<> <> (Name, Todd.) (Na... oh. I might join in a while, if the three of you don't mind, but not right this minute.) <> * Leopoldo sits at one of the tables with a mess of hot dogs, maybe five or so, on his plate. Each one with a different condiment. He idly munches on the one with dunnoketchup. * Vera sits at a table, smoking, and wondering why she had to go to the infirmary when she didn't even get injured. (Man, you two are the awesomest. Pure apathy mini. ^_^;) * Vera has a hat. * Leopoldo doesn't. (...) * Leopoldo shrugs and walks over to Vera, plate full'o'dogs in hand. He smiles and sits down at the table, smiling a little. "And how have you been?" Miserable. * Leopoldo looks a little concerned as he bites into his next dog. After gulping the bite down (don't talk with your mouth full, kiddies), he asks. "Really? Why is that so?" You ever lose control of your body? Ever hurt anyone with literally no way to stop yourself? Didn't think so. * Vera rubs her head, not bothering to take off her hat. "Hnn... By the way, sorry about that." * Leopoldo smiles. "That wasn't too bad. It stung a little, but didn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it would. Advantage of being thick-skinned." Kat, on the other hand... I hope she's all-right. (Yeah, funny story, about that...) (*snicker*) * Katherine , speaking of Kat, wanders into the Commissary. She has her purse, and her hair is unbraided, although at least it's combed. She's wearing boots with a little blood on the one that was on the leg she was shot on, and a black t-shirt and shorts. She doesn't look like she's bleeding to death anymore as she goes over to pick up food. * Vera shakes her head, and smokes her cigarette. "Of all the twenty-fours I've encountered, I don't think I've ever hated any as much as that man. Well, he controlled you completly. I'd be pissed too, but, well... from the looks of him, he's very dead. Good thing, too. Makes me wonder about Ian. How he pulled that off. Authors just ain't that good with guns. (Total agreement. >.>) (Yeah. <.<) (No comment.) * Leopoldo eats another dog. "He got lucky?" I doubt it. * Katherine comes away from the counter with lots of water, a pill, and a less-than-Leo portion of hot dogs. She seems to be looking about for someone as she wanders. Just like High School! * Todd is now known as Threnody * Leopoldo shrugs. "I've seen stranger." * Katherine walks by Leo and Vera, and turns to them, saying, "Figured more people'd be around. Can I have a seat?" Her eyes look a bit red, now that one can see them. Me too. I still doubt it. Sure, take a seat. * Leopoldo looks up at Kat and smiles. "Sure." * Katherine nods, and thunks down, plate and all. First thing she does is swallow that pill with a grimace and a glass of water. "Ugh. Too much vodka for someone who went through fluid replacement." She looks between Vera and Leo, and then takes another drink of water. That bad, huh? * Threnody walks in from an opposite side of the cafeteria, carrying a bottle of water and an apple and barely looking where he's going. Two-thirds a bottle on no food and coming off bullet wounds was a stretch, but... fuck it, today fucking sucked. * Katherine starts eating one of the hot-dogs. Hers are a lot less messy or varied than Leo's. Yes, it did. * Leopoldo looks at Kat, somewhat concerned. "Well, at least we're done with the Concordat." His hot dogs are NOT messy. <.< Doubt it. That one guy got away. "Can't", or whatever. * Katherine says with her mouth full, "Yeah, and worse..." she swallows. "Now we're on ATC's territory." * Leopoldo shrugs. "I'd guess you'd think of it that way. And ATC may not be the best thing in the world, but it certainly doesn't seem to be the worst either." * Threnody walks behind Katherine's chair at that very moment, as if on cue, and blinks, turning around at the sound of her voice with an apple in his mouth. He tilts his head, manages "Hr'ou" around the apple, and finishes his bite. Nah, not the worst either. * Vera waves casually to Thren. "Nah, they're just 'there.'" * Katherine tilts her head and body back to look up at Thren, which probably looks funny, says, "Yo." and then goes back to sitting normally * Leopoldo smiles at Thren. "Good day, Thren." * Threnody chews, looking at Vera oddly for a moment. "...what?" He pauses, then looks for an empty chair. "Mind if I join you?" * Katherine grins faintly. "Yeah, although if they'd give me my guns back, I'd feel better." She grins at Vera when saying that. Not at all. * Katherine stuffs more hot dog in her mouth. * Vera shrugs. "Go ahead." * Threnody smiles and has a seat, taking another bite from his apple. * Katherine frowns slightly, and wipes her mouth, with an actual napkin. "That was your shot that did my leg, right Vera?" Er... Yeah. It was. Sorry. It's healing properly, right? * Katherine smirks. "Yeah, it's all gone. Won't even have a scar." She takes a small bite from a hot dog, and says, "Good shot, too. Dead on the muscle." She takes a larger bite. * Threnody looks between Katherine and Vera for a moment, confused, but doesn't say anything, instead engrossing himself in nature's toothbrush. *crunch* * Leopoldo chomps down on his third dog. * Vera smokes. Well, that's good to hear. * Katherine takes another drink of water, and says after doing so, "Yeah, it is. Thanks for the apology, though, Vera." * Threnody unscrews the cap from the water bottle and takes a sip, setting the apple on a napkin, and mmms thoughtfully. "You said Vera shot you... I don't remember if you explained *why*." Didn't have much of a choice. * Leopoldo nods. "There was someone there with mind control." * Threnody blinks, and makes a valiant attempt not to sputter and/or spittake away his water, but his face reddens from the effort when he sets the bottle down. "I... see." * Katherine nods, and grins faintly. "That was my guess, but I was distracted. I mean, shooting me makes sense. Shooting Leo just seemed random." Why would she want to shoot you? Sorry. At the time I was hoping you'd shoot me before I had the chance to shoot you. * Threnody looks down into his bottle. "Mind control... what a horrible power." Sometimes it makes me glad I don't have anything like that. Just simple things. * Katherine frowns slightly. "Like I said, Vera, a bit distracted. Figured if I could take out the guy's flunkies, someone could hit him." She smirks. "I was half right, I think." * Threnody nods at Leo. "A family member of mine has a mind control power... it's caused some problems for him." * Katherine eats more food. * Vera shakes her head. "So glad that guy's dead." * Leopoldo gulps down a little more, although he looks like he has some trouble swallowing. * Katherine nods slightly, and says faintly, "Usually I'd... yeah. Yeah, with shit like that, me too." She takes a large bite. * Threnody picks up the apple again and takes another bite. "None of this is making any sense. I wonder if Anders made off with the artifact after all, or if ATC came in and took it despite what Taluun said..." Hm? I thought they were after the artifacts too. Oh, I almost forgot about that. We didn't get the artifact, did we? * Threnody shakes his head. "I went back after it once we three could get away, but... there were too many unmarked crates. I could have spent days down there looking, so I gave in." Ugh. Oh well. * Katherine frowns, and mutters, "They have to have gotten them, or at least be guarding the base. You can't just sweep in and leave. That'd be fucking nuts." I guess. But Taluun's pretty high up, isn't he? Wouldn't he know about it? * Threnody sighs a little. "Taluun-dono said his orders didn't include getting any artifacts, and I have no reason to think he's lying, but..." It's probably true. (God, it's so awkward talking about one of my own characters from another's view. ^^;) They probably gave those orders to some other team. * Threnody nods at Vera. "I think so, too." * Katherine nods at Vera too. "ATC's fucking huge. Fifty hands, and none of them know what the others are doing. I can see it." * Leopoldo frowns. * Katherine suddenly frowns slightly, and stuffs a hot dog in her face. * Leopoldo eats dog #4. * Threnody sighs and finishes off the apple, toying with the core absently. "Speculation aside, there isn't much we can do for now. And in reality, we're as safe with ATC as we would be anywhere else." * Leopoldo nods in agreement. I suppose. They've been pretty nice so far, I suppose. * Threnody smiles, probably way too cheerfully considering what he says a moment later. "Even if they're going to use us like Anders did, at least they'll probably offer you some money." * Katherine snickers. "They've got it to spare. I'm gonna have to work overtime next week too, besides. Having two jobs is a damn pain." * Vera shrugs. "It'd work okay for me. Don't like all that paperwork, though." Eh... I really don't want to be involved with any of this, though. * Threnody mmms faintly, tracing a finger around the rim of the bottle. "It's just like twenty five years ago, in its own way." Thought you were only twenty-one. * Threnody laughs. "Ah, no... I actually meant the first contact with the Sleythin, among other things..." * Katherine mutters, "Should have brought the vodka with me," and takes a drink of water instead. It's clear like vodka. Yeah, the war between the bugs, the Europa team, all that happened twenty-five years ago, right? * Threnody nods slowly. "More or less. Huh. Time flies. * Katherine starts in on her fourth hot dog. "I dunno about you all, but I don't need any more aliens that can crush me into paste." * Vera shrugs. "Plenty of the human race is already capable of that." * Leopoldo finishes up with his last dog. "As much as I'd hate to admit it, yeah." * Threnody shakes his head. "The Sleythin aren't a warlike people. Men like Taluun-dono are very atypical... they're sort of the broth that bubbled over after being trapped in the City of Refuge for so many hundreds of years." * Threnody clears his throat. "Er... my apologies. That's a tendency I should learn to curb." * Katherine nods very slightly. * Leopoldo shrugs and slurps some soda. "What you're saying is mostly true, though." At least, from our perspective. Mostly? Historians are very fickle. They can never completly agree on one thing. Few people can. * Katherine pauses for a second, then says, "Ah. Yeah." *drinks* And although history is absolute, the eyes which you see it through are relative. * Threnody blinks, looking between Leo and Kat, but then smiles a little. "I suppose that's true. There's a place in the City that tells the history of the Sleythin race... but in reality, it's mostly an anti-war message." He sips his water, then puts a finger to his chin. "It does have the ring of revisionist history." * Leopoldo nods. * Katherine eats the rest of that last hot dog, and leans back in her chair, saying aimlessly, "Well, that's better, at least." * Threnody looks over at Katherine curiously. "What is?" Having something for my stomach to digest besides the rest of my stomach. * Leopoldo chuckles. * Leopoldo hmmms, then shrugs. So, now what? * Vera shrugs. * Threnody frowns. "I've been giving it a lot of thought, but I haven't reached any good conclusions." Looks like we're done, for now. I'd hope so. Getting my life back to normal would be nice. * Katherine rubs her temples. "Only if we're damn lucky, I think. I'm not counting on any extra luck after today." * Vera shrugs. "We wouldn't still be here if htey didn't need us for something else." * Threnody blinks a moment, then sips his water. "Well... I think they have a point. Maybe it is time everyone bowed out and let people who know the whole story get on with their own business." Hmm? * Threnody looks around the table. "Anders... he manipulated all of you into agreeing to help, didn't he? Some way or another. I know he did me, and rather cleverly, too." * Vera shrugs. "Not really." * Leopoldo nods. "Well, yes. And I did not appreciate his methods." * Katherine chuckles faintly to herself. * Threnody looks at the table. "I wanted to believe his story about artifacts and world crises and... the truth is, he didn't back it up very well. I feel a little stupid... I let myself get sweet-talked into it out of a sense of filial duty." Oh... That. I never believed it, honestly. It all sounded rather bogus from the begining. And why he'd want *me* of all people is beyond my comprehension. * Katherine smiles thinly. "I dunno. That whole mind crushing alien was a big sell. Enough to tip the scale." * Threnody blinks. "...'mind crushing alien'?" * Katherine nods. "One of the artifacts, the..." her eyes make some funny movements. "ITT Transdim Device. Anders did something to it... and there was a huge thing in my apartment." She looks around with a faint smirk, "You two'll back me up on that, right?" * Leopoldo nods. * Threnody tilts his head. "It... sounds a little unbelievable, but I don't feel like you're lying. What... KIND of 'huge thing'?" I remember... I think. That holograph thing. Yeah. It was, well, big. * Threnody frowns, then smiles embarrassedly at Leo. "Could I trouble you... to just try and remember it? Think hard." * Leopoldo blinks. "Uh, sure." * Threnody nods and shuts his eyes, concentrating. * Katherine suddenly frowns to herself. "ITT Transdim Device... dammit, I wish those artifacts had real names." * Threnody slams his hands down on the table, opening his eyes wide suddenly. "...my God..." * Leopoldo looks at Thren. "You get that?" * Threnody nods slowly, continuing to look nicely terrified. "...all too clearly." * Leopoldo blinks. "Is there something we should know about it other than it's really big, mean, loud, and doesn't seem very nice?" Probably immune to bullets and nukes and God knows what else, too. * Threnody shakes his head. "It's not familiar to me... I'm just still in a bit of shock." * Katherine shakes her head. "Like I said. That was enough to tip it into 'can't really fucking ignore it' land. And I don't even wanna think about what something like that might take to kill." * Threnody sighs, looking heavy-lidded for a moment. "It really is... everything old is new again. Huh." He frowns. "I don't know if it's just contagious thinking or not, but now I'm feeling like I've heard that acronym somewhere before..." Could be. * Katherine rubs her temples again and picks up her tray, which still has one plain hot dog on it. "I'm gonna go feed Eck, and then... I don't know. I'll see you all." * Threnody also gets up, still frowning as if trying to remember something. "I think... I think I'll take my leave too." * Leopoldo nods and gets up. "Well, I'll see all of you later then. If you want to talk about anything, I'll probably be in my room enjoying a book or something." * Threnody nods slowly. "I'll remember." * Vera nods and stands up. "Yeah... I think I'll go look for something to do." See you all soon, then. * Leopoldo smiles to all of you and walks off. * Katherine chuckles, and winks at Vera. "Can always exercise, since they won't give us our guns back." * Vera shakes her head. "Nah. Not my style." * Katherine nods slightly, says, "Well, good luck on findin' somethin' to do," and walks off. * Vera goes to do just that. <>