Eclipse Phase (Private)

[CelticSol]

jukeboxmaiden: [oh.... u know ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]
jukeboxmaiden: [fair enough.]

Eppie shoulders Vidar's weight, tucking herself under his arm so he can use her to balance himself. "And by get shit done, I hope to God you mean nap."

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Rushing Jaws can tell by the way Jackie and Vidar respond to one another without words that there's a text chat going on. Near as he can tell the Naloxone Special is working its magic, because Vidar is a good deal more stable in morph than he was only a few minutes ago, if not wholly recovered. He can't help but laugh as he catches up on the chat, responding,

Azathothwakes: [i mean im sure we can rendezvous if you wanna take a ride with Jackie Sapienti!]
Azathothwakes: [Devin had the fuckin coordinates for the darkcasting station, fuck me]
Mekhajakumaar: [Not to worry, he gave them to Emilio. We have them, it's down in Portmanteau.]
Azathothwakes: [oh, aces. how many in the flying car?]
Mekhajakumaar: [Mach's driving, I'm shotgun, the case makes three - we have room for one more.]
Azathothwakes: [righteous. so, one more can take the flying car, and then the rest of us just gotta get to Portmanteau another way. hopefully there's a Firewall safehouse we can lay low in while we wait for word from on high.]

 

[CelticSol]

jukeboxmaiden: [dibs on Mach. ]

lilpinkpunk to Blucifer: [you're riding with the carnival, ily byeeee]

Blucifer: [Fuck. Fine.]

Eppie arranges Vidar to lean into RJ, then waves, "This has been wonderful, but I gotta bounce. Blue'll be coming up to ride with you guys. Toodles!"

She disappears into the crypt, following the directions Seze gives her to get to the others. She climbs into the backseat of the getaway car with a heavy sigh, "Hey, y'all, it's cool to not be dead. How are you guys?"

After a few minutes, Deep Blue emerges from the crypts, warily watching Jackie before his eyes turn to Vidar and Rushing Jaws, "It's good to see you haven't died."

Jackie takes in Deep Blue, arms crossed as she looks him up and down, "God, you're a mean lookin' motherfucker, aren't ya?"

Deep Blue says nothing, and only stares at Jackie a few moments before he turns to Vidar, "You look like you're seasick, human."

 

[ValtheStarGal]

"Hey, good to see you too dude- zǔxiān, you look like you've been shot up worse than hotshot was," Rushing Jaws says, wincing at some of the wounds Deep Blue's taken; "You need me to look at any of those?"

---

"Likewise happy to not be dead!" Veronica says, turning to look at Eppie from the front seat; Emilio's case synth holds up two fingers in a 'peace!' sign but says nothing, its vocalizer having been removed before Rushing Jaws purchased it.

 

[TrashRabbit]

heliotrope: you'll pay for this. Like not a lot, like a dollar. Mark my words.

"Same, though I'm already dead, so you shouldn't worry about me too much." He says to deep blue. He has a hold of RJ's arm like he's going to wilt and fall over without it. Its hard to reconcil this is the same catgirl that was ruthlessly hunting men like mice in the dark ten minutes ago.

 

[Graystone713]

Sleipnir: [Everyone who wants to go fast, seat belts PLEASE. Devin almost fell out last time, and I do NOT want anyone, ESPECIALLY THE BOMB LOADED CASE, to hit dust at terminal velocity.]

Mach sent, before saying the same aloud for Emilio's benefit. "Seat belts, people. I'm the fastest driver on mars, and I FINALLY have a car I can prove it in."

Then, the second all passengers were loaded and secured, electronic engines roared, a garage door opened, and the eurobeat came on LOUD.

 

[CelticSol]

jukeboxmaiden {PM to Heliotrope}: [ im trappin u with deep blue n the hot mob lady. good luck u lesbiab 33333]

Eppie throws on her seatbelt, having learned from her mistakes of their flight from Lupercalia. Then, she holds on for dear fucking life as Eurobeat punctuates Mach throwing the car into maximum throttle.

---

"Hm?" Deep Blue asks, before taking himself in. MRDR was a hell of a fucking drug, and the instant it kicked into his brain, he had a startling moment of clarity - Fuck, this is going to be a huge fucking problem for me. And now he could tell why - he had felt impact, but no pain, and the fact his body was riddled with bullets had escaped his notice. "Well. That's not fucking great."

He rolls his arms, feeling now the pain flashing sharply when the flesh pulls at his wounds. He doesn't wince, not quite, the only indication that pain exists on an external level being that he uses the heel of his hand to rub at his bleeding bullet wounds like it was simply a sore muscle, "'S probably fine."

 

[ValtheStarGal]

"Fuckin hell Blue," Rushing Jaws swears, "those are some pretty fuckin serious wounds. We oughta clean those up, at the very fuckin' least."

Azathothwakes: [Sorry about this viddy]

"Mind holding onto this one for me, I gotta help out our bruiser here," Rushing Jaws says to Jackie, keeping Viddy steady on his arm.

---

[FUUUUUUUCK YEEAAAAAHHHHHHHH] Emilio practically yells inside Veronica's head; to her deep surprise, Veronica finds herself feeling the same way, grinning despite the inadvisably high speeds they are flying at.

Despite herself, and hoping to her fucking gods the blaring Eurobeat drowns it out, Veronica giggles.

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Elysium Planitia
20 Kilometers South-West of Portmanteau​

The Elysium Planitia stretches in all directions as a vast Martian desert, flat but for the occasional impact crater or transhuman construct, and dark in the deep of night. From their landing site, the dome settlement of Portmanteau shines against the Martian night that surrounds their destination, a much heavier blanket out in the tablelands this far south of Elysium City. Only after the flying car set down nearby did a nearby formation of rock rising from among the fines reveal itself as one of the larger Martian rovers; surrounding the stealthed craft are lowlands, impact craters, and small dunes of Martian fines stretching out in all directions, Portmanteau’s existence only hinted at by light pollution. It is very quiet, very still, very cold, and beyond the little scene of a luxury flying car and stealthed rover, very empty.

It had been an exhilarating, even tense, but otherwise uneventful run from Elysium City to reach this rendezvous point; whatever else, it seemed that the carnival was good for its word in ensuring they were able to escape with Emilio to the darkcasting relay. Mach had put the Ferrari-Zhuong through its paces - though not as much as if they had to evade hostile fire, thank the lord of hosts - and Veronica watches as heat radiates from the still-cooling turbojets the car is equipped with as they await the authentication codes transmitted toward the stealthed rover clear. It is as the wait is starting to make Veronica anxious that a door opens, faint light spilling out from within the rover that draws her eye to a synth beckoning the sentinels inside.

Veronica snaps to it, following the synth up a short set of stairs extended from the rover and climbing inside. The craft is dimly lit, without its own mesh, and not heated, no trouble for Veronica’s own synthmorph but both clear means of preserving energy and minimizing detectable signatures. Contrary to the stereotype of Martian rovers, this one is positively spartan, seemingly intended to be abandoned in a hurry and with no trace of decoration or effort to make the craft a home. The synth does not speak a word to Veronica, only indicating what she and her comrades should do through gestures, such as showing Veronica into a seat by a console before handing her an access jack. She plugs it into her synthmorph, then finds to her surprise that she has been blocked from connecting to the rover’s computer network.

[Upload’s started,] Emilio tells her after just a moment, the smallest shock passing through her mind at the news.
They aren’t saying anything to me about this?
[Your discretion is appreciated,] Emilio answers, in a gently mocking corporate drone; [They only wanna talk to me and Murphy. Murphy’s gone, so that only leaves me.]
I see. I’ve been blocked from accessing their network, and since I suppose hacking my way in would be rude, would you kindly tell me how long this is meant to take?
[They tell me about fifteen minutes. Storage ain’t what’s top of the line aboard this thing.]
I can imagine.
[I’m sure you’re also quite pleased to have at least that much time to pick my brain over the cache.]
Despite herself, Veronica smiles. It’s a pity Emilio is too blinkered by his biases against her; he’s a sharp wit and charming in his rough outbacker way.
Quite, yes.
[Right. Let me take a wild swing at this: your first question is gonna be where it is?]
Correct.
[Hubut al-Khaira. Derelict habitat in the eastern Cerberus Fossae.]
Inside the habitat?
[Yes.]

Despite being in what feels like a remote location, the fact that Mars is saturated with signal means that twenty kilometers away from Portmanteau has plenty of open mesh bandwidth, and Brumaro already has a quick search prepared for Veronica.

Spoiler: Solarchive Entry on Hubut al-Khaira

Hubut al-Khaira (“Khaira’s Landing”) was the largest pre-Fall settlement on the Cerberus Fossae. The settlement was originally founded by Arab prospecting interests that scouted and identified veins of bauxite and iron in the region, and then grew to become a hub for mining and industry, attaining a population of 45,000 at its height and forming an important node in the regional economy. The settlement was one of many to follow the Derinkuyu construction style - exemplified by the city of Qurain - with the majority of its primary infrastructure built into the regolith to protect from solar radiation. Hubut al-Khaira was one of many settlements to be attacked by the TITANs during the Fall, and now lies within the restricted TITAN Quarantine Zone.

Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: [Comrades, Emilio has revealed the location of the cache: Hubut al-Khaira, a derelict habitat in the Cerberus Fossae formation within the TQZ. Whatever is within, that is where we find it. We have some time to inquire further before Emilio must be away, ask your questions and I will forward his responses.]

 

[ValtheStarGal]

With the worst of Deep Blue's wounds taken care of and his own MRDR high fading, Rushing Jaws had been content to sit quietly in the flying car that the Carnival had loaded them into and sent them to the rendezvous in Portmanteau. There is the tension of riding in a vehicle controlled by a criminal group that only a little while ago had been bent on killing them, but all appearances indicate that the car is on track to its destination, having taken the scenic route among the skyways of Elysium City in what he could only assume was a means of shaking any tailing cars before exiting for the run south. Māzǔpó gets him up to speed on Hubut al-Khaira, and he frowns when he sees how distant Hadi alfajir is from the site of their quarry. He has Māzǔpó start to spin up an intel report for Starglass, as he proceeds to say:

Azathothwakes: [yeah i got some questions]
Azathothwakes: [what was it like?]

Mekhajakumaar {Quote}: [quiet like an old cemetery. The site is half-buried, with a lot of the entryways collapsed or just choked by fines. The central shaft is accessible for about three floors down, i wanna say, and there were some bigger rooms where a lot of the stuff is packed in tight. Its an entire city built underground, but not one that got nuked like Qurain did. weirdly not a lot of things out that way, and not even wastewalkers camped out there.]

Azathothwakes: [how many entrances are still open?]

Mekhajakumaar {Quote}: [there was a dome of sorts built over the shaft to keep red-outs from fucking with infrastructure which had some holes blown in it, i wanna say about four or five. I dont know how many of the access tunnels scattered around the area are still accessible, and its also entirely possible the cartel scavvers dug some of them out looking for more ways in or buried treasure.]

Azathothwakes: [fuck, didnt think of that.]
Azathothwakes: [what did the cartel bring with em to the site?]

Mekhajakumar {Quote}: [enough gear to seed a full-scale salvage operation. My team had to lead em to the site, and they didnt wanna waste time, so they ended up hauling a good size fabber and some drones out with them. Theyve probably got enough hardware fabbed up by now to have the site pretty well locked down and excavation underway, assuming nothing’s driven them off or eaten them or anything.]

Azathothwakes: [who all went out there?]

Mekhajakumaar {Quote}: [only one of them who was feeling especially talkative was someone calling herself Gray Xu. she styled herself an expert on TITAN shit, and while she definitely knew a thing or two, there was fuckin arrogance to her too. Other than her, there were three others in synths, and none of em spoke a word.]

Azathothwakes: [well look at that, its an old friend.]
Mekhajakumaar: [Gray Xu?]
Azathothwakes: [yeah. She was captain of sorts for a ship out in a scum swarm tryin to move TITAN hardware.]
Mekhajakuumar: [Alarming.]
Azathothwakes: [sure is]
Azathothwakes: [what kind of tech was there that you could see?]

Mekhajakumaar {Quote}: [enough hardware to kick off another Fall if anything got a mind to it. There was enough space in the chambers that hadnt caved in to house dozens of warbots, think tanks, even some stalkers, and fully hundreds of racks’ worth of headhunters. Nanobot canisters, dormant fabbers, and weirder shit i had the sense not to touch.]
Mekhajakumaar {Quote}: [there was something else in there though.]
Mekhajakumaar {Quote}: [in the lower levels of the central chamber there was something like, it reminded me of a think tank but it was bigger, almost double the size of the average tank. It has like, six or eight legs like a spider, and it was hanging from dozens of cables - not intelligently but like it had fallen through from a higher level and had been caught by them. there was a lot of hardware and things scattered around it too, like computer parts and things like that, along with debris. It didnt seem as heavily armed as a think tank but something about it gave me the fucking creeps.]

Azathothwakes: [fuck]

Mekhajakumaar {Quote}: [one other thing about that: Gray Xu was real excited about that find. she doubled our offer right there on the spot. We took it then but looking back, thats the moment that i started having doubts about selling the site.]

Azathothwakes: [i fuckin bet]
Azathothwakes: [thats what i got for now]
Mekhajakuumar: [Right then, does anyone else have questions for Emilio?]

 

[CelticSol]

Euphemia "Eppie" Cross​

Chilling in a corner of the rover after Mach dropped them off, Eppie considers the questions floating in her head carefully, and wonders why the obvious questions weren't asked yet.

jukeboxmaiden: [so uh, not to sound fucking dumb or anything, because i know the TQZ is gonna have TITANS, but like. if we took the best route possible, how many TITAN remnants will we encounter on the way? and, immediate follow up question if the answer is 'so many', any tips on not being murdered?????]
jukeboxmaiden: [and and and, maybe someone that's better at opsec should loop in deep blue and ask if he's got questions?]
jukeboxmaiden: [do the carnies get to ask questions?????? do they deserve it??????]

 

[TrashRabbit]

Heliotrope: [Tell him I love his blog]

Vidar sits with his head against the window feeling about half as dead as he should considering his is already dead. Jackie had tried to talk his ear of but given up. Her accent was starting to make him uncomfortably homesick.

 

[Graystone713]

Dai Ruogang
Looking for the spare keys

Mach kept his eyes on the road, and in his ears he heard Nanti mimic his team’s voices as she read Tacnet. It was weirdly soothing.

Sleipnir: [Did Emilio see this?]
Sleipnir: [Catalogitem#5.jpeg]
Sleipnir: [More importantly, was there more than one?]

the item in that jpeg was none other than the mystery item Gray Xu planned to sell. The one he’d have paid a fortune to get into firewall’s hands. The key to the damn Pandora gates. He had to know if there were more. He already believed that public knowledge of them could start a war. And if one got into the wrong hands... Someone could figure out where Big Rob... Where the TITANs went.

 

[TrashRabbit]

heliotrope: [Did you just use a jpeg? I'm having war flash backs.]

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Azathothwakes: [dont get yerself into more trouble than you can get out of, out there!]

Mekhajakumaar: [I'm not sure about Deep Blue. He was definitely useful to have in the fight but he isn't Firewall. As for the black carnival, I don't see why they shouldn't be permitted to ask questions of him - is anyone in contact with them?]
Azathothwakes: [Blue'd be good to have if we end up needing to go into the zone, n' i trust him. i'll PM him about it.]

MurderSurfer {PM to Blucifer}: [so, hypothetically speaking, lets say we or another team have to go into the TQZ in search of what our guy knows because its bad news and needs to be destroyed. if you were gonna go in with us, would you have anythin to ask him?]

BR0ADS1DE_N092 {PM to queen-o-hearts}: [our guy's taking questions about the TQZ, you need me to forward anything along to him?]

Mekhajakuumar: [I asked Emilio about your questions, @.jukeboxmaiden, and here's what he had to say.]

Mekhajakumaar {Quote}: [single best way of doing the Zone is to move as stealthy as you can while moving quick: less time in the zone means less risk of tripping over something or something getting your scent. fortunately, being in the Cerberus Fossae means that it isnt hard - relatively speaking - to get to if you're approaching it from the east. terrain's rugged if you're trying to take the direct path and there are gonna be cliffs and switchbacks where nasty things can hide in, but going around the formation to get to it means risking an encounter with something nastier the further into the zone you go. that spot isnt anywhere near the white zone or other hotspots of TITAN activity, so the chances of running into anything worse than a pack of wastewalkers or xenomorphs is slim (but never none).]

Did you see anything like this at the site? (Catalogitem#5.jpeg)
[fuck me, is that a jpeg?]
One of our team has charmingly retro sensibilities.
[no kidding.]
[huh. weird lookin. I wanna say there were more like that, but one of the rules of stalking is you dont touch anything unless you know it aint gonna graft itself to your hand. ]
Duly noted. Another one of the team wanted to compliment your mars blog.
[Aw, shucks! Didn't know my little travelogue got around. tell him to pitch some cred to the locals if he's got any to spare.]
Certainly.

Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: [@.Sleipnir Emilio says he believes there were more relics such as that one but that he isn't sure. @.Heliotrope Emilio sends his thanks, and suggests a donation to one of the communities in need if you have any credits to spare.]

 

[TrashRabbit]

Vidar snorts out loud.

Heliotrope: Tell him I don't touch money much and that I know Murphy so we'll probably talk later.

He's quiet for a long moment after as he receives a ping from starglass:

Starglass {PM to Heliotrope}: [There’s been a development regarding the blacksite you tipped us off to that I wanted to follow up with you on.]
Starglass: [We sent a team to investigate the site but it seems someone tipped them off before we were able to get a closer look: we followed the coordinates you were able to get and found what was left of a turn-and-burn job in the Noctis Labyrinthus. Whoever was operating out of that facility left in a hurry and did an impressive job of destroying it on their way out. Our team got lucky though, and we found just enough between what could be scouted out of the cave system, the lucky score of recovered data, and other clues from the site to be able to piece together a rough portrait of what happened.]
Starglass: [Based on the recovered equipment and data, it was a laboratory of some kind. It had a large central chamber and several smaller ones that spiralled out from within it. We think something was kept locked up at the center of it, but there’s too little left to determine what that could’ve been. Add to that they had traps set that nearly took out our team and it’s clear that whoever was there is taking secrecy very seriously. It’s unclear who was operating the site or where they went, but they did a thorough enough job that I’m willing to assume either system-class criminals, hypercorp, or some kind of state actor.]
Starglass: [A lot of the data is corrupted and what we do have is the result of some serious code-wizardry, and of that, a lot of it is technical data, which is how we deduced it was a lab even if we don’t have enough to guess at what it was. The fact that we know it came
off a ship that met with Gray Xu’s, though, points to it being something bad. Excellent work tracking that down, agent.]
Starglass: [There’s one other thing you may be able to work your magic on. Correspondence was even harder to recover than technical data, but we did manage to recover a fragment of an audio recording that we think dates back to when the call was made to torch the site.]
Unknown Speaker: [ck that thing up tight (unintelligible) sset, Grace is having this m]
Starglass: [I know you’re on the trail of something big right now, so focus on that first and foremost, but if you have any ideas, I’m all ears.]
(end message)
Heliotrope: Might want to check up Grace Callahan. You know. Vera Kryssvind's girltoy. Was in association with her fork and one of Valentina's people tipped her off that he was around way faster than made any kind of god damn sense.
Heliotrope: Man I hate everything.

He glances out the tinted window as he acknowledges how much he does not want to process this turn of events. He could almost pretend Vera didn't exist if he tried until this moment. He glances at Jackie who is hot, and how much he maybe does or does not want to deal with that either.

Penny: Maybe she's just having a titan tech buying phase? It could pass.
Vidar: that's not funny. you're not funny.
Penny: I am hysterical honey. You should tell the team. And message Jackie, if nothing else you need to keep up a good relationship for diplomacy.
Vidar: I just ODed.
Penny: No rest for the wicked.

After a few minutes of brooding- which is quiet a long time to think about something when you can play 58 games of candy crush at once, he posts to the tac net:

Heliotrope: so Just heard back on some shit. Grace Callahan is in connection to the object Gray Xu sold that I tracked to the surface.

 

[CelticSol]

Jacqueline “Jackie” Sapienti
​

As Jackie receives a message from the very helpful Chinese orca, she guffaws, startling the Carnival members in the car. She bodily turns in the middle seat to look back to the backrow of seats in the 7-seater sky car they called to bring them to safety with a grin on her face, “So, the GM finally brought me into the plot of this scene, huh? Sick!”

“So, first of all, let that sneaky snitchin’ son of a bitch know that he’s not gonna get any smoke from the Cartel, and that I’ll handle that for ‘em. In those words. No paraphrasing. Second of all, ask him if he’s ever lost his head to a head hunter. Third of all, and most importantly, what gear am I gonna need in order to leave with our heads and my cargo intact? I wanna know how steep this credit card bill is gonna look, ya feel me? I know the shark feels me. Right, Nemo?”

Deep Blue, in pain and out of patience as the MRDR begins to wear off, simply snaps, “Do you ever stop fucking talking?”

“‘Fraid not, my cartilaginous friend. Just an endless outpouring of Brooklyn Bullshit, as the kids call it. Also, let Emilio know that Jericho wanted to fuck him so bad.”

“Hey, Jackie?” Jericho pipes up from the front seat, “Go fuck yourself.”

“Maybe he’ll send you nudes if you ask real nice.”

“Jackie, no.”

“Jackie, yes!” She crows, then pats RJ’s knee, “Send all that. Including the part about Jericho having the hots for Emilio. Especially that part.”

—-

Euphemia “Eppie” Cross
​

jukeboxmaiden: tell emilio i said thanks and that i want to kiss him under moonlight

jukeboxmaiden: also what the fuck is a gray xu. i mightve skimmed my debrief LMAO

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Its okay Jehrico, he's very kissable," Vidar says sympathetically.

 

[CelticSol]

Jacqueline "Jackie" Sapienti
​

Jackie guffaws as Jericho's cheeks darken, and Jackie pats Jericho's arm affectionately, "Aw, hear that, Jay? You're not alone!"

Jericho reaches back and smacks Jackie on her leg repeatedly as Jackie cackles away, and he retorts, "All I'm hearing is that your catboy liked Emilio better than you, Jay."

"Zoinks, Scoob, that, like, was a real roast!" Jackie says in a terrible impression of Shaggy that is ruined by her strong accent, then whacks Jericho in retribution, "Fuck you. Emilio was a hunk. Is. Whatever. He got to live. But he's fit as fuck and everyone should want to kiss him."

"How're you gonna tell Valentina about that, anyway? I imagine she'll throw a fit."

"That's why I'm not talking to Val. She can kick rocks. Kit-Cat likes me better, anyway, so I'll give her the rundown when she arrives in the morning."

"Catalina would have your head if she heard you call her Kit-Cat."

"Hot."

"Should we be talking about this with them in the car?" Elrika pipes in, gesturing vaguely to the back of the car with one hand as she drives.

"Well. Maybe not. But they don't mind gossip - right, guys?" Jackie says, rolling her head back to grin at the Rincewind team.

 

[TrashRabbit]

"If I had any idea what was going on around me at any time I wouldn't get in to as much bullshit as I do-" Vidar says, "So...carry on."

 

[CelticSol]

Jacqueline "Jackie" Sapienti
​

"That's the spirit," Jericho says, "See, Ellie? He's fine. Nothing but aliens in his head."

"You do know that's not how it works, right?" Elrika asks, sounding tired in her soul.

"And you shouldn't be a four year old adult. Sometimes, things are weird and work in mysterious ways.."

"Bro-"

"See? A baby. Jackie, come get this fuckin' child. She's out here calling me 'bro' and shit."

Jackie snorts, then chides, "Play nice."

Elrika whacks Jericho hard enough to leave him breathless. As he wheezes, he spits out, "If it were not for the laws of this land and the fact you're driving, I would kill you where you stand."

"I'm sitting, idiot."

"Children," Jackie says, exasperated, "You're giving off a bad impression."

"I think you did that by yourself, ma," Elrika says.

"Nonsense. I am the picture of dignity and grace."

Elrika looks at Vidar through the rearview mirror, "I'm so sorry she's like this."

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Less aliens more excitable GPS," He says hestitently. He really isn't sure how he feels about discussing these things oepnly. But he chuckles as the two in the front seat give eachother shit, its a lot like being home and watching Rats and Jenni argue about anything.

 

[CelticSol]

"Oh! Is that why Tom spammed him with a fucking map?" Elrika says, then reaches back and slaps Jackie hard on the thigh.

"Ow! What the fuck, El?" Jackie complains.

"Tom isn't made of meat, otherwise it would be on sight. That's fucked up."

"I am not Tom? Hello?"

"But he lives with you. It counts," Elrika hisses, then again looks to Vidar, "I'm sorry he did that to you. That's so fucked."

"He's a goblin, El, I don't know what you expect out of him," Jericho peers over the shoulder of his seat, then grins, "Not used to chatting about it, huh? I think we're the only ones that get to do it without worrying about disappearing from existence."

"Don't pry, Jay," Jackie says offhandedly, rubbing her sore leg.

"Oh, whatever. I could ask any number of fucking questions to these motherfuckers, and you're pissed about the Watts-McLeod line of questioning. Please."

"Don't be a nosy gay. That's messy shit."

"Fine. But this is homophobic and I'm suing. Unless kittycat wants to talk about it? It's the only safe space in the solar system, as far as we know. Like, for real. Nothing too weird. Jackie's was basically made in a vat -"

"- Jesus, here we go-" Jackie complains.

"- like. Actual supervillain shit. Some oligarch fucker was collecting asyncs and using them for experimentation, and then synthesized his own strain of the virus-"

"- Are you seriously airing out my fucking backstory? What about the sexy mystery of my dark past?"

"You've never been mysterious or sexy, Jack."

"Fuck you."

 

[TrashRabbit]

Vidar sort of glazed over for a minute when the map incident was brought up and tuned back in in time for the sexy mysterious back story talk.

"Custom Whatever McDonalds? That's fucked up," He says, "Also tell your friend Tom he has a fork. I'd recognize that fucker anywhere."

 

[CelticSol]

Jacqueline "Jackie" Sapienti
​

"Mmm, I'll let him know he's been had," She says with a smile, and then she pauses a long second, shifting herself to sit sideways in her seat, "Custom Whatever McDonald's wasn't the worst part of the experience. It was a Deal with a Devil, honestly. I basically sold my ego to a motherfucker that kept me in a cage for the better part of three years, and he only let me out with orders to do his bidding like some kind of fucking minion. 'Was constantly tracked by handlers where their only purpose was to make sure I was back in that cage when the job was done.

"Being a kept asset was a gentle fate, compared to what happened to other people there. I got lucky enough to still be a person at the other end." Jackie shakes her head, "It was miraculous I got out at all, fuckin' honestly. I never thought I'd be free again. So I thought, y'know, if I could collect other people that were like me, give 'em an outlet for W/M bullshit, give 'em a job and protection where someone like him couldn't find them and hurt them, then I'd be doin' something."

Jericho reaches out to ruffle Jackie's hair, and she shoves his hand away with a grin, "Fuckin' mistake, that was. Now, I'd sell these chucklefucks out for a fuckin' corn chip."

"You wuv us! You wanna pwotect us!" Elrika mocks.

"Do you want them? They're yours, for a single corn chip."