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

[ 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.

[Then you can fuckin sit there and watch her DRINK IT ALL because that's what she is going to do. Not all at once, but she is very hellbent on not sharing this shit.

Even if she has to sit under someone's fucking gross eyes while she does it.]

[ fine. he'll sulk, and he'll watch, and he'll wait, and it isn't until he knows that bottle is almost empty that he starts whining again. ]

Seviilia. [ shit, is this the first time he's actually said her name? huh. well. time to do it again-- ] Seviiliaaaaa.

Be. Silent. Go to sleep, before I make you sleep.

[She cracks her bony and blackened knuckles for emphasis. Her eye might twitch noticeably when he draws her name out like that.]

[ he cringes again at the noise, but doesn't seem especially deterred despite that. if anything, he grins a little, tilting his head just enough that-- his hair falls in his face. whoops. he has to push it out of the way before he can continue. ]

Don't have to be so fucking mean, you know. Seviilia. [ you are going to regret ever telling him your name. he'll make sure of that. ]

[She swipes for his face again like an angry cat. Yes. Yes she does have to be that mean. But he's stopped her from drinking, at least.]

Haven't you had enough for one evening? Leave me be.

No. [ he hides his face again, chuckles a little when he feels the swipe, then grabs for her hand before she can pull it back. he knows it's a bad decision as soon as he makes contact (it's hard to remember just how cold she is until he's touching her) but doesn't back off from it.

he just. really wants that goddamn drink. ] Just one? [ pls... ]

[She makes a face when he grabs her and tugs a bit weakly to try and free her hand. Most of her strength is focused on staying wrapped around that bottle so he can't pull it from her.

Something caught between a growl and a whine comes out of her throat.]

You do not need it. I do.

[She tugs again.]

Will it get you to leave me alone?

[ he's not going to let go that easily. in fact, he twines their fingers together as he talks, as if there's nothing wrong with her hands at all. ]

Who knows. Maybe. Probably. [ marduk knows he is playing with fire, here. his grin is perhaps a little more strained than it could be. ] One way to find out.

[She considers breaking his fingers, but even in her drunken stupor she thinks that might be a bad idea. She had brought him in here to try and keep suspicion off her back -- that wouldn't help in the morning.

So she just keeps pulling her hand back.

But eventually she gives in and untangles herself from the bottle depressingly. She's not going to sleep if he keeps bothering her anyway, may as well just. Whatever.

She's not going to give it to him though. She's going to petulantly put it down on the floor for him to go get.]

[ he keeps her hand hostage until she finally sets the bottle down. it's only fair to give one for one, right? the fact that it ends up on the floor is its own problem, though. certainly, he wouldn't be able to make it over there when he barely made it to the couch in the first place.

marduk seems to consider this while chewing on his thumb, when the bottle suddenly wobbles and then rises of its own accord. unsteady though it is, it eventually gets within arm's length of him, and he tries his best to not look smug when he grabs it. that's right; magic solves all problems, even-slash-especially when you're drunk. ]

[Unfortunately for him, the second he grabs it, so does she -- right at the bottom. She smells blood. And, of course, the second she makes contact with the bottle, it starts to freeze.]

If you are going to spend the entire evening pestering me, I will drop you off the balcony.

[Her nostrils flare a bit as her eyes dart upward suspiciously. Oh yes. She smells you, Marduk.]

[ he pauses, curling the offending hand into a fist with his thumb on the inside. well. good thing he has no idea what you're talking about, huh. ]

Pestering? Never would I. [ the most obvious lie yet-- which is really saying something. he tugs on the bottle. it's his now, dammit. you gave it up. ] Not even once.

[She sits up and tugs on the bottle a little more insistently.]

Try twenty-one times. Without everything you have been doing in this room.

[ frown. are they really going to play tug of war over the dregs of a bottle? his hold stays firm, but he doesn't pull again. ]

Mm, so-- everything before the texts was fine? [ because that is totally what you just said. ]

[There's a long pause as she contemplates. No. Definitely not fine. She's to drunk for arguments.]

You knew what I meant. Do not play games with me.

[She lets the bottle go, and quietly chews on her lip.]

[ victory. he's smiling, but he pauses with the bottle halfway to his lips. ] No games here, Seviilia.

[ with that he finishes off the rest of the bottle, before she can change her mind again. gently, he sets it down behind the couch, then-- with great effort, and another pause-- pushes himself into a standing position. moving is going to take another minute or five, though. ] Would not ask if I knew.

No. It was not. I am drunk, and you are a pain.

[She rests her arm over her eyes and goes quiet for a few moments.]

You stink. Do not cast anymore.

[ mm. fine. he doesn't argue, even if he really wants to; he watches her for a long moment, though, thinking of-- doing something else stupid, if he's going to be honest about it.

...

nah. not tonight. he almost sighs as he pulls himself away. marduk drags himself back to the bed, crawls into it gratefully, and pulls the blankets all the way over his head.

good night, seviilia. ]

[Seviilia doesn't sleep well. It takes a long hour of silence for her to finally drift off. She wakes within five hours, but does not bother moving -- after all, there is still somebody in the room.

The ice in the lock would have melted by now, but she can still hear the steady pulse of his blood over on the bed. Its almost hypnotic enough to put her back to sleep. The better part of the first hour she is awake is spent deciding whether or not to wake Marduk up. Somewhere toward the end she decides its better if she doesn't.

So for the next...however long it takes for him to wake up, she spends staring out the window, watching people move aimlessly in the street.]

[ marduk is naturally slow to wake, and a night of drinking does nothing to speed things up. it is well into the day when he finally stirs, only to pull a pillow over his face and roll over, tangling himself further in the sheets. another moment passes before he realizes he has no idea where he is; but no, that's not right, he's just in... seviilia's... room. alive and well, at that.

somehow.

the light alone had been enough to keep him from wanting to get out of bed, but now he refuses to move even for the apocalypse. no way. he doesn't even know if she's still in the room, but he's definitely not going to check. no fucking way.

...

he checks, after a little while. the only other option is to go over what happened last night, since he's not going to be able to sleep again anytime soon, and even though the brightness makes him hiss and squint it's infinitely preferable to any acknowledgment of bad decisions theater. once marduk verifies that yes, she is in the room, the pillow is immediately restored to its proper spot on his face. ]

How long has it been. [ or-- how long have you left him alive, and also, how soon is that going to change. ]

I do not have a timekeeper.

[Well, she does, but its over in a corner somewhere. She doesn't look back when she answers, but her eyes narrow at whatever she is looking at.]

You sleep like the dead.

[She emphasizes dead, as opposed to undead. She's still in the dress from the night before, if only because the alternative was...well, nothing.]

[ ugh. as if he didn't know that already. it's bad enough being sober around seviilia again, and the pain in his head isn't helping at all. altogether it leaves him edgy, snappish, and wishing he'd stayed at the roulette table all night like he'd planned. ]

What's your point? [ marduk drags the blanket back over his head again, much like the night before; he's definitely beginning to reconsider his appreciation at being left alive. ] Are you jealous?

[This time, she looks over and gives him a look that says "Why are you so defensive?"]

Just an observation, darling.

[Jealousy? Please. She's way too old for--wait, no she isn't. Seviilia then turns her attention back outside. She spends the greater part of the next minute drumming her fingers against her folded arm. He's been awake for two minutes (to her knowledge) and he's already managed to aggravate her.]

[ whatever. he chafes at the resurgence of the pet name, but refrains from making the situation worse-- for now.

the silence stretches long between them, and it is so hard to fight down the urge to say something. he's not sure what; sorry? thanks? a bit of both? what he really wants to comment on is where she left him hanging before, when she'd run off. is that pushing his luck too much? it might be.

if only that was something that usually stopped him. ]

You didn't need to run. [ it comes out after a brief struggle. he'd wanted to say something a bit nicer, but... ] Honestly.

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