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

There is a difference between keeping their creed and believing it. [ but; he holds up a hand. her fears-- that's what they are, aren't they? fears?-- aren't unfamiliar to him.

there is a reason he's never even tried to go home, after all. his turn to have the moment of understanding, then; he just says, sad and solemn: ] I know.

[ with that, he relinquishes his hold on the bar. he faces seviilia now, apparently unfazed by the way she appears to be bearing down on him. it's funny. he's not even scared of her now. just tired, and all too sympathetic towards someone who has been all to eager to show him his own insides. ]

[Maybe he is right -- that is always what she thought, until Koltira had a much better argument. She doesn't stop approaching until she is just mere inches from him, twitching to just. Punch him. Shove him. Something. But he's given her something to think about, and its confusing her.]

Our design is what shackled us to the Lich King. It is our bond to him, it keeps us his slaves even in the face of his death --

[Her jaw goes tight, her grip around the bottle goes tighter. She's just parroting what Koltira had said to her, she's realizing. Does that make it any better?]

No. You don't know.

[Maybe he does -- she doesn't want to believe anyone has any idea what it is like to be tethered for your survival. Without the Ebon Blade, she is just a Death Knight -- and nobody cares for stray Death Knights. Stray Death Knights end up dead, because there is always a chance they will turn Scourge. She's been on that side of the fence too.

That tone of his -- is that pity? How dare he.]

Thought this came up earlier-- I know more than you realize.

[ he has been through all of it. he knows as only the dead do. ]

You can deny it all. But it will not change.

[ he knows. ]

How can you know what you have no memory of?

[Yeah that's right. You made her forget about her wine. You're more drunk than she is, and now you're using that pity tone with her. She's completely furious with you, Marduk.]

Every ounce of my service, I remember. My death, my resurrection, and everything after, right up to this ridiculous conversation I am having with you now.

[Says nothing about what happened beforehand, though.]

Because it is written, and I-- remember everything, now.

[ there's a definite tinge of bitterness to his voice. initially, he'd jumped at the chance to recover his last time, to have more to show for it than words on a page. a nice gift at the time, but the things he remembers-- it's how things happened, not the actual experience of it; it's a minor distinction, but one that chafes more every time he thinks of it. his memories can barely be called his, and while he's far too drunk to be able to sort his thoughts out for further retort he bares his teeth all the same.

but then, he is not too drunk to miss the lapse in her words. marduk has a hunch, anyway, one helped by a previous topic of the night, as well as the fact that he's already thinking about it-- ] Only your death. And onwards. Is it?

[Sun above and Shadow below, he is just like Aelaidas, minus the attachment. Minus the lack of shame. Everything else lines up in ways that are beginning to sicken her.

For a moment, she quivers in anger before she seems to deflate and take one stumbling step backwards. Because of she doesn't, she's going to toss him over the railing.

Her lip curls as she prepares a retort that never comes. He remembers -- she does not. She was wrong, and so she has nothing to stand on.]

Yes. Alright?

[It sounds more like an admission of defeat than an answer. She glances over to the bar, unsurprising that the bartender had finally fled, before looking back to Marduk for one last stare. They've probably gone to fetch security. Awkwardly, she starts to shuffle back down the hallway that will lead her to the skywalk that will bring her, eventually, to her room.

No goodbyes. For all she knows, they are staying in the same hotel. But she doesn't care. She just -- needs to move.]

[ he doesn't even have time to react before she's gone. something about that seems distinctly unfair; only a little sullen, marduk manages to drag himself to the top of the stairs and no further. they're just too daunting of a task right now, and he elects to sit down instead. much easier.

it bothers him, not being able to get the last word in a situation like that. thankfully, mandatory missions mean mandatory tablets. it takes some fumbling and lord is typing a chore, but he manages a text: ]

alrihgt;

[ fuck. maybe another? ]

Did you reall just
leave me here
Thats rude.

[ ... ]

Thanks for not
Breaking my wrist ,again
Last tim e
meant to say that.

[ text number four is, from the looks of it, entirely in deep speech. it's too poorly typed for the translator to work on it. text number five is not. ]

Sorry
About

[ ??? at least there's a delay before yet another one: ]

ignor e that

[ aaaaand so on. ]

[Seviilia by and large ignores the buzzing of her tablet. She takes one look, and notices that its the man she just left behind, but doesn't address it beyond that. She spends the entire portion of Marduk's conversation with himself pacing with her bottle of wine, occasionally stopping to peer out the window at the circus going on down in the streets below. And she drinks. And drinks. Fully intent on ignoring that buzzing. But it keeps going. And she knows every time it goes off, it has to be him. Just to be sure, she checks at least once more -- and she's not wrong.

Its distracting. She can't even lapse into a peaceful train of thought because she keeps routing back to that awful encounter. Eventually, when she nears the bottom of the bottle, she sighs in a bit of defeat and checks her tablet again.

"Left him there". So he hadn't moved. Of course he hadn't.

She's considerably less sober when she reappears in the hallway. She doesn't bother with the pretense of heels, or even her disguise. The sapphire choker that sat around her neck is gone, leaving her in just the dress and her dead-self.

She has to use the railing to get over to him, and just sort of glares down expectantly.]

Are you really going to do this to me all bloody evening?

[She already knows the answer, which is why she reaches down and tries to grab him by his collar, enough to drag him back on the landing.]

[ by the time seviilia makes it back out there, he's all but fallen asleep. the gradually deteriorating quality of his texts reflects that. when she hauls him up, then, he's not expecting it; he yelps in surprise, clutching his tablet for dear life. marduk cranes his neck around to look at her, can't decide if he's pleased or apprehensive about her lack of hologram, and settles for a puzzled frown.

no, wait. make that an infinitely more concerned frown. seviilia in a public space usually isn't too frightening, except for the fact that there's certain lack of care that results in showing your true self in this kind of place ...... ]

-- Don't throw me off the edge? [ haha. um. pLS? ]

[She doesn't. Instead, she starts to drag him like a man with a limp might try to drag a sack of potatoes. She's way too drunk for this shit.

Once they're directly out of view, she will let go of him and force herself to stand straight to glare down at him.]

Why are you still here?

[Her words slur just a bit. Something sneaks out in agitated Thalassian just before she polishes off the bottle and. Throws it. Luckily, it shatters when it hits the bottom of the trash can she chucked it in rather than a random wall, which will keep most of the attention off of the top floor.]

[ he cringes a little when she makes to throw the bottle, and more when he hears it shatter; when he figures out that none of that results in any immediate injury to him, he finally relaxes, resting his head on his knees as he peers up at seviilia. ]

Where was I supposed to go? [ huff. you led him up stairs, man. accusingly, he adds: ] You ran off.

Back to your bloody room, obviously.

[She realizes he never told her where that was, so she can't even drag him there!! It doesn't occur to her that he might...not have a room.

She ignores his accusation. Nope. Totally didn't run.]

[ marduk goes from staring up at her to staring off at... something else not her. that's the important part. he stays completely silent. good answer, right?

no-- he knows it's suspicious as fuck all, but uh. he is really not keen on admitting his lack of lodgings, even if his response makes it obvious what the situation is. ]

[She waits for a few moments until the conclusion is obvious even to a drunk.]

You are an incredible waste of space.

[Thank god there is a mini bar in her room, because she still isn't drunk enough for this. But she isn't about to leave him here for someone to find, so that he may drunkenly babble about the entire evening. She manages her balance and reaches down for his collar again.

Regardless of comment, she will then begin to drag him all the way back to her room, unless he makes an effort to stand on his own.]

That's-- [ holy shit, is she literally dragging him off? is he going to die? he's gonna die. this is literally the dumbest fucking place on any planet, anywhere. ] -- a little uncalled for.

[ as would killing him be. btw. mentioning that probably wouldn't work in his favor, though. marduk doesn't bother trying to get up, resigned to his fate; also, that sounds like a lot of effort.

he does, however, make kind of a whining noise. he doesn't want to die in vegas, jfc. ]

[Seviilia doesn't say anything, just keeps DRAGGING. That whine isn't missed. She rolls her eyes, but can't help smirking just a bit. That's what happens when you make your acquaintance with a sadist. Its the little things.]

Ah, whining like a criminal being dragged to his execution. Music to my ears.

[She chuckles just a bit and drops him a bit roughly once she reaches her door, just so she can fish her key out of don't ask where. Door is kicked open, half-corpse is dragged through the door, and it is unceremoniously locked. She rests her hand there a bit longer than necessary to freeze the mechanism.

Don't want any of her secrets wandering off this evening.

She will only take the opportunity to drag him to the bed before picking him up by the collar (probably choking him a little) and dropping him there. Only then will Seviilia wander toward the mini bar to pick up the largest bottle there to collapse on the couch with.]

[ that just makes him whine a little more, dragging his hands down his face. he probably could've stopped at twenty-one texts, right? twenty-two is just too many, and now he's going to die for them. he is dead weight, all the way back. no sense in fighting it, but no sense it making it easier either.

the bed is not the destination he expects. out the window, maybe, but not on something that implies he'll survive the night. naturally, he is horizontal almost immediately, though he quietly inches towards the edge of the bed nearest where he knows seviilia is sitting. see, he has questions now.

well... one question. ] What the hell? [ still suspicious. still distressed. ]

[She had been mad when she had picked him up, but his panicking had predictably lightened her mood. She just chuckles at his question, crossing her legs and wrestling with the cap of her newest prize while propped up on the arm of the far-too-small-for-her couch.

He gets eye contact and a light, knowing smirk in his direction for his trouble.]

Come now, you didn't think I was going to leave you out there to run your mouth.

[She flicks the cap harshly in his direction once she gets it off. It probably flies far too the right with how drunk she is.]

And since you obviously cannot leave well enough alone, you're going to stay here, and you're going to make use of that bed whilst I make use of this.

[She taps the bottle.]

[ he actually ducks when he sees the cap flying, covering his head with his hands while it... plinks harmlessly off the wall. oh. marduk isn't sure if he should be embarrassed or terrified when he peeks up at her again, and settles on-- both. definitely both. ]

Would not have... run anything. [ he can barely stand. (that's not what she's talking about, is it.) whatever. as long as they aren't in public-- and he's still going to die, probably-- he'll at least take the time to deactivate the emitter. it gets tossed to the floor somewhat near the bed, and marduk rolls over, only realizing halfway through what a bad idea it is to keep his back to seviilia.

... he rolls back. ]

Should at least share. [ don't you usually get a last meal, or whatever? here, it's going to be a last drink. he holds a hand out expectantly, waiting. ]

Well, I do not believe you, so I suppose you will have to make do with the situation.

[After her long gulp, she looks at him accusingly and...hugs the bottle a little possessively.]

No. You already ruined my last bottle with your unrelenting messages.

[ what. his hand drops, disappointed, and-- he pouts. just a little. that's cruel of you, seviilia. ]

Come on. Just a little. [ is he whining again? you betcha. it's not like the texts were THAT bad. ] Don't even drink as much as you.

I do not care.

[She is incredibly cruel. Eventually she just looks away, nestles into the couch in an attempt to get comfortable, and goes back to drinking.]

Go to sleep.

[ hiss. fine. he relents, in the sense that he doesn't keep complaining; after enough time to figure out how suicidal he is tonight (scale of 1-10: 12) marduk slides off the bed, making his way enough to the couch to be able to drape himself over the back of it. he does his best scowl down at seviilia, although it's considerably lessened from terror. he doesn't say anything-- just waits. ]

[She largely ignores him when she hears him move, but the second he enters her line of vision, she glares and hisses like a wild animal, blindly swiping upwards.]

Go away.

[ he puts his head down as soon as he sees her swing, at least protecting his face. ow. his response is muffled but no less petulant for it: ] No.

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