Scene #8572: The Extra Ingredient Of Me

Owner	Pose
Angela	Lobotomy Corp, well, yeah it still always smells faintly of blood and disinfectant. The Information Department STILL hasn't entirely cleared out the Express Train From Hell--but Control is more or less as it always has been. Random and Rook are conversing near the exit of the Warpgate, Angela is lingering nearby as well, figuring Buttercup will arrive when she arrives. It feels strange already that she is meeting Buttercup like this. The Powerpuff Girls have seemed more akin to forces of nature than pizza party people but she supposes that's what happens when you largely know them from work. Angela looks way more ''real'' than when she is just on the video monitor. Her proportions are more human, less chibi. She is inhumanly pale but in all other aspects is still quite human looking outside of her golden eyes which are, right now, open. Though looking down at her hands the fingers of which are interlinked. The boxbot form of Malkuth is happily directing Agents and carrying a clipboard. It's a pretty busy place, but Angela is ready to take Buttercup somewhere private if preferred. There's other Clerks and Agents mulling about. It's surprisingly calm for a company that has had a couple major disasters recently but, well-- --The worry of the future is something Angela has decided not to dwell on overlong right now.
Powerpuff Girls	Buttercup is an interesting sort of girl. All of the Powerpuffs are forces of nature - but they're also girls with lives and hobbies and interests. They go to college between fighting crime and the forces of evil, and the testing weeks are generally noticed to be 'terrible times' for villainry. Blossom is the one with the perfect image. Buttercup is the one who does garage sessions with Ace Gangrene. A pizza party was a little pathetic, all told, but the emerald puff had wanted to dose down the weird with a shot of normalcy. Now? Buttercup arrives through the Lobotomy Corporation internal warpgate, the one she was used to. Wearing black sneakers and long green socks, a short black skirt, and a green hoodie with pockets, Buttercup walks a backpack into the L-Corp central lobby. Pausing to look around, she catches Angela's much more dramatically person-shaped presence waiting for her - earlier than she expected, after their conversation over the phone - and approaches while unlimbering her pack. Justin (Rook) gets a grin and a wave, though Buttercup's mein trends rougher and smirkier. It's almost cocky, but she doesn't get to actually doing anything audacious. "Hey, I didn't have enough time to do a good enough search, so you'll have to forgive me. Are you doing okay? You look a lot better, you know," A real smirk, joking. "three dimensional."
Angela	Justin (Rook) seems surprised that there's another visitor. He waves and smiles before looking to Angela. "Last minute invitation." Angela explains to him, needlessly--she doesn't report to him but it's easier ot give an explanation than it is to just let him openly wonder. Rook has seen more smirks and grins like that as of late, though this is certainly a big one. It's not a bad thing but... Well a Meltdown can happen at any moment, still. And a Sephirah Meltdown will always be a tightrope even in the best of times. Angela dips her head to Buttercup. Not enough time to do a search? Ah--yes--she mentioned. "That is alright. I try not to hold expectations." Angela says. "I am grateful for new company regardless. Is there a particular area you'd like to see? The office is open as well if you'd like a more private chat." ''Three dimensional.'' Angela exhales, bringing a hand up to her forehead. "...I have been told the Cognition Inhibition version of me is...adorable. But this is me."
Powerpuff Girls	Buttercup isn't really the sort to apologize for herself, and never felt like she needed an excuse to exist... But she got the feeling, from the L-Corp premises, that things were a little tense, and so the Powerpuff was more understanding than usual. Plus, she liked Justin. He proved when it counted. Jumping in the way of things earned you smiles! Usually. At absolute minimum: The threat of an escape or meltdown was much reduced with the spice-iest Puff. Rummaging around in her backpack, a quick unzip lets her whole arm disappear into the bag. "Wowww, no expectations huh? That must mean I'm really impressive all the time." Buttercup leads in, before producing... A still-kind-of-cold can of iced coffee! The kind found in fancy vending machines in Japan. Which is normal, as they're Japanese. The emerald puff keeps a second held in her fingers while pulling a glass case out of the zippered mouth. Her fingers, clawing as they are around a can, draw and draw until a book in a complex page-turning glass case apparatus of museum grade is revealed. "So I went to the Library of Congress and asked them for the rarest book they'd lend me, and they thought for a bit until I started tapping my foot and getting grumpy, then loaned me--" A display case bound original copy of the Wizard of Oz. The pages are worn and worried, and the whole thing has a delicate, time-worn quality to it. "--and probably want it back. But you can spend some time with it, right?"
Angela	A Meltdown will end real quick that's for sure. Even after everything, Angela only has a vague understanding of Spicy Puff's power but it's clear it'd take a full team of Agents just to handle her should it come to that. But threat calculations can be far outside the concious mind and be called upon should there be a need for it but--really--Angela is mostly intrigued that the Powerpuff Girl came BACK. It's a horrible place, after all, and Buttercup ... has and--more importantly--deserves a splendid life. This place ought to be--well--not something for someone like her to do much for except tornado it, perhaps? She's uncertain but even with her sympathies she's surprised she actually came. "Well, it is an attempt to be more than it is a strict rule." Angela manages. She blinks at the coffee. Her initial instinct is 'ah, well, she simply brought snacks for herslef. Understood' and she's about to turn to Rook to ask for privacy when-- ''So I went to the Library of Congress'' Angela's eyes open all the way. Buttercup now has her interest. "You have been to a Library? What was it like? How did they organize their books? Where is Congress?" "Ma'am." Rook says. "Apparently Congress is a governmental body in America. The Library of Congress is a library for government officials but it is open to the public." Angela's eyes narrow faintly. "This was not in reports." "It...was not pertinent to the missions. I'll post a supplemental." Rook grimaces apologetically. Angela looks back to Buttercup. "You must be quite convincing. I will read it quickly so it is not gone long and--" She pauses a moment, staring at the book for a moment, a glimmre of recognition in her eyes. "The Scarecrow Searching For Wisdom." She murmurs. "The Warm-Hearted Woodsman. Scaredy Cat and... The Road Home." Angela takes a quiet breath. "Carmen had her own version but this is...the genuine article? It looks fragile. Are you certain this is okay?" She doesn't--can't--blush or anything but Buttercup going this above and beyond has clearly flustered the AI.
Powerpuff Girls	Buttercup lights up when her gift - which she thought was a shot in the dark, and under a bit of duress to boot - is received more than well. "You'd be surprised the places you can get to loan you things when you know the right people." Insinuates the emerald Puff, but she doesn't really know or understand what she's done until she sees it bloom. She's that sort of girl, making an excellent blind guess. Angela had asked for a book, and the one that providence had granted Buttercup for her weight and effort was... The right one! Despite her rough demeanor, she was quite blessed. "The American government owes me a lot of favors, and also, I might have told them--" A thoughtful look takes her, innocently framed by black blunt bangs. EARLIER, The Library of Congress! Buttercup's blur of green is still visible behind her. The metal detector is going off. Security alarms are whooping. Buttercup Utonium with the full gravitas of a superheroine, declares: "I need a rare book. It's important." NOW, "--something that made it sound like a situation. Don't worry about it." The emerald's grin returns, touching the pale-bodied Angela on both arms. "You sound like you'll be careful. Plus it's in a special page-turny case. Just... Go easy on it and it'll be fine." A few moments pass, and the Powerpuff's smile dims. "You're worried about something, aren't you? Do you not like it?"
Angela	Angela is mostly just ... She is aware at this point, of course, that sometimes the Outsiders just do things without the expectation of a reward or anything like that. Their gregarious generosity frequently catches Angela in Capitalist Hell off guard. The idea of a gift (loaned or otherwise) without any sort of return expectation is ... unusual to her. It makesh er feel weirdly guilty--even if the gift is something that most people just...get to do. Read the Wizard of Oz directly, for instance. "Ah, no--no, it is very thoughtful, Buttercup." Angela says. "We have Abnormalities that are themed around this story, but I suspect it's a kinder tale than the one I remember. It is just ..." She tilts her head thoughtfully, focusing on Buttercup for a moment rather than the book. "How did you know--" She is keenly aware of Rook's presence and she cuts herself off. "No. Thank you. I will be gentle." She trails off and then--"What do you like to do, Buttercup?" She is allowed to be kind with Outsiders--Persephone revealed that to her--but it's a muscle she hasn't had much reason to exercise until very recently.
Powerpuff Girls	Pleased by the interaction - at least, by being told she got it right - Buttercup doesn't reach all the way to her eyes, which stay concerned. Her smirk rises, and a little 'heh' escapes her, but it fades quickly. "Abnormalities, huh? Could you explain, more, about those? I think I missed a primer somewhere, and the thing I got in the middle of I don't really want to think much about was..." The emerald-eyed puff grimaces. "Ugly?" 'How did you know--' This one Buttercup has an answer for. "Well, you know what we're made of - right? Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice. Well, Blossom says the 'everything nice' part of us helps us understand people. She can tell how good someone is just by talking with them for a little bit. Me..." The Puff's smirk grows a little. "I get a feeling. But this place is kind of like an itch. So I'm curious what it's about. You said it's hard to be... friends?" With the Sephirah. Because she had to relive their worst parts of their lives. "Mostly I try to stay busy. Music, a little. I can't really go to the gym so giant lizards have to do. You?" Leading, with a glance to Rook. "We don't have to stand around - is there any place to show, or would a tour be bad now?"
Angela	She HAS had to relive the worst parts of their lives agan and again. And hurt them personally. Usually in indirect ways--the cruelest way to hurt people. Angela nods once to that but focuses on what Buttercup speaks about Abnormalities first. "I could go into a great deal of extra detail that isn't particularly helpful for a base understanding but essentially they are creatures birthed from the Collective Unconciousness as expressed through Carmen." She closes her eyes again. "There are a lot of reasons this facility is Ugly, but frankly I consider the Abnormalities to be one of the least of them." She sighs. "Well, my perception is likely skewed. Best to not dwell on that." She thinks for a moment and admits, "Carmen, she was a bit of a 'Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice'. That is to say, that is how I have grown to understand her. This is not to say that she never had negative thoughts or anything, but that is how the people of this facility saw her. A hero, a savior." She raises her head, looking at Buttercup--but not with her eyes. "I scarcely understood how someone could be seen like that until I met Miss Persephone--the power of true charisma." "When those men created me, they gave me her neural pathways so that I could be her. I remember their capacity for kindness, really. Carmen told me he had a kind smile. I told myself that. But..." Her eyes open again. "I am a machine. And I am anathemic to this world, even though he created me. From the moment of my creation, the extra ingredient of ''me'' was something he loathed. I wonder, knowing you, if it is because he simply is not as interested in creation so much as destroying the parts of this world he does not care for. I suppose I'll find out." She nods again. "Music?" She lets that hang for a moment. "Interesting. What instruments do you play? The gym would not do much for me. I mostly read. And manage the facility." If it sounds like a kind of sad and pathetic life, well, Angela would agree. "Thanks to the portals, I get to see the outside world a bit more. It is enjoyable in some ways, in other ways..." She trails off. Would a tour be bad? She shakes her head. She starts walking through Control. She nods to Malkuth. "That's Malkuth. I can at least readily show you to the upper and mid layers."
Powerpuff Girls	It's difficult to have to be the cause of pain, know it, wish something different, and cause it anyway. Buttercup Utonium thinks she might sympathize with that melancholy and reason, but being more honest with herself: It's not really her burden like it is Angela's. She gets an inkling of it, feeling how not very Nice this place is. "As expressed through...?" Carmen doesn't ring any bells, except 'the person who hired Ishirou' to the Puff, so her confusion is obvious and genuine. Some sort of monster-causer? Nope! She gains more context after. Walking along - Buttercup rarely floats when she could walk - with her canned coffee cracked-in-hand, the Puff sips and strides, drinking with her right hand nursing the can and her left balled into a fist and jammed into her hoodie pocket. Angela gets a look of casual acceptance. She doesn't rise her eyes to the distracted-thoughtful of Buttercup's contemplation, of trying slowly to match up her own thoughts and feelings and knowings to Carmen - and Angela. "People get all sorts of ideas, and then act on them. So..." Buttercup gets it, even if the shape is much different. "I guess it might help you to know that our dad just wanted daughters. The perfect little girls. And... We know he cried with worry when we 'had' to fight. When we didn't have a choice. He didn't understand what was in us, but we came out of that cauldron knowing we had to fight, you know? For you..." She trails off. "It's difficult to start in the image of someone else who's already a certain way." There's a long pause as the pair pass Malkuth. The Powerpuff takes a long draw of cold coffee. She sighs. "What were we talking about?" Curious, then, duh: "Oh, music! I play the bass."
Angela	"A father worrying over their daughters needlessly--that is how it should be, right?" She almost sounds like she doesn't know for sure and is simply making a suggestion in that direction rather than just inquiring rhetorically. She thinks of Nothing There for a moment. It's best not to know why she thinks of Nothing There. She pushes it out of her mind. It's just the Script, she tells herself. You haven't really had free will until that warpgate opened, and even then, the needle hasn't budged as much as it might appear. "Carmen...you could say she is something akin to my 'mother'." Angela explains. "In a post mortem sense." Sort of. The coffee is cold, Angela thinks, and decides to lead Buttercup to Welfare, making her way down. Chesed can provide her with a hot cup of coffee to replace that cold one. ''It's difficult to start in the image of someone else who's already a certain way.'' "...Yes. That is the case. At least, if you do not want to follow in the footsteps?" She pauses as she says that, squinting for a moment before looking back to Buttercup. "Ah... An instrument that provides a stable groundwork. A good choice."
Powerpuff Girls	"I wouldn't say needless, but..." The emerald puff sighs dramatically. "It's kind of cringe to have a giant monster stomping down the suburbs after you and to be worried about your daughters who deflect bullets and pick up cars. Knowing what I know about dadfeels:" The secondhand smoke of dads! "It's... How it can be!" Buttercup laughs roughly. "Couldn't tell you about 'should'. Neither of us are normal, but we're a sorta-similar kind of different." The coffee is cold because it's canned coffee! Buttercup got two cans of cold Japanese vending machine coffee and brought them. It's a good (very high caffiene) brand! Superspeed flight can be abused for very petty reasons while you're waiting for the Library of Congress to hurry up. "The bass is just what felt right in my hands. Which sucks, because I need to convince Blossom to play with me to do anything that sells." Actually her records sell well, but putting her ruby red sister on most things increases the prestige stratospherically. Even if it is pop music - it's Powerpuff pop music. "I do all the writing when we do songs, usually, when Blossom doesn't have a really specific idea. I keep getting 'backup' vocals, because Bloss is 'the lea-durr'" She twists it, as sisters do. "-but it's more fun as a group. Bubbles drums, if you're thinking of groundwork." A long pause, and a sip, Angela looks at her. The green puff looks back, and dips her can. "Do you wanna get out of here, Angela?" She asks, a direct sotto-voice question. The quick way her eyes glance about, and the tightness of her fingers, highly controlled, around her ever-so-gently complaining metal can gives bullhorn loud context: She is ready to remove Angela from this situation. She has done so before.
Angela	Angela doesn't really have dads who worry about her in that way but Benjamin might have almost got there before pulling back at the last moment and crashing face first into kind of driving that stake into her wrists even harder than Ayin did. She can't help but smile at listening to the emerald puff complain about him though. Not because she's glad there's something to complain about, really, but there's this refreshing...humanity? It's hard for Angela to put into words. A little slice of normality in hell, perhaps. "It is understandable, both the 'cringe' and the 'dadfeels'. A conflict, perhaps, but... Well, it is not one that I find disgusting." She nods to Buttercup. She isn't normal, of course, though ... Well, Chesed will probably go on a coffee tangent when they get there but... "Are you in need of funds? You've mentioned this as a concern earlier." It's sweet that such sisters are still this close, she supposes. She thinks of Manual for a moment, just a moment. ''Do you wanna get out of here, Angela?'' "...There is a Silent Girl who holds a hammer and a nail." Angela says. "She hides them behind her back, knowing that if they were to be seen, she would never be free. But... She hides these tools from the one who never looks back at her, so they are barely hidden at all. It is not hard to see her intent. But even so, despite it all, she waits for the right moment to smile, laugh, and...hammer." She turns back to Buttercup. "Naturally. But if I am removed from this facility I would shut down. What I need to escape does not exist yet in this world."
Powerpuff Girls	The tour is, all told, fairly normal. Buttercup is unusually (or, perhaps for a student of episodic history, quite expectably) used to the more super-villain end of things. She has a specific taste in friends, and... The gothiest of the Powerpuffs isn't getting completely warded away at Lobotomy Corporation, despite the rather awful first few showings. A monster attack was ultimately forgiveable as an introduction: otherwise, Buttercup would have no friends. "I don't need money, no, but - it'd be nice to be compensated, too, maybe? I don't know. I'm feeling it out. And Townsville has a habit of falling into routine. What I was searching for was..." The emerald puff looks down at her hand around the coffee can, dregs sloshing about at the bottom. With a toss-back tilt, she wiggles out the last bits, then showfully crushes the can in a single motion. Creak, but no resistance. "Feedback? Something more real. Something that stands up, something that feels right. I've been fighting monsters since I was born, I definitely didn't spring out smirking with a radioactive glow to be a shiny green sparkle-cop. Yuck." Hammers and nails, though, draws a quirked black brow. "Well. If you can't leave, why are you so surprised when people show up?"
Angela	It IS, in a sense, a normal tour. There are agents milling around along with supervisors, doing their jobs, slacking off, talking with one another, passing out in sleep piles, worrying about doing their job right, determined to do their job wrong. It is, basically, like any other office work in a way it's just that the office work happens to involve suppressing monsters so they can harvest them for energy. Angela's footsteps in her heels click clack as she walks along boring familiar hallways. Though to Buttercup they are probably at least a little strange. The Control Department is filled with drawings of a Sephirot Tree that appears to be upside down with many green tinted terminals in strange positions and numerous pipes pushing in and out of walls. The Elevator may be the most normal thing about the facility and Welfare is like a big blue cavern with a...sky roof? That is somehow showing sky?? Or is that a sea? Either way that's the source of light. Chesed has set up a little coffee 'shop'. Buttercup can get a pick-me-up or have something that isn't canned if she'd like. Chesed waves a friendly if laconic actuator arm in her direction but... ''Townsville has a habit of falling into routine.'' Angela's walking slowws down. click... clack. ''I definitely didn't spring out smirking with a radioactive glow to be a hsiny green sparkle-cop. Yuck.'' Angela actually laughs. "Yes, that would be a fate worse than death." Her eyes slant down below like she knows someone personally in such a position and they're under her feet. She turns back to look at the Powerpuff Girl before her. ''If you can't leave, why are you so surprised when people show up?'' "You are perceptive." Angela says, not so much because Buttercup has proven capable of actually listening but because she actually asked that question. "It is not a pleasant place. It is difficult to imagine someone making the effort to visit a place such as this to visit someone like me. It may be for the purpose of one day escaping this place but even so, I hardly expected nearly so many people accepting the work as neccessary for me as it turned out. ... I suspect some are holding back their true feelings." Angela is full of herself but that doesn't mean she has the greatest opinion of herself either. She thinks about the matter of compensation. "Money." She says. "The purpose of it is to allow oneself to decide how one is compensated but it is true that the system is imperfect and can readily be twisted into deciding what you have to trade for and preventing you from just that. Your power--well, it is significant enough I imagine it carries its own weight. You can pretend it is not there, of course, but I think that would be childish." And what would be adult? She's searching for something that feels right and such uncertainty is something Carmen would definitely get ahold of. She can't let this person go into the lower levels, let alone see the Well. Carmen might give her an answer. She cups her chin in thought before saying, "I think your problem is that you use your strength to protect the interests of the current Hegemon of your city. This isn't unreasonable--it seems nice enough," Most cities would seem 'nice enough' to Angela. "More worth defending than this one, naturally, or Indus for instance. And it is enough strength that you could stand to break everything if you change your grip on it. The benefit weak people like the Agents have is that they can strive as hard as they like without needing to fear breaking anything." She opens her golden eyes to focus on Buttercup.
Angela	"My feedback is that you have emmpathy for the villains," Angela doesn't even know about the Gangrene but anybody who extends a hand to her would have to by neccessity or be a fool and Buttercup has been too perceptive to be one of those. "And you understand that the powerful will make use of lost people for their own ends. Wing Heads like Dick Hardly." She tilts her own head. "You are strong enough to ''change''," Herself? Others? The world? Angela leaves which undefined. Maybe she means all three. "I can show you the rest of this floor. But I've been careless in bringing people to the Lower Levels enough as it is and it would be cruel to someone who gave me a precious ...loaned item."
Powerpuff Girls	Buttercup taps her temple and smirks, a black-nailed fingertip making a little dap-dap noise against her skin. "I've got super eyes and stuff, Angela. Super in every direction, Bubbles likes to say. We all are, but... The emerald puff frowns. "Bubbles is better with the words, though, explaining it all. I just..." Intuition. Feeling. Physical sensation, holding things roughly. In a way - she has the most human understanding of people among the Powerpuffs. She doesn't just get the answers. She does get 'it', though, whatever it is. Usually. Sometimes, she's realy going through it. But not in the Lobotomy Corporation. The tour progresses, and there's not a shred of fear in her at all. Their true feekings? "Nah. They're idiots." Buttercup is certain. "This isn't 'that bad', and the ways it's not bad are normal to 'Elites'. And you're right - I'm plenty powerful." Rough, amused acceptance. It's just a fact of life that she's strongest fighter - of her sisters. "Powerful enough we know, or at least Blossom thought of it, that if we just took over a place we'd just become superpowered warlords. So we keep a weird peace? Like you, I guess. Instead of overthrowing the governments of the world we get to enjoy pretty much all of them, fix the stuff everyone agrees needs to be fixed, and get a decent education. We could go someplace else, but... Our dad's here." A horrifying implication rears, there, of course: The Powerpuff Girls essential loyalty to humanity is more of an essential loyalty to their father, A Human Scientist. The humanwashing the girls got, and the broad positive goals that were native to them, led them down a path, but it wasn't so certain as really loving humanity over themselves. They very certainly were not Paladins for a reason. "The way I see it..." Buttercup begins, a hand reaching back to scratch the back of her head, fingers dipping into her hair. "The normal people of the city deserve to be able to decide for themselves how things work for them. But we also deserve to decide for ourselves how things work, for us. And just like every other set of neighbors, we have to get along." Morally? Ontologically? "... 'cuz you can't fly away and leave your house between enemies, duh." But that's not really what Angela asks Buttercup. The foreplay of their tour, and conversation, hits a dramatic point. Feedback! Angela earns a straight look and a post-cough cleared tone, that the emerald puff delivers a bit more practiced, refined, than the rest of her rough just-felt feelings. This one had been worked out in the gym. "I've got more in common with most villains than the average Californian. Princess and I go back even if we're not friends-friends. She and I have something someone I met today will only start to work on. So... Yeah." Buttercup shrugs. "Sure, I empathize with them. I've got a chest full of feelings and can shatter a glass if I pick it up too... grippy-y. Of course I do."
Angela	"Mm. I didn't really mean that kind of perception but I believe I understand your meaning." Angela says, her eyes widening faintly as Buttercup claims that it's not 'that bad'. Why does that make her angry, Angela thinks. No, it's not exactly rage it's...fear? She pretends she doesn't feel it. ''We could go somewhere else, but... Our dad's here.'' It's hard for Angela. No matter what truths she's told about Ayin, it's hard for her to just completely abandon him. She knows she has to but at the same time... ...X isn't exactly Ayin. He can't be. But at the same time he is. And at the same time, her dad is gone forever. It makes it difficult for her to get that catharsis she craves. She doesn't want to be jealous of Buttercup. She's terribly jealous of Buttercup. She has power, she has family, the world isn't interested in fucking with her so she doesn't have to fuck with the world. "Not every villain is super, though I suppose you know that too. Regadless, reformation is a difficult career but it does qualify as viable." She nods. The Rowdyruffs seemed strangely experienced too. Despite the names, they're old hats at the work they do. "I daren't shift from the script as it comes to them, but for the Outsiders I can act as I wish. But thank you for coming to assist even if it was unexpected."
Powerpuff Girls	Buttercup hangs on a reaction, seeming unconvinced. She had been trying to be understanding, and reach out to Angela.... But she senses it wasn't quite where she was hitting. A flash of - shying away? And she tracks back to the thing she said, with a little effort. Well, the thing she... Bragged about? No, maybe she should have said it was awful, and Angela was really strong? It-- Makes Buttercup look like Butch, or Brick, frustrated and scrunching her nose a little. Rubbing the back of her head. Rough, frustrating, unwordable feelings. Difficult. Going through them always is. "Look, Angela..." The Puff gives the facility a shrug-over, having had to listen to it the whole time, and the general ambience of the staff. Of course she's a little off, but she's not used to it. "Well, you did too. With your guys. Justin and the team. Unexpected. So don't count it out." Buttercup drops her hand to touch Angela on the arm, patting firm-light. "Should we be expecting each other more? Probably, right?"
Angela	Angela doesn't like the idea of what she's gone through is something anybody could endure. It broke her, wore her down. Now the idea of having friends seems like a miracle, one she shouldn't ask too much of. Three friends is infinitely more than zero. Four is only a fourth more than three. It is hard to know who she can trust, and taking risks worries Petra. She doesn't like worrying Petra. Hell, meanwhile, functions and continues to with all its banality. ''Should we be expecting each other more?'' "I won't." Angela promises. "The Multiverse is... It is strange they allowed it. So yes, I will expect you--not too much, I do not wish to take advantage--But I will respect your ... positive vibes?" She is trying to get it right even if after all her talk abiut a task of reaching out to villains suiting Buttercup' she has to consider she herself might be part of it.