exsiliumlogs | looking back on the track for a little green bag

Entry tags:

looking back on the track for a little green bag

Date & Time: 12/29/13 - 1/1/13
Location: the middle of America in the past
Characters: Erika, Christopher, Flora, Angel
Summary: the dream team goes to get information
Warnings: no deaths

[So a detective, a homunculus, a fairy, and a Siren go back in time to the middle of the United States to steal secrets on genetic research and projects. What could go wrong, really?

Hope no one was expecting to see things other than fields at OKKAN AGRI.]

Transports: This mission will place you the day before the annual "Farm Works Festival", meant for students to tour and learn more about what goes on at OKKAN. The crowds should be sufficiently large to enter the facilities in, after which you are tasked to retrieve information on new genetic developments and projects to bring back to the Initiative. The festival is two days in duration, after which you will be retrieved to this time period. Please exercise caution, and good luck.

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[pre-mission gettogether, first day goings-on, figuring out where to lay low, disguises and how to get in tomorrow-you know, the usual things you do before you play at being the worst spies.]

[first day of the festival! go see some workshops or learn more about agriculture. or you could work on the mission. it's a free country!]

[second day of the festival. time to focus on the mission 100%. please try to be at least slightly stealth about this.]

[happy new year! time to wait to be picked up and congratulate yourself and your friends, because you all succeeded!]

[Christopher sighs as they eye the edge of the compound. He is spinning his umbrella over his shoulder, a great big sulky expression on his face.]

I don't see any reason we shouldn't kill the enemy. They'll try to kill us. We should acknowledge the genuine violence in their intentions by greeting them the same way.

[So petulant. So. Petulant.]

[Flora might be a lot more short if she wasn't prepared to deal with exactly this. As it is, she does take a breath, frowning.]

Because...it's not necessary. [Her tone implies that it's wrong if it's not necessary.] And it complicates things.

[Christopher she will put you in the timeout corner she swears.]

That reasoning may be fair, but I don't want to accept it.

[He sidles closer to her.]

[Chris water u doin]

I'm sure you'll find some way to survive.

[Getting nearer to you innocently.] That's right! Regardless of my circumstances, I'll surpass them and survive.

[Okay, she's going to give him a look. Just mildly suspicious. It would probably be a bit less, but considering they're talking about NOT MURDERING she's UNSURE]

Wonderful. So, you won't kill anyone, right?

For you? Of course. How could I turn down such a request?

[She stares at him for a moment, then sighs. When she speaks next, it's quiet and sincere, and she looks down.]

You're okay with that though, really? Like...you can fight to disable, it's not much harder for you, is it?

[He has to laugh a little at her and pat her on the head.] Oh, yes. My boss has always had strict rules about hurting innocents, so I'm used to this kind of limit. Have faith! Disabling a few humans is an easy task to one such as myself.

[It hadn't been hard to get her to come along on this trip-all Christopher had to do was ask, and she had promised her assistance. But it doesn't mean she isn't slightly on edge to meet the other two, wrapped up tight when she comes down from the moon this time. If they're Chris's friends, they should be nice people, right?

She'll just look for the transporter before anything else.]

[Her breath hitches and she quickly looks to the side as if expecting something, but, of course...nothing's going to happen.]

You're going to mess up my hair.

[She doesn't sound really displeased, though. Just tired.

The corner of her mouth quirks as she remembers something.]

No grievous harm, either. Just knock them out, assuming we'll need to fight in the first place.

You mean cause them brain damage. Concussion to intracranial hemorrhage! Orders received and understood.

[What? He knows what physically knocking someone out for a long time does. He also knows how people respond to gas used without careful calculations.

Which is why he grins at her.] Sorry, but the rules of the real world aren't as kind as the rules for your kind.

I'm not ordering you. [The implication as she takes it makes her feel uncomfortable, and she looks it, too.

At least, until he says what he does. There's a flicker of shock, and hurt, before her eyes harden.]

Just because the place I come from is different, doesn't make it any less real. Or dangerous.

[Moments pass, and she considers leaving him with his first assumption, but that might be dangerous. It would at the very least be irresponsible. She breathes slowly, relenting.]

And no, I didn't mean that. Or just that. I meant deliberately doing anything extreme to hurt others, as long as it still means they're alive. Things like maiming, or permanent blinding or spinal damage. Things like that.

[She feels more than a bit disgusted speaking about it so casually. In effect, means exploiting loopholes, if he would do such a thing. She wishes she could go back to a time when she didn't have to imagine such possibilities, but even if she dislikes a lot of it, he is at least in part right about he says: this world, a lot of worlds, aren't so perfectly kind, sometimes.

She can't always have what she wishes.]

Just try to keep anyone you might have to fight in roughly the same shape you find them in.

Flora. [He glances at her sideways, amused.] It's like you don't trust me.

I've never fought with you or seen you do it. Hopefully, none of us will have to. [She gives him a meaningful look--ahem--before continuing on, sincerely.]

I don't know what you're used to or all of what's acceptable to you, so I just want us all to be on the same page. This is a new team for me, and everyone comes from different places, so we really need need to communicate.

Edited 2014-01-01 08:54 (UTC)

What a marvellously open-hearted spin to put on it. I'm impressed, Flora. It does you credit.

[Her lips thin.] If I hadn't said anything and something awful happened, it would have been my fault for not having said something in the first place, right?

Even if it really shouldn't be.

[Why should anyone have to be proactive about dismemberment or grievous bodily harm prevention???

Anyway, any tension she has melts out of her body. She wants to look askance, and does, but she's staring at him by the time she speaks again.]

...You're wrong, though. For this mission at least, we're a team, and a team without trust isn't much of one at all, so...I do trust you.

[Perhaps more than she should, she doesn't actually know. She can't see the future. She won't know what will happen, if she might have any regrets or not, but there is, at least, no doubts about that. She trusts him completely, because she has to.

For all that he is contrary and unpredictable and himself, once again, he's something certain thing in a haze of doubt, and she does not know how to feel.]

Wrong. It would have been my fault. People are responsible for their own actions, after all. Oh, there are mitigating circumstances, but . . . in the end, we have to take responsibility for ourselves, right?

Well, yes, but...

[It's not that he's wrong, but she's still dissatisfied with that.]

If there's something I could have done, and I didn't do it, especially if I know better, I have to hold myself accountable for that.

Hm, perhaps you're right. [He taps his jaw, thoughtful.] No idea. I never bother with being responsible for the things I do.

And why is that?

Well . . . doesn't seem like a lot of fun, does it?

[Yup.]

[omg]

Responsibility isn't supposed to be fun, Christopher, it just is.

I don't like that, so no.

You can't just do as you please without considering and accepting the consequences.

[Flora do you know who youre talking 2 rn]

Of course I can.

[Come on Flora.]

You shouldn't.

Don't care!

[For a moment and only that, there's a spark of something. He doesn't care. How could he? But this is him, isn't it? It's knowing that she stares at him without speaking. She's not certain that pursuing this conversation will be productive, especially since she needs her focus for other things.

Besides, her track record with him is pretty abysmal, isn't it? Maybe she shouldn't bother trying, any more.]

That's going to get you in trouble.

[not that she care IT'S NOT LIKE THEY'RE FRIENDS OR ANYTHING!!!]

[Christopher smiles back. It isn't a shit-eating grin, just a normal smile. A happy declaration of someone she can't reject.]

Very often. Things are fun, that way.

[She wishes it were a grin. It'd be easier.]

There is such a thing as too much, you know.

[...okay no, not even she really believes that, but the subtext is hopefully clear: you can go too far.]

Oh, I know. [He gives her a broad, self-satisfied grin.] I intend on finding that point... and surpassing it.

What if it's too much for you to handle?

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looking back on the track for a little green bag

12/29

12/30

12/31

1/1

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you are my first tag of the new year

happy new yearssss

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