exsiliumlogs | Operation: Roll Out

Entry tags:

Operation: Roll Out

Date & Time: January 31st - February 4th, Present Day Exsilium Time
Location: Neo Las Vegas, in what formerly was called Turkey.
Characters: All Transports!
Summary: Transports have been sent to Neo Las Vegas to gather information on the origin point of the United Earth and the UE AI. Conference sabotage and the rest is expected and invited!
Warnings: Gambling and alcoholic beverages quite likely! Please PM the mod account for anything else.

By day, the landscape isn't desert, precisely, so much as it is dry. Winter's settled in and found in the biting chill of the wind when it finds you standing on the street. Hovercars and taxis thrum down the cobblestone streets, cavorting and honking like a noisy crowd of inelegant, overweight geese. Men walk by on stilts half in make-up, on their way back to their stage for the next night. Walks of shame are taken proudly in this district, one of the few approved and sanctioned vacation zones in the United Earth.

Evidence of law enforcement can be found all around, but they seem altogether too pleased to be there too. Talk with any one of them about crime rates, and they're liable to laugh at the idea. Those who come to gamble know the house is rigged to win. It's not about making or breaking the bank -- people whose funds dip too low are politely escorted back to their rooms and given a set of normal playing cards -- but it is about enjoyment.

Of the flesh too, and it'd be difficult to find anyone working in Neo Las Vegas who suffers from modesty, or anyone visiting who seems unwilling to politely ask visitors and staff if they'd like to keep them company for the night. In fact, Transports may find themselves needing to turn down multiple such requests! The refusal is always taken well. These are people looking to have a good time, and that's all.

No chance taken, nothing gained, right?

At night, the city really comes alive, the lights in all the hotels and casinos turning the Neo Las Vegas Strip into a carnival of sensation. Drinks and recreational drugs are freely passed around, men and women engage in a variety of sexual and other hedonistic excesses without regret, and the beautiful interiors and ostentatious or playful exteriors of the buildings hide and reveal a rich tapestry of events, delectables, and desires waiting to be fulfilled.

Neo Las Vegas is a fun place, and it is a safe place, and it is Where the Conferences For Our Future Are Made. Playtime is on, gang.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( Man she so thought she had it ~~not~~ that time. She does quirk up an eyebrow, lips pulling upward into a soft smile in spite of herself. )

Caesar... I hate to break it to you, but that pretty much counts as being romantic about it, by your standards.

No, it's just...! [ A thing or something! This is exactly why it's so much easier to deal with everything like you don't care! ] Being picky...

[ He grumbles the last part, looking away for a moment before he rallies and turns back. ]

So what's your excuse?

Didn't I tell you back in Paris?

( She doesn't look his way, taking in the sights to be seen inside this too warm, too busy place as they continue walking. She angles down one of the carpeted pathways leading toward one of many sets of doors leading outside.

Collette seems calm outwardly, if one ignores how her fingers seek stray edges to pick at, brushing against the fabric of her pants, tugging at the ends of her sleeves. It ignores the different emotions that roll through her, circling around, fed by thoughts and memories and the moments as they happen. Missing Blue, believing in living now, accepting that even dying will bring about that chance of reuniting with so many precious people again in some lifetime, if not the next.

She sounds calm, feeling something Blue said to her in a sharp way that doesn't prevent her stomach from tying itself into knots. I regret never saying I loved her out loud. The worst thing that can come out of saying nothing is regret. The worst thing that can come out of honesty... might be regret, too, but it was a cleaner one. )

I love you, and I like sex. Turns out I'm not so fond of the latter without something of the former.

( It's easier to say that directly at least once, out loud, without him unconscious, and with no binding tie between the two of them past friendship. (FWBs status aside.) It comes out factual, the way she's talked about being paraplegic, or running down a list of practical realities most people don't expect her to pay attention to, let alone address.

She only sounds amused when she adds: )

I guess that counts as being picky too!

( There's been enough of a change in Collette over the last two years and then some that she doesn't feel the need to watch him react. She doesn't need assurances that wouldn't come from Caesar, even if he were the sort to give them. She looks forward, and she smiles, and she doesn't expect like she would have before. If not before now, then certainly before Paris.

How she feels is just a fact among the facets of her world. Acknowledging it feels like enough, for her sake. She knows it's selfish. She doesn't find it in her to truly regret speaking. It's difficult to make herself care.

Her fingers stop fidgeting. Whatever comes, or doesn't; whatever changes, or won't, it's all right. It's enough to have said this at least once.

She doesn't want to die with Blue's regrets. )

Edited (oh my god i am going to bed now) 2014-02-04 06:05 (UTC)

That's all?

[ That's it. 'That's all'. Months, no, years before he may have turned tail and made up an excuse to leave. Who would have blamed him, with how frightening those three words were? They still were, of course, even now, and still something he wasn't quite ready to deal with himself just yet, but it isn't as if he hadn't known.

Like, he's not exactly worth sticking around for for the latter part of her requirements or anything, not that he's going to admit that aloud.

So instead of surprise or fear, Caesar rolls with the confession, acknowledging it and moving on, but certainly not returning it. She might have finally found cause to say that to his face, but it's something he himself still struggles with. What exactly is she to him? Is she simply someone he's grown too dependent on having around to imagine otherwise or is there more to it?

He shrugs and lets his hands find the pockets of his slacks, idly missing the much preferred pockets of his jacket as he does. These were too low. It's annoying. ]

I suppose that does count as picky. I mean, there's only one of me, which is pretty unfair to anyone else who might be interested.

( She snorts, then laughs, shaking her head and looking ceiling-ward. Mosaic tiles create interlocking geometric shapes extending outward, difficult to see a beginning or end to their motion. She knew there was a specific style for that, but she couldn't remember the word. At this point in time, it's likely something different anyway. )

In who? You, or me?

( She looks back at him, leaving the pattern of the tiles for the pattern of a familiar face, long hair, a vest with painful and poignant memories attached.

She reaches out and pokes him in the side. He hasn't run away. It doesn't sound very flattering in the long run to say it, but that he very rarely has always helped. From dealing with helping her from one chair to another, to being patient with all the things that have been necessary for her over time...

The few times he had run didn't weigh as much. Not when he came back, though the imagery and though has her thinking of a fox on hunt, without any hunt coming after. Only one horse standing there, ears perked forward, watching the red and white brush of a tail disappear among the bushes and the leaves. )

[ The poke gets a slight cringe and him wrinkling his nose at her, falsely annoyed by it. Watch the fingers! ]

Does it matter who? It applies either way.

[ Because he can't bring himself to say 'her', because she'll go on to be a pest and ask why. Explaining that she should find someone in a world far more reasonable for her to escape to might be taken poorly, especially as, last he knew, she didn't want to think about that. That, maybe, that may end in another suddenly empty space among the Transports.

It would only ruin the day.

Provided it wasn't already ruined by being here, but that was only Caesar's opinion. Obviously she can still find humor in it, so... ]

Anyway, I suddenly have three times or so the amount they originally put on that cash card they handed out. [ He stops walking abruptly, assuming she'll stop as well when he does, only to offer her his arm. ] Care to help me figure out what to spend it all on?

( It probably doesn't matter. She prods because it entertains her, and she's endlessly nosy. So she wants to say it matters who it is. She almost does. )

Triple what you started with?

( She stops without thinking about it, turning to face him with her eyebrows edging up toward her hairline. )

Wow, I never even expected!

( She grins, stepping around and toward him, taking his arm and tugging in a more playful, amused way. )

You're going to shoot down my bungee jumping suggestion, aren't you?

If you already know the answer, why ask?

[ Because no, absolutely no, a million times no. No one in their right mind should enjoy plunging off a cliff. ]

And you never expected what, exactly? That I could win at cards?

That'd you be into gambling.

( She says, nonchalant as the keep walking. )

As for the other, you know what they say about hope! It springs eternal, or something like that. So what is it? Are we going shopping?

( She quirks up an eyebrow, because shopping is definitely not something she's great at. )

Or finding someplace really nice to eat? Oh, oh, I got it. We're sending you to a spa, right?

( She grins, all cheeky teasing like she hasn't a care in the world right now. She can neatly package away what she's said, file the spare paperwork of emotions, and make peace with what she can. Besides, it feels pleasant enough that he's still here, in any sense. She doesn't need more than that -- not when she knows as well as he does how swiftly that might change. )

I should hope I'd be, all things considered.

[ If he were too bad at it, what right would he have to gamble with lives? ]

And if I knew what I was going to do with it, I wouldn't be asking you to figure it out for me. [ This would also be known as the 'I'm being lazy' defense. ] So long as it isn't something that will kill me, I have no other preferences.

( It says something about her that she separates the gambles involved with war from the kind enjoyed in leisure. She doesn't expect the two to link up; she quirks up an eyebrow. )

Do you like it?

( As for the rest, she snorts, directing them both out the doors. )

How about Caesar's Palace?

Oh? Have I done anything so great that they've already decided to erect a palace for me?

[ Okay, he really knows better, but it's fun to pretend otherwise!

Out the door they go, him all too happy to let her lead. ]

And it highly depends on the stakes as to whether I like gambling or not.

Edited 2014-02-09 07:03 (UTC)

( She snorts, breathing in sharply afterward as the chill air finally hits her full force. )

What are the ultimate stakes here?

( She looks up, into the dark of the night sky. Stars are next to impossible to see on this part of the strip. It's such a stark contrast to New Mexico. A tangle of memories from their time in the desert circles back around. She wonders why she remembers that right now.

Her nose wrinkles remembering what had happened when she'd tried to kiss him, way back. He'd deserved that hand licking. )

Think we'll ever get another saddle?

Lives. [ He manages to say that without sounding melodramatic, which alone is a feat. ] It's always lives, no matter where you are. It just isn't as obvious here.

[ Anyone else could have said money or simply fun being at stake, but that's only in the games. They're here for something bigger and, while he would very much enjoy just sleeping this trip away, he's found it's less and less an option the longer he's stuck in this world.

While she looks at the sky above, he looks at the space around them. Filled with exasperating people, full of life and color. How fake is it all? Or are they really happy here? ]

And I don't know. It's possible, although we might not want to go looking for them in this place...

Mmm, probably not. ( She leans into his shoulder, amused at her own thoughts. ) Not for stars, either.

( They had another block to go before the lights of Caesar's Palace would peek out from behind the other blinking, brilliant casino's beckoning them onward and inward. Such an odd decadence. Stranger still to have it call back to history in any loose sense, like it does here. )

How often do you gamble your own?

[ How ironic that she'd say that, considering she's hanging on to a star's arm right this very moment. That, however, is a meaning and a history from another world, lost in this one.

As they approach the Palace, Caesar can only frown at it, disapproving.

That's a place he would never lend his name to, even if it's meant to be named after a completely different Caesar! ]

As much as I gamble anyone else's, I suspect.

( The day she sees anyone treat Caesar like a star is the day she doubles over laughing and falls to the floor to roll around as tears come to her eyes and she's incapacitated for fifteen minutes.

... But she'd probably like the stars in his unfamiliar sky, at the very least, alien as they'd be. )

That's what I thought.

( Too often, in her opinion, but a good kind of too often. He didn't gamble with everyone else and assume he was going to be untouched. It meant more, working with someone who took risks along with you, than working with someone who ducked out on the responsibility and congratulated themselves over it. )

It's one of the things I like best about you. Even if it drives me up a wall.

( Sometimes. Usually during what she perceives as being the stupid times, but she knows it's an element of caring about others and not being the one who prioritizes the war over the individual at all times. She can, and has, done just that. But she chooses to be selfish sometimes too.

It doesn't make her a good person. She doesn't expect it ever will. But it matters to her.

Like it mattered each time someone gambled recklessly with their life for no reason. )

Have you ever ended up reading about Rome?

[ Hey now, with a name like his, there's plenty of places he could stroll into and everyone would know who he was! Who his family was, anyway. It counted. Sort of. That, however, isn't up for discussion today. One day, perhaps, but not here. More importantly, what Collette does say manages to be wonderful and painful all at once.

Not the Rome part, though. Who cares about Rome? Obviously not him, otherwise he'd have stopped being confused by her endless jokes about it.

He has to wonder. What kind of person likes such a trait best, even though it drives her to distraction? It's not like he couldn't say the same for her, with how needlessly reckless she is. It's aggravating without the side-effect of looking noble somehow, the way she barges into a danger that could have been avoided. Not always, of course, is she that way, but teaching her to stop and think has always been one of those ongoing struggles between them. Although that's also why she understands it, isn't it? They've been over that before, too, a long time ago. She was a soldier and he was a tactician. Their fates were always going to be tied to a bloody fight, somewhere, somehow.

And this was getting far too deep and thoughtful for his own good, he realizes, just in time to shake the sad look he's briefly given Collette and return to his typical neutral, seemingly carefree expression. ]

Not really. There were never any signs we'd be going back to that time, so I did most of reading on the more modern eras.

( She'd still say it didn't count, when she knew, but it'd bother her. The being known without being known, like it negates a person for the sake of a name. She'd never embrace that kind of concept, having fought so hard for so long to be recognized as Collette, a person separate from a physical disability.

They aren't equivalent, but she'd find it strange, without seeing at first the parallels to her own world's celebrity culture. It wouldn't take her long to catch on... but that's neither here nor there.

She catches something of a sadness in his expression, giving his arm a light squeeze. She's more than capable of reaching all levels of him now, compared to how she was before, but her first instinct still fell back on what she used to do. Collette's free hand goes to find his, tugging to upward and toward her as they wait for the light to change.

She kisses his hand if she can, no longer watching the colors of the light change from orange to teal. )

It's better that we don't. Rome was pretty cool, but it wasn't exactly forgiving. More like this giant empire that absorbed everything it could. One day you were Anglo-Saxon. Then you were claimed for Rome.

[ It's a little funny how she still does that. Of course he lets her, even if it looks so strange now that she's closer to his height these days. ]

You know, you can reach more than just my hands now.

[ But that isn't meant to scold her, only an observation. ]

So that's Rome. Sounds a little familiar to me.

[ Although he isn't thinking of the United Earth. It has a more Harmonian feel to it, especially if the ridiculous amount of grandeur this resort they're heading into has any truth to its design. Though the light is changing now, so it's time to pull his hand back and tug her along into crossing the street with the rest of the pedestrians. ]

You saying you want me kissing something else?

( She let amusement lighten her tone as they moved across the road, in the crush of bodies making the same crossing. )

Harmonia?

( The United Earth felt too big, and different, to be the same idea as Rome. Then again, maybe it was that she didn't see the big appeal in Utopian societies. Perfect everything? Perfectly boring! )

I do have a face.

[ Which he points out mostly in hope of keeping her from suggesting other places. ]

And got it in one. You have been paying attention after all!

( A wise move on Caesar's part. Collette likely would have mentioned something else, evidenced in her playful grin. )

I always pay attention -- mostly always! When I'm interested in the subject material.

( She steps up onto the curb on the far side a beat ahead of him, taking advantage of the additional height to half turn and look briefly down at him. )

On all that face of yours, where should I be kissing? I wonder.

Edited 2014-02-17 05:45 (UTC)

[ He pauses briefly when she gets the curb up on him and turns to look down. Why, he'll just shrug. ]

I'll leave that up to a professional like you to answer.

[ Because honestly, it's not like there's anywhere worrying on his face he'd rather have avoided! ]

Now, what were we going to do in this pla--

[ He would have finished that if an uproar of cheering and music hadn't cued up from somewhere ahead of them. The Palace resort boasted a lot of interesting features, but the one being the loudest right now was undoubtedly their big copy of a coliseum, covered in garishly bright and blinking lights announcing match-ups and fights on big screens mounted on the sides of the building. ]

( She leans in to kiss him, but the same interruption that cuts off his sentence redirects her attention. Collette pulls him up and along after her, bouncing up and down trying to see over the heads of the crowd. )

What's going on? Is there something up there?

( A roar comes out of the coliseum, fireworks launching over the giant round stadium. )

Gladiator?

( It's the one thing she does see - the word spelled out in the fireworks. Along with the image of two figures with swords apparently attacking each other. How fireworks could manage that, she has no idea. )

We have got to see one of those things!

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