silence. Angela does not often talk shit, she doesn't like to speak up to hurt so much as she likes to speak up to gain greater understanding. If she is cruel, it is usually because she thinks some better medicine will help or because of frustrations piling up above her ability, which is always embarrassing. Everything in the world just stopped, and it's still the same as usual, huh? Angela's hand shakes as she brings it to her forehead. Maybe Tamamo is right. This is dangerous to everyone, but not in the way that force of arms would help provide protection or. A silent world, everyone and everywhere perfectly. If the Commander is one of those twelve, it is still worth living, is Angela's answer. She and Gebura get a brief glance at someone pointing a blade at eyeballs. Neither speak up about it, but they acknowledge it. Gebura lights up another cigarette. As they arrive at Lilian. Angela stares at her from behind her screen. Even in this situation she is just...glad to see her. When she isn't around, she feels a little bit lonely, a little bit slower. There is a way that Lilian can be that others just can't. Angela does not say she knew it was her. But perhaps she should have. This world's current situation is not so different from a normal day in Lilian's life. The difference, of course, is that she's aware and the people here are not. Lucky bastards. "Dame Commander," Angela says instead. "Reporting in. According to the Detective, this world is stealing something from you. If so, we are here to assist in the manner you see fit. These agents are trainees but I can summon our seasoned agents or Abnormalities as you see fit." She folds her hands behind her back.
Kukuru	Is that bout of laughter/screaming/crying, combined with just breaking that phone that meant nothing to her at all really what Kukuru needed? Not in itself, no. It helped, but everything that led up to it is what really let her belt it out in the first place, and by the time she gets back up to rejoin the group... She's feeling better. A lot better. Some of the fog in her head has lifted, and she sees everyone else going through their own struggles at the moment to varying degrees. It's a lot to try and bear all at once, and part of her is still telling her to start going around, trying to help everyone out of their funks, trying to push them towards the sort of revelation she had herself. The other louder and now strengthened part tells her to leave it alone. They can't grow if she does everything for them, after all! And... Well, there's only one of her to go with however many of them. She promised not to stretch herself so thin, and she'd never be able to look any of her family in the eyes ever again if she broke that promise so soon. That doesn't mean she can't do something for some of them, at least, especially when Friz and Tamamo draw her attention towards Lilian. That, in turn, gets her to spot Angela and Gebura on Petra's back, to see Kale and Ishirou following nearby, Stanley and Charlotte heading in the same direction, even spotting Adachi on the way to the community center. She doesn't have to worry about stretching herself thin any longer as long as they're all close by like this. She just needs to remember not to overreach if everyone starts to drift again. "Lili, where're you bleeding? I'll make it all better~"
Tamamo	'I don't mind, but everyone else is acting like it's totally repulsive. I hate them so much.'     Tamamo turns her head again, though her steps do not falter, to behold Petra being... no, even for her, that isn't normal. Something she would normally avoid mentioning in company, perhaps? Tamamo considers this possibility without moving her eyes from her, though she isn't really seeing the person, so much as a collection of problems attached to her daily life that nevertheless possesses a will. Weeds wish only to grow where they may. Maybe a human could be like that, after all.     "Ms. Soroka. I believe you had promised to pay more attention to your surroundings. This includes the other people present. You are not already forgetting this, are you? You have even forgotten how to address others."     Friz answers Tamamo's question by pointing directly at Lilian and nodding several times.     Tamamo looks between Friz and Lilian, gives the latter's arm a squeeze, and continues walking.
Touta Konoe	There's a quiver to him as those teeth sink into the vampire. Whether they're truly there or not, their force, their presence is real enough for him at this moment. At this point as everyone keeps their path towards the community center...Yet, Touta finds himself halting. The farthest back from the group. It's as if more now than ever his blade feels heavier than it ever has before. But it's fine...He's used to weight, he's used to burdens...Right? He's used to carrying these unspoken things without much complaint, right?      §You're way stronger than them, right? Why do you have to bargain with them at all? 'I'm right here, I'm right here', god you sound so pathetic. If you want to prove you exist even when they don't see you, then do something! Something shocking. Something they hate.§     "Kurobo...Can you hear anything right now?"      "Hear anything? No. Touta, if you're hearing something you should say something to that Stanley and the others." §If they all stop moving, and you get all this power, the ability to do anything you want to any of them, and all you can do is whimper for them to pay attention to you, then they were right to ignore you, weren't they? You aren't a danger. You didn't do anything. You might as well not exist after all!§     Soon the voice of the blade is melding into that of that person. Her words sting just as true as nails, as the numbing sensation of her bite.      That wasn't true though...Right...If he called out to them...Someone would hear him, right? He didn't have to resort to becoming a danger to being noticed. He just needed to say...Something. Anything, right?     "Gu--" He attempts to call out to the others. He doesn't need all their attention. But...He just wants to know he's there. That he hasn't become like those that have been halted in time. Though he can barely even hear himself as the voice speaks over him. §No matter who they are, people listen when you hurt them, you know. Nobody would be dismissing you as a fence-sitter if you let them know they only live at your mercy~§     Was that how it worked? Yeah, that makes sense actually. Lilian used to show how dangerous she was when people wouldn't listen to sense, right? Petra had no issues whatsoever using force and she was living her best life somehow. Even Hibiki...Everyone acknowledges her, even those that she's hurt. If that's all it took...     He starts stepping towards the community center. His body slowly swaying. The grip on his blade tensing a bit, and yet...It feels lighter. After all...     He is stronger than them. All of them probably. Why /does/ he act this way? Why does he pretend like he's a person at all? In fact...Even that Charlotte girl, complaining about being called non-human? That was cute. He wonders what they would think if they saw what an actual non-human was like...What a proper monster was like. What would those L Corp agents think when they saw /that/? Would they think there was an Abnormality...Maybe something worse...? Could they ignore that? Would they ignore him if he finally-     He doesn't want to think like that. He doesn't want to be /just/ that. He doesn't want to believe that he has to, that people had to exist solely through force. That he needs to shock, that he needs to hurt...      "If this is really what Lilian's powers look like on the inside... why are we helping her?"
Touta Konoe	"I want to say we shouldn't. She's really turned on me since Petra got out of jail. I have no real reason to help her with anything. But... I don't like the idea that someone is suffering, and I could do something about it, and I choose not to. I've already failed at being that version of myself more than once. It's awful."      He halts, the words slowly gnaw at him in the same way as that chilling nip. The argument stands that to prove one's existence one must show it through force, through shock, through domination...Deep down he doesn't want to believe that, he doesn't want to exist in that manner. He has another belief. A form of existence that he's wanting to try for, even if it's failed him as of late.To be recognized not by hurting others...Through domination "Yeah...I get that..."     Touta calls out to Charlotte from the back of the group. His grip on his blade is so flimsy, frankly...He doesn't /feel/ powerful at all right now. He looks strained, he looks tired. But still he's speaking up. He imagines that after everything she's heard already, she's already done and yet...      "Failing, and trying again...Then failing more, and then failing even worse. It sucks. It's the worst. You try to do right...But you fail someone still...So you try to do better...And you still mess up. The fact you're still trying...Even when you've been hurt...When you might be hurt again..."     Now that he takes a moment to let the words sink in, he starts to smirk a little more, "I think that shows you're a genuinely caring /person/." He'd rather his existence be recognized by those he could recognize hurt. Through understanding.      "Sorry...I don't think I got your name either. Name's Touta nice meeting you..."
Lilian Rook	§Kukuru . . . You did so, so well. You were the first to get it, did you know that? Nobody else has figured this out yet, but you did. You even did it before them! They're still arguing, and you got it right. Isn't that why it feels so good? They're always calling you stupid and ditzy, but you're actually smarter than they are, aren't you~? So keep a hold of that, okay? You're going to need it later.§     The arms slowly fade from Kukuru's sides, leaving lingering warmth and a sense of lightness. Why would that guy possibly deserve to have a fucking phone more than she deserves to have this healing moment? Why is it even an either-or?                 -----[stop]-----     §Good. You're back on your feet, Ishirou. And you're starting to recognize who matters. You didn't do anything special yet, but you're starting to get it. Don't look at them. You don't need to know everything about them. You don't need to know anything. They aren't real. Just keep it up like that, and you'll make it, okay?§     Ishirou has only to blink, and one of his subsidiary micro-senses snuffs out like a candle. No longer is he barraged by that information. Any information. Blissful quiet. The freedom to move without anyone looking at him, talking to him, noticing him. All for such a tiny price, extracted by the world's kindest devil. What does it matter to him if the faces passing by look kind of slippery? Like, they're sort of hard to hold in his mind's eye. When he doesn't focus on any one feature, it melds back into the vague register of 'human face' surrounding it. Seriously, who cares? He doesn't know any of these random strangers, and he'll never know them.     §Secure your own mask first, Ishirou~§     Warmth in the palm of his hand resolves into a soft, budding flower.                 -----[stop]----- §Her(?)§: Haha, you're right! §Her§: It's not just meant for someone, it is me! That's how I can tell you! §Her§: If you want something for yourself, though, you'll have to listen to every little thing I say, okay? §Her(?)§: Not just that, but you have to listen to yourself. §Her(?)§: Dont't fight so much, okay? Take turns. Be nice. §Her§: Let each other win~                 -----[stop]-----     §Goodness, how convenient for you again. It's all a trick! A trick~! Hahaha~ No matter what you do, you're doomed, so why try? If your chance comes and goes, if you failed and let it pass you by, then it's not your fault, because how were you supposed to know it was real? Why would you believe in it? It's not your fault, it's not your fault, you were just being realistic, it's not your fault~ It was just never meant to be!§     §This is why Petra understands §she/I/us§ is so special. There are hundreds, thousands, millions of you out there. I don't mean that you're not all that talented, or not all that smart, or not all that insightful, or even not all that strong. You're completely, replaceably average, because you two and everyone else are like this.§     §'I don't need it. I won't make it. It isn't real. I don't feel it. It's fake. There's no point. It'd never work. I wouldn't like it even if I got it. So stop thinking about it. Stop wanting it. Stop suffering without it. Just keep your head up and stay strong. It's not being too scared to try, it's being strong and resisting the temptation.'§
Lilian Rook	§Don't blame §Lilian /Unchosen of Winter§ that you're like this~ After all, you like this city where wishes gouge out reality so much that you wanted to stay and protect it, right? So you really have no reason to complain that a wish that was so much bigger than yours made you a little bit uncomfortable~ Hahahaha~§                 -----[STOP!]-----     Lilian is holding Tamamo, and that's good enough. It's her. She knows because she can know anything she wants to. Lilian recognizes Tamamo more than she doubts the impossible, and that's just enough for now.     'Should I not be? The local, ah... elites, did send an alert about time having stopped all around them, as well as show pictures of themselves. Were you not...?'     "I . . . I'm sorry, Tamamo. I was here already. But I didn't . . ." Lilian glances to Kale, chews on her words, swallows them, and then reluctantly regurgitates them back up when she realizes she doesn't have any replacements. She winces with the taste of verbal bile. "Notice. When it happened. I'm just happy to have you here, if that's the case."     'I came through the warpgate? Because we got a call? I wasn't expecting to find you already here...'     She looks away. "I was only here to wrap up loose ends. All the things I said I'd do, so I can stop caring. Like S.O.N.G."     There are others forming up now. Enough to make Lilian cling tighter to Tamamo as they make the rest of the short trip. Friz pointing to her is enough to make Lilian freeze up, point to herself, and look around, silently saying 'who? me?'. "What? No. I'm fine. Not perfect, but nothing dramatic happened. Unless Parsons found another psychic death ray, this totally has nothing to do with me."     Her expression gradually tenses as she sees the others, and they look to her. I know you were talking about me. Petra and Angela are air on the embers of the feeling that this might be okay, but the rest watching, expectantly, puts her on edge. A particular light is veiled somewhere behind her eyes, where it can't be seen. A lantern hooded from the winds outside.     'Lili, where're you bleeding? I'll make it all better~'     "I'm not bleeding. Excuse me? I haven't even done anything and you people have all appeared out of thin air and pulled up seats and popcorn to ask me all about my mental health. What's wrong with you?" She looks to Angela for clarification, hopefully. Lilian is only partially satisfied. "Stealing? That can't be right." Lilian grips her book, and--     It's in Petra's hands now.     Which is very odd. Because how do you stop time if time is stopped?     "Hold that." she says. "Of course they are. They're getting scared on their own, so it's their fault. There's a wish-granting evil corporation here and they're still blaming me for this."     Slowly, something else penetrates.     "What do you mean by 'influences'? 'Her'?"
Tohru Adachi	Of course there had to be something more than just frozen time and an uneasy feeling. Of course. An intrusive voice that isn't his own, picking at his own insecurities. Telling him what he is, what he's probably thinking, and what he could do and get away with. None of it's really wrong, and Adachi's face turns into a disgusting sneer as he pulls out his model Nambu hidden within his jacket.      He fidgets with the cylinder of the revolver, idly spinning it as he turns the last words in his head.      §Or have you lost your touch? Your spark. Maybe they only spared you because they knew you were already a walking corpse.§      Someone else in the Watch made a similar comparison, and honestly, they're right, as much as he hates to admit it. If he were in his 'prime', there would be no way that he'd be allowed to stand where he is now. But here he is, declawed and toothless. Even if it's mainly due to his choice, it is annoying to think about. If he could simply stop caring again, he could definitely make things a lot more interesting, it's true.      Adachi points his gun at one of the knights, looking at it for a response. He doesn't get one, the creature just stares blankly at him without a single thought going through its head.      "Tsk..."      The detective clicks his tongue, before closing his eyes and sighing. He places the revolver back inside his jacket, now just adjusting his tie as if nothing had happened.      "Nice try, but I only use my own ideas. You ruined it."
Lilian Rook	§So close.§ Something whispers to Touta in condescending disappointment. §You were so right that you second-guessed yourself. If she won't accept what you are, then just hurt her. It's really that simple. You believe in 'speaking with your fists', don't you? Isn't that just the acceptable way to say it? You can beat someone up until they respect how you feel, and still be the hero. You can even cut them up, if you're smart!§     Is this what having a cursed sword is like? Because Touta can't help but constantly notice Kurobo. Imagine what it'd be like to suddenly draw, right now. That shock on everyone's faces. They'd finally pay attention to him then, for sure. As long as he uses his words right, they won't even think he's a bad guy.     §Ahh . . . People who don't even try to exist really don't deserve to. If all you can do is curl up into a ball and wait for approval, why are you even alive? It's so unfair. It's so, so unfair that the whole world is built for people like that to keep living. I really don't understand how you can get a taste of infinite freedom, infinite agency, and still not be able to do anything. You're moving around, but you all stopped when everyone else did, didn't you? So what's the point of you moving around at all?§     That one was audible.     Everyone gathered up heard it. In their ears; at least partially. A voice that routed partly through their brain, but partly through their sense of hearing, that they're already forgetting. Several, audible heartbeats pass.     §Hahaha~ Whoops! You weren't all supposed to hear that! Don't worry, don't worry~ I didn't mean all of you! Just most of you~ Ah, but I'm being so nice already, so maybe I shouldn't apologize? After all, I warned you away from the Otherside just now, didn't I? I saved little Stanley's life, so maybe show some gratitude!§     You can definitely hear it. You can tell because there is certainly 'a laugh', not 'the impression of amusement.     §Kidding, kidding~! I don't expect anything from you! But really, you shouldn't try to come here just yet. You're really not going to survive it here. I won't stop you from committing suicide if you're really determined, but if you're trying to fix the gears that got stuck, you should be gathering up supplies, first.§
Ishirou	'Thank you.." Ishirou says with the most emotion he's ever felt about anything in his life.  'No, I didn't.  Not yet.  You're right.  But I feel... clearer.  I feel like I can see...' Then something is gone.  Something he thought was important but wasn't.  Something snipped out of how his powers work, but it's fine!  He realizes that it's a good thing, that it's something that is getting in the way.  It was holding him back, but now... The faces are a little... disturbing.  On the other hand, it's a relief to not feel it.  For the first time, he really feels able to say the word 'Elite' and include himself in it.  These people... what's wrong with them /isn't their fault/.  He does not hate them.  He feels /sorry/ for them, that they're so unimportant.  That they get in the way... He realizes there is more to work through there.  He doesn't have an answer, just a more clear question!  GOD that feels good to think!  To have a question with a meaning.  To have an idea to seek!  To /feel/ like there is some sort of progress... That he /knows/ what he wants.  He wants to be /real/!  He feels the warmth in his hand and looks at it as he walks, and breaks into a run.  The budding flower makes him smile a little more.  Finally, he's caught up to the group and waves at Tamamo and Lilian.  "Sorry, I fell behind um..." he says... and looks at Tamamo, whom he'd just talked to. He opens his hand to show the budding flower.  "There isn't anything /wrong/ with you Lilian... but I think someone used the wish power on you... and something happened.  I don't know for sure, but I want to help you find out and stop it... this is your world!" he says, brightly but also apologetically.
Petra Soroka	"You are not already forgetting this, are you? You have even forgotten how to address others."     When Petra's eyes slide over to Tamamo, they overshoot her head, backtracking to approximate looking at her face. She opens her mouth lamely, not managing to speak for a few seconds. Address who? Who here is even worth addressing? I'm paying more attention than anyone else. I always have. That means filtering out the fucking trash that doesn't matter, otherwise you're not *really* paying attention to what does. Don't fucking scold me for talking down to *Newman* of all people.     Petra blinks, closes her mouth, and rubs her face. When she looks back up again, she's still in that steady-unstable state, but she actually meets Tamamo's eyes. "Um. Sorry ma'am. I don't think you should kill me for that, but if you want to you can. Sorry." "I haven't even done anything and you people have all appeared out of thin air and pulled up seats and popcorn to ask me all about my mental health."     "Isn't it fucking sick? Is this what they did back then too? Inviting themselves in and whispering to each other about how fucking disgusting and poisonous it is? Thinking they can swoop in and fix it, like there must be something wrong here?"     "They're so fucking predictable." Petra holds the book tight to her chest, using arm that's intertwined with Angela's hand, which conspicuously keeps her spear free. "They should never have gotten the fucking chance to see. We should go find whoever made your wish do this." "'Her'?"     Petra tilts her head and squeezes Angela's hand until it creaks and dents. "Exigent Serenity. It's her voice-- well, it's your voice, but it's her tone. Just a voice this time, though, ahaha." Petra feels more grounded, talking with Lilian herself, than she was when §she§ was the most trustworthy voice around. Her cadence is still a little off-kilter, though, sharp edged and fluctuating between jittery and too-slow when she talks. "I think everyone else can hear her too. Probably less. Some of them not at all."
Charlotte Newman	The voice isn't stopping despite the rebuttal. Charlotte's eyes close again, choking back another slow inhalation. She's really arguing with a Mysterious Voice in her Mind, isn't she? After a moment, her eyes open, but she doesn't speak. There's no point in saying it out loud. You can hear this. You showed that much earlier. So what do you care if I go to NovaTech or not? Why do you care what I do or don't do? You hate me. You blame me for what happened to you because I tried to be nice to Petra. When she was my ally and one of my peers. I might not have understood what she needed but I tried! You blame me for all kinds of things. Why should I believe you care one bit about what I do or what happens to me, so long as it has nothing to do with you? You have no reason at all to have my well-being or even my life in mind, and then you get all huffy when I don't trust you? Of course you'd lord even that over me. How dare I question you. I'm just a stupid girl who doesn't know anything. That's all you think of me, right? I don't have a past. I don't have a future. I don't matter at all. I hardly even exist. You both have made it pretty clear I'm not even a real-- "--person."     Touta's voice interrupts Charlotte's train of thought with a gasp of an inhale and a jolt. She glances at Stanley, then swivels the other way at the source of the new voice, bewilderment all over her face, "Uh... Charlotte."     The strained deer-in-headlights fades with a deep breath and a nod, "Nice to meet you."     The voice speaks out in a way that is undeniable and obvious not just to her but to everyone. Charlotte's posture straightens, lifting her eyes towards the center ceiling for lack of anything to make eye contact with.     After a moment, she pulls out her phone again, thumbing over to Expedition. The ad doesn't load. Once it times out, she taps in the address search: NOVATECH HEAD OFFICE. So you don't want us to find you until you're good and entrenched and at your strongest. Sure. Fine. Whatever. If you're really so kind that you're giving me such good and helpful advice despite hating me so much and having every conceivable reason to want to see me suffer or die-- what will I find here?
Angela	"The conclusion is largely derived from what the Greatest Detective had to say." Angela admits. "I am not a detective so I am relying on the experts." Gebura decides to speak up finally. "Hey, Commander. You think someone from this evil corp might be trying to use the power of wishes to go after you? Not a bad idea to try to hit you with a world power like that, I figure. If this corp wants to take you out it'd take at least this right? Maybe it didn't hit quite right because they didn't word the wish right, or you're too strong for the wish to take full effect." Gebura doesn't seem convinced that Lilian is the wisher. Angela holds Petra's hand. She focuses on listening to Fritz because it seems like 'being a good detective' at this rate is the most important skill she can learn from the Outsiders. Stanley seems insolent. She should have just accepted Petra's conclusion without offering a chance, she thinks. She pushes that thought out next. "An evil corporation that grants wishes?" Angela murmurs. That seems almost fair even if they do take a pound of flesh out of it. Or a piece of your mind. "If it is not stealing, are you sharing?" Angela asks, quirking her head to the side. "It is...slower than normal. But it is usually so slow already that I scarcely notice the difference now."
Tamamo	'What do you mean by 'influences'? 'Her'?' <J-IC-Scene> Stanley Padgett says, "Tamamo, do you not hear the... the whispers? The thoughts?" <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "As I was saying to Mr. Hearthward, I had noticed some unusual feelings in the air, but nothing that I would call 'whispers.'" <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "If you have been... hm."     Though the discussion continues, Tamamo is more distracted by Ishirou sending a message to her directly. She doesn't share it, but does glance toward his approach, and then looks to the flower.     "What is...? Ah, may I...?" If he's willing, she cups her hands to hold the blossom, and give it a closer look, and offer Lilian the same.     Exigent Serenity. They'd only spoken, directly, the once. Tamamo isn't certain why that is, or what's come of her, since. Speaking with Sakura made it clear that the relationships are different, between each paired existence, and that Lilian's wasn't the case of... how had she put it? 'Joining hands'?     Everyone gathered up heard it. In their ears; at least partially. A voice that routed partly through their brain, but partly through their sense of hearing, that they're already forgetting.     "Is that you, 'Lilian, too'? Are you..." Another tilt of her ears, though more curious than anything else, this time, "...playing?"     'Um. Sorry ma'am. I don't think you should kill me for that, but if you want to you can. Sorry.'     Tamamo stares at Petra for a moment, and then addresses the display on her back. "Ms. Angela, I see that Ms. Soroka's mental state is deteriorating. She is suffering unusual difficulties in focusing upon others, in understanding speech, and is now imagining that I might kill her. I understand that temporary losses of sanity are a common hazard within your facility. Do you have usual methods for dealing with this?"
Kukuru	BEFORE "Is that why it feels so good? That's..." It wouldn't be the first time Kukuru's figured out something first, right? Right. Not everything has to be so complicated, and maybe... She really is smarter than she gives herself credit for. Or anyone else does, for that matter. "... Sometimes. Not all the time, but sometimes. I'm happy with that. Don't worry. I'll take good care of it, and of myself. That's how I'll be able to take care of every... Not everyone, but enough people. The ones that matter to me." NOW Kukuru's heart still feels full and ready to burst when she reaches Lilian, and even her apparent confusion isn't enough to dull Kukuru's mood in the slightest. 'What's wrong with you?' "Plenty, but I'm feeling a lot better now! It's just like y-" Wait. That /was/ Lilian talking to her earlier, right? Only someone like her knows enough about Kukuru and would say such familiar things, after all. There's still the possibility Persephone was the one saying all those things, but... No. She'd be much more upfront and direct. ''Her'?' 'Exigent Serenity.' "That's a nice name. Is that... Is she someone that you both know?" She asks Petra and Lilian with an inquistive, yet encouraging tone. "She sounded so kind before, and..." She lets out a fond little sigh, once again letting her mood show right through to her face while continuing to chew on everything else she's hearing. The part she wasn't supposed to hear would be worrying if Kukuru wasn't still feeling so good, but it is still something she needs to think about. She's certainly seen her fair share of such people, but it's not like anyone here would be so useless, right? Right. Probably. It takes Kukuru a few more moments to realize that Exigent Serenity(?)'s addressing everyone, though, and that she can talk directly in return. "Hmm... Do you want to apologize? I think... It's okay not to, if you'd feel a lot better not doing that." She concludes with a firm nod, circling around the group once to... There's no grander reason for it. It just feels good to move right now. It's helping her focus on trying to figure out a direction, at least, and it also gives her a chance to see the flower in Ishirou's hand. "Did she give you one of these, too? Hey, that's great! Do you know anything about growing flowers?"
Angela	Angela, distracted answers Tamamo automatically. "Yes, usually Disciplinary--or whomever really--inflicts a beating until Sanity returns." She grips Petra's hand tightly. She doesn't like the idea of everyone gawking at Lilian either but so much theory (and adhd) is around to the point that it's hard to even just focus on Friz. "A glitch." Angela says.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley walks over to the nearest stopped person, and pushes them three feet to the right.
Tamamo	'Yes, usually Disciplinary--or whomever really--inflicts a beating until Sanity returns.'     "Mm, well, then. You would know best how to handle your workforce, I am sure." Tamamo won't stand in the way of however L-Corp discplinary works, at least in this case.
Friz	Moxie: Take turns. That makes sense. Moxie: Everyone gets a turn to win. Savvy: Are we seriously just going to let this barge in here? Moxie: We gotta pick something. And I'm hearing that broad denial isn't a good approach around here, when it comes to other aspects... Moxie: I'll take turns. I'll handle a turn order. Grit: Nobody needs to handle that at all. Moxie: Well, then I won't. Anyone else?     Friz looks to Lilian. "Uh... maybe that was wrong. Probably. Honestly I don't know. Do you know where bleeding is? I'm just... I don't know where it happened. How. I know the bleeding is still happening, that it's where I need to find that... Aspect, the one that got caught in the machinery. I think? Maybe... I can just engage with it the way it wants to be engaged with." Savvy: ...Fine. Savvy: Look. We'll work together. Dirt: All five of us. Six? There's some lack of clarity. Savvy: Well, we can figure it out as we go. But we need clues. Ways to understand. Where can we go, what can we do, to understand this more? Savvy: The machinery of the world is failing to engage cogs. Savvy: Right now, the part of the world I want to throw aside is the part where negligence and apathy let its important pieces fall apart. Isn't there something to follow, here?
Lilian Rook	"As a personal favour, could you not pretend that it's just you and I and 'everyone' when Tamamo is right here, Petra? You know perfectly well she isn't like them." Lilian says to Petra. Her expression stays tight, overstimulated, barely neutral, but the words alone do a lot of heavy lifting. "And stop being melodramatic. Tamamo? Kill you? And for that? What sort of person do you think she is? You've been acting strangely around her lately; is that what it is? Who gave you that ridiculous idea? And you believed it?"     For precisely the first time, through no particular fault of her own, Lilian is completely fucking wrong about something Petra knows and she doesn't. It's hard to argue with, though, when Lilian is squeezing Tamamo's arm. The winner is clear. But only in this one regard. Petra can see Lilian's nails digging into her palm when she says everything else.     "I suppose it . . . wasn't . . . not, like that." Lilian says. She has to stop to swallow, all of a sudden. "Don't say it like that. 'A chance to see'. You're saying it as if there's some big, private, embarrassing secret on display. They're just getting excited on their own. That's it. Even Tokiwa could probably do something like this."     'I think everyone else can hear her too.'     "However, if you think on it for even a moment, it's obvious that this can't be allowed to continue, isn't it? This city is known especially for its mentally erosive effects. Altered memories, hallucinations made manifest, errors of psychic continuity, delusional roles and narratives; that sort of thing. The real threat is that people might come to believe in some fantastical alternate version of events, like--" Lilian very smoothly struggles to remember the actual name of a time she can cite. "When the school was turned into a game level, and the teachers had been replaced with characters." Extremely smooth.     Lilian looks almost relieved when she can just talk to someone on a screen. Especially if Tamamo is being normal and doing so too.     "Potentially, but they'd be ill-advised to try. People have attempted to use time or continuity-altering abilities to overcome me before, and it should be an open secret by now that they don't work. I've been here only a few times, but I have demonstrated some of my combat abilities by neutralizing one of their projects before, but we shouldn't rule out something they've developed in response." says Lilian.     §Of course, if that were really plausible, §you/I/we§ would just go there right now and smash everything up, right~? Put everyone in chains and sort it out later! Wouldn't that be nice? All of this 'Reversal' stuff, done, just like that! No need to give it so much gravitas~ Eeeeeveryone always thinks their problems are bigger than everyone else's.§     "Oh. I see." Lilian says to Petra. "Excuse me. I need to concentrate for a moment on visualizing the world in which I don't strangle you all unconscious and wipe your memories." She . . . she actually closes her eyes for this. That's square breathing. She's doing square breathing right now.
Lilian Rook	This seems to be something §she§ finds hilarious. You can't really hear it, but you know it. Neurons fire in patterns that rapidly recall glass chimes and descending woodwind chords, and associates those concepts them with the syntheshesia of heavy campfire smoke and the unsettlingly appetizing cutting and tearing of raw meat.     'Is that you, 'Lilian, too'? Are you...playing?     §Ninety five points! Goodness though, it's really true. When enough people with enough of 'Lilian Rook' in their hearts get together, you really can all hear it! I was being really quiet too, just for you, Tamamo. But I suppose this means that you're the majority holder~§     There it is again. Cozy sunbeams and fresh blood steaming on snow. A smile like no other.     §Don't worry, though, I'm not causing any trouble~ I'm just having a little fun while I can. This isn't the same as how we spoke before, isn't it? Don't I sound different than you remember? I won't deny that the way everything shattered is quite comfortable for me, but if I did it myself, wouldn't I be here, right now, standing beside you? Because, you know, if I could permanently freeze every single person in this entire town forever, just, end their lives, so that I could hold you for real, I would~§     The way §she§ says it goes beyond 'too lightly'. Light is a concept that contrasts with heavy. Something can only be 'light' on Earth. It can only be 'light' by being pulled towards something larger by gravity. The way §she§ says it is weightless. Anyone can tell, just by listening. The implication of it isn't something §she§ considers, deprioritizes, and cheerfully disregards. It's something §she§ doesn't even notice.     §I'm enjoying myself plenty, though, thank you~ No matter what happens, I won't let you die~ But the rest . . . maybe? If it gets to the point it would be much more enjoyable than helping them. I don't have that much power, while you're still §over there/back then§ so I sort of want you to all to come to me, but also, I don't want them to solve everything too quickly, right?§
Tamamo	'Because, you know, if I could permanently freeze every single person in this entire town forever, just, end their lives, so that I could hold you for real, I would~'     "Oh, well, I would like to hold you, as well, of course, but not at that awkward expense. Can you not do so otherwise? Perhaps we only need think some more on the matter. You could have told me anytime before now, were you having trouble--ah, no, I suppose that if your trouble was in 'reaching me,' then you could not tell me so. Please pardon me."     Tamamo makes a fist and taps it to her head in self-admonishment.
Kukuru	''A chance to see'. You're saying it as if there's some big, private, embarrassing secret on display.' Kukuru's generally pleasant demeanor following the apparent breakthroughs from before is dampened slightly, but only in the sense that she's getting more confused by the moment. Business as usual, really, but she doesn't feel nearly as bad about it this time as she usually does about not comprehending things. Context clues do give her some ideas, though, especially with everything being said about this world being closer to Lilian's rather than just Lampport and the Reversal. "There /has/ been a lot of mind stuff going on in Lampport for a while, huh? We really do need to change up our approach, then. Maybe... A little more smashing than we've been doing could work!" Kukuru suggests with no hint of irony or sarcasm in her tone (which is just her regular tone). That cozy warmth returns with the sounding of that voice again, and Kukuru looks arund reflexively to see if she can, in fact, see anyone else around here. "Hello again! Oh, but you never left, right? It's still nice to hear you." Chuckling airily, she crosses her arms behind her head briefly to stretch her neck, then settles down into a squat while glancing around slowly once again. "Will we be able to see you once we figure things out? I'd like that. Then we can..." What comes after finding Exigent Serenity? Kukuru doesn't actually know, but the flower bud might very well have something to do with that.  "... We'll figure that out later. We won't show up too early, then, but just in time. Is there anything else you want me to bring when we do?"
Lilian Rook	Ishirou and Kukuru presenting flowers are able to draw the obvious conclusion that their flower buds are visually near-identical. The same genus for certain. Even those simply looking at them can easily discern their anomalous vitality. Even plucked from the stem-- no, precisely because they were plucked from the stem that was supposed to support them-- they look as if they might begin to unfurl at any moment.     The light reflects from their closed petals a little brighter, a little more colourful, than it had been before. Just being near them feels comforting. The air around them, slightly less hostile. Less fearful. It's easy to forget the offensive sounds of your own vile voices, the clumsy scrapes of your own derealized movements. They're so bright. So beautiful. Anyone would look at those instead of you. They're the safest possible place to be. Not having one of your own makes you feel somehow misshapen. Like all your veins are filled with prickling anaesthetic and your skin might fall off if you forget to keep it on.     Wait, did Tamamo always have one poked into her hair like that?     'She sounded so kind before, and...'     "That's because she is." Lilian interjects in the middle of her centering exercise. Her brow twitches. "And she'll also kill you. She loves you and wants to fix your life, but she'll ruin everyone else's to do it. And if you're boring and shitty and incoherent, she'll find someone else to love. That's how she is. Kind. Warm. Ruthless. Disloyal. Happy because she's completely uninhibited. Fascinated by you because she doesn't think of you like a person. Just think of her as being bewitched by a demon and don't read too far into it."
Kukuru	Kukuru still has that flower bud safely in its little plastic container full of water, of course. She's not quite cradling it, but she's definitely holding it protectively while she listens to Lilian's explanation about who and what Exigent Serenity is. Once again, Kukuru's getting confusd by her conflicting feelings and what she's hearing. It's not what she wants to hear, but she needs to listen. She needs to understand this better, even if it's unpleasant, and even though really internalizing all of it might bring her mood down again. She finally goes quiet, but how much of that advice was actually wrong?
Petra Soroka	"She is suffering unusual difficulties in focusing upon others, in understanding speech, and is now imagining that I might kill her." Last night, in the Dragon's Garden . . . "'Ma'am' is sufficient, for that one. In your case... you used it without respect, I suspect. That would explain why one sought your death for its use, no?"     Petra is slow to catch up with the fact that Tamamo misunderstood what she was talking about. Tamamo is right, that Petra's mental corruption scores would be unacceptably high right now, but it's Lilian misunderstanding too that really throws her off. Petra reacts like she's been doused in cold water, flinching and straightening up.     "Wait, no, that's not-- this isn't my fault, we literally talked about this just... last...." Petra trails off, no longer certain if the conversation happened at all. It must not have, maybe Petra just imagined it. "Yes, usually Disciplinary--or whomever really--inflicts a beating until Sanity returns."     "W-wait, I'm not a threat, couldn't I just go down to the clinic and have some mental tonic? Why do we need to get Disciplinary involved?" Petra does not want to be sentenced to a Disciplinary beating because of a conversation she was gaslit into forgetting. She isn't sure why any of this is necessary. All she did wrong was forget that Tamamo would be part of 'everyone' if that was taken literally. "Though... come to think of it, I did beat Nonon in a fight recently. Maybe after training with Lilian I'll be able to take all of Disciplinary at once." "I need to concentrate for a moment on visualizing the world in which I don't strangle you"     Taken off-guard by Exigent Serenity speaking up again, Petra briefly misinterprets the intent of what Lilian is saying. She widens her eyes, opens her mouth, and then slowly closes it again after Lilian finishes talking. "Um. Yeah. Like I said. Exigent Serenity. I've actually seen her a bunch lately, in little flickers, but I wasn't sure if you'd want me to mention that." §But I suppose this means that you're the majority holder~§     Petra is a little mad at this. "Oh, well, I would like to hold you, as well, of course,"     Petra is a little smug at this. §... so I sort of want you to all to come to me, but also, I don't want them to solve everything too quickly, right?§     "Come to you? So there's, like, a place where you are, here?" Petra is interested in this idea less so for helping Lampport, more so for seeing Exigent Serenity for a third time. Though, Lilian herself is right in front of her, so that's more out of fascination than anything else. "Happy because she's completely uninhibited."     Petra's repeated L's over the past few minutes drive her to divulge more about her meetings with Exigent Serenity, as leaky insistence that she's actually got a unique connection here too. "She acts sort of like, a totally unfiltered soul, like there's no layer of translation or barrier between what she wants and what she does. She moves that way, too, like she's totally heartfelt."
Lilian Rook	§What a terrible thing to say. I'm so wounded~ But that's exactly what §'Lilian Rook'§ would say. If §'Lilian Rook'§ were the type of person to say anything different, our roles would be reversed.§     The way §she§ says it makes those words sound both inarguably, objectively truthful, and also so completely inconsequential it's a wonder you bothered to listen.     §You're never going to get enough of 'those' to fix things if you don't listen at all, though~ You don't know the slightest thing about how to §grow flowers/tend happy memories/assemble shards/fuck and kill§ so you really have no choice. Seeing how things are in the §Otherside§ . . . You understand how §flowering plants§ are needed to §expire breathable air§, don't you? You'll §choke and die§ without enough of them! It's that kind of 'challenge dungeon'~ Hahaha~§     Stanley shoves a random person. Their feet remain remarkably steady on the ground. He should feel them wobbling, stiff as a board, but they don't really. They easily, even compliantly, slide to the right.     'A glitch.'     §I'm a feature~ But I like that word. Seventy points! Do you have any idea how big and messy and overwrought a mechanism has to be to §actualize/invert/grant/interpret§ wishes from boring, ordinary, hollow little nobody people? Haha, should I call it 'normacausitive fracking'~?§     "I'm not bleeding." Lilian says to Friz. "I really do mean it. Nothing is happening. Nothing new or special, at least. There are a lot of ways things can 'bleed', and a lot of ways that things can 'bleed into' other things."     §There's nothing hotter.§
Angela	Angela hasn't been given leave to step away from the monitor so she doesn't but in the meanwhile... Gebura says, "That so, guess we can't expect 'em to be so foolish," Gebura says of the idea that the corpos might be behind this. Of course, sometimes corpos ARE just plain dumb so she can't entirely disregard the theory either. Gebura pulls out her cigarette from her lips and admits, "Yeah, sometimes it's just easier to make a move and worry about cleanup after. I'm stuck 'ere but I can lend the next best thing." Gebura considers whether or not Petra needs a Disciplinary beating but is preempted by Petra offering to take on all of Disciplinary at once after she trains with Lilian. "Well I better not step in if you're gonna do all of Disciplinary." Gebura smiles grimly. "But it'd be a bad look for the department if you took them all on and won so I'd have to whip them in shape so that they keep up with your progress." She DID beat Nonon, and that's probably why Mikey is behaving irrespective of his mental corruption levels. Angela is mentally exhausted. This module has already been months for her. The world is slowed down but unfortunately everybody else isn't. Angela mutters some things in the radio but she then shuts up there--she doesn't really want to encourage more radio chatter. She wants everybody to shut up shut up shut up. She came here to help and she feels her offer to help has been spat on by those that she had came to help and then, upon realizing Lilian was involved, more or less unintentionally helped contribute to her own misery by being present in a private space. Please tell her to leave, Angela thinks, so she can stop intruding. Do you really want to escape? Will you be any more present if you have a body there than if you are there the way you are now? Angela has no answer.
Lilian Rook	'There's no point in saying it out loud. You can hear this. You showed that much earlier. So what do you care if I go to NovaTech or not? Why do you care what I do or don't do? You hate me. You blame me for what happened to you because I tried to be nice to Petra. When she was my ally and one of my peers. I might not have understood what she needed but I tried!'     Wait. No. That's. Someone's saying that.     'You blame me for all kinds of things. Why should I believe you care one bit about what I do or what happens to me, so long as it has nothing to do with you? You have no reason at all to have my well-being or even my life in mind, and then you get all huffy when I don't trust you? Of course you'd lord even that over me.'     No. No wait. That didn't actually happen. Nobody actually said that. It--     §How dare I question you. I'm just a stupid girl who doesn't know anything~§     Oh god. Oh no god §she's§ repeating it all out loud. With a melodramatic . . . tone? Can that 'sound' have a tone? It feels awful. Stop--     §That's all you think of me, right~? I don't have a past! I don't have a future! I don't matter at all! I hardly even exist! You both have made it pretty clear I'm not even a real person! Hahahaha! Newman listen to yourself!§     She acts sort of like, a totally unfiltered soul, like there's no layer of translation or barrier between what she wants and what she does.     Oh. That's what that means.     §You know, even if you're §there/then§ and I'm §here/now§, I can still do every single thing §'Lilian Rook'§ can; you know that, right? Even if you didn't, you already knew I was reading your thoughts, didn't you? So I'm really curious, Charlotte! Tell the truth and I'll give you a reward~§     §Why are you so comfortable with treating §me/her/us§ so badly? You should be much, much more afraid of saying that.§
Charlotte Newman	"Are you serious?!" Charlotte doesn't get angry often, "You're accusing me of treating you badly?!" Leaning forward, the girl points directly at Lilian, "You made your dislike of me abundantly clear not even a month ago! I took the hint and kept my distance from you, I thought that's what you wanted!"     "But I'm the one being cruel to you? For doing what you wanted? For listening to your advice about my future? For leaving you alone when you said you hated me? For respecting your boundaries?"     Throwing her arms out to either side, Charlotte raises her voice further, "I wanted to have a tiramisu today! I didn't ask to be pulled into your mind palace! It wasn't my choice to invade your private space! It was a perfectly ordinary morning!"     She falls silent, then, closing her eyes with a long, deep breath. She still clutches her phone in her right hand. Her left fumbles with the latch on her purse strap that's holding her baseball bat. Once she finally gets it loose, she swings the weapon up and rests it comfortably in the crook of her neck and brings her phone back up.     "'The bad guys can't defend themselves', you said. 'Everyone you hate is frozen'."     "So you want me to kill everyone at NovaTech. Sure. Paladins are turning the Multiverse inside-out over a dozen and change, what's another thousand because you told me to do it and doing what you say is all I'm allowed to do. Not that it matters, even when I do that I'm still wrong."     The girl turns on her heel and stiffly exits the building, headed for the street.
Lilian Rook	'Please pardon me.'     §Pardoned~ §I/she/we§ love you so much, after all! Let's talk about it over §tea§ later~§     'Come to you? So there's, like, a place where you are, here?'     §Eager, aren't we~? All you have to do is the same thing those children always do. Enter the 'Reversal', find the distortion, fight the bad guys, solve the puzzle, and that's it! That's how it works here, after all. If I had the power to change this whole world, I would have already. But, because I cannot, I'll tempt you instead with a little secret about the way these people grant wishes~§     It's incredible, how something so heavy could be delivered as such an irrelevant, unimportant afterthought. It's like a bomb blowing up in silence. As if §she§ doesn't have the slightest idea why anyone would give two fucks about this concrete blight and all its snotty people, but it just happened to be conversationally appropriate.     §Not that you need an incentive. Smart girl that you are~ But I suppose the others probably want to protect the §sword-testing meat§ for the most part.§     §You can hop through one of those portals at any time, but I'm warning you one more time. You'll only be able to stay there as long as you have §white lilies/sleeping flowers§. Once they §turn black/become lucid§, they're no good to you. If you want to finish it all off in one stroke instead of teasing it out bit by bit, you'll need quite a few, given how much you people §bite at each other's throats§, so while you can, here's my advice.§     §Just do everything I say~ Try out having agency for once in your miserable little lives, and don't worry about the consequences~ Then you'll--§     Lilian, finally, opens her eyes. One weary exhale terminates her square breathing. Her fingers slowly relax from her palms.     "Well. Thanks to that ordeal from hell, I've discovered how to make her be quiet. Or at least, how to make it so she can't be heard by the rest of you."