Fate: No Exit - [FATE Core] No Exit - Episode Two

[Charlotte]

Previously, on

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It started out like any other day, but that changed in a hurry.

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Through the fog of a half-remembered life, and the shock of meeting half-remembered acquaintances, you all left your apartments, in search of answers.

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You saw things you can't explain, and things you could explain but that still set your hair on edge. You saw the residents of the Complex, half-alive, almost dreaming, and you saw the eyes of the Management hovering over everything.

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The mysteries of the others beckon - the woman, Lana, who could speak in only a word at a time. Paul, who danced with a phantom. The caretaker Earnest, who knew where the bodies were all buried. But above all else, the same three questions haunt you:

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Why can't I remember?

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How did I get here?

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And how can I leave?

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* * *

Earnest has left, his cryptic message sitting on the sign he was cleaning. Not far from the group, Uriel is waiting. Paul has wandered off, for whatever reason. So has the man known as Emanuel Francis.

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What happens next is up to you.

[z019]

Lien glanced around the odd little group, then shrugged and shouldered her bag a bit more securely. "Well, swimmin's out, so I'm gonna go check out that apartment. Anyone wants to come along, I'm not adverse to some company."

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She gave Agri a particular look at that, hoping someone she knew, at least in passing, would be there to back her up. She strode past Uriel and added to him, "You comin' with us or no? It may not be the best lead, but unless your intel is counter to it, it's the best we've got right now."

[SalmonMax]

"Alright," James said, snapping out of the surreality of the moment. "Yeah. Only, lets set some ground rules. We need to be careful, what we say from now on. Especially inside. I'm not sure even God knows how many cameras and mics are in there, but probably a lot."

[Uriel Arcadia]

Uriel didn't have anything to counter it, and let any objections go for now, in the name of getting group support active. "I should warn you all, first. The doctor of course is already aware, but I was employed in 'private intelligence', and contrary to my initial memories - I was forced here by some.... colleagues. The point here; I suspect no one else here came here under the circumstances or reasons that they remember. So any internal realizations of that sort on your parts, should not be unexpected."

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"Oh, did I mention the door to Management isn't really a functional door. No hinges, no actual way to get in or out. I'm beginning to worry that this is comparable to actual cinematic Men in Black. To the apartment then?"

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For Uriel's concerning warning and expression, the words of that last sentence were amazingly blasé.

[z-Agrippina Solas]

Agri was staring at Uriel in disbelief. “A fuckin’ spook?” she grated, blinking slowly. “Yer a fuckin’ spook?”

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“We prefer intelligence specialist.” If Uriel was offended, he chose not to show it. “And I ‘was’ an intelligence specialist before they forced me to come here.”

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The tall, burly woman glowered at the handsome man for a few more heartbeats. “So ya say yer a spy, and we’re supposed to just be okay with it?”

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“I was a spy,” he explained patiently. Again. “Were I still a spy, I wouldn’t be telling you that I was.” His smile grew more sardonic. “It’s a mark of a bad spy to run around telling people what you are.”

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“Fine.” The word couldn’t be described as anything other than a grunt. Agri wasn’t completely sure it was fine; she’d be watching him. Him and Jack or whatever his name was. “Yeah, let’s go to the apartment and see what new fun is in store for us.”

[SalmonMax]

James watched Uriel for a moment, then seemed to shrug the revelation off.

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"I wouldn't get too bent out of shape," he advised. "For one, someone with that skill set might be just what we need here. For two...he said private intelligence, which means he wasn't a government agent. Corporate spy. No license to kill. Just big companies screwing other big companies over."

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"Anyway yeah, lets get moving. Before they release the hounds."

[z019]

Lien's glare was a palpable force hitting Uriel, her paranoid suspicion about the Complex now mixing in with old wounds of shame and the reckless behavior it had spawned. Never trust a pretty face or a smooth-talking man, she reminded herself. They're liars, every last damn one of them.

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She almost left right then and there, but her instincts told her that she wouldn't make it far past the front gates alone. If she'd even make it that far. So she slid herself around the group as they moved off, positioning herself so she could keep a wary eye on the spy and hopefully pull Agri away from the group if there became a pressing need to make a break from it. Agri wasn't exactly the kind of woman you wanted to bake cookies with or have over for afternoon tea, but if you needed to take down a dozen enemy enforcers or storm a locked gate, she seemed like the perfect partner compared to Lien's other choices.

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"Yeah," she assented in clipped, tight tones. "Let's head out."

[Charlotte]

Ira Sagebrush

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It started just like any other day.

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Ira awoke with a couch cushion propped under his head, his pillow having decided to wander off in the middle of his argument with it. It was the middle of the day, so early for him.

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He gently pushed the blanket aside and shuffled into the bathroom, half-awake. He drained the last of his bottle of Jack that he had sitting on the countertop, and started up the shower. As he waited for the water to heat up, he went through his medicine cabinet, and through all the pill jars in search of a little pick-me-up.

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He took a capsule in hand, and...

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Then he stopped, as he realized that the shower wasn't making noise any more.

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Ira turned around, looking suspiciously at the opaque shower curtain, that gave away just enough to see a vague shape and not a thing more. There was no sound. No gurgle in the plumbing in the pipes, no hiss of the shower head, no splash of water against the stainless steel of the tub.

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He reached forth, only slightly tentatively, and drew back the curtain.

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His shower was full of snow.

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It billowed forth, blowing out of the shower, twirling in the air, born aloft of stray currents. It wasn't cold - he knew from cold showers - but it wasn't liquid either. He stood, transfixed, watching it stick to the walls and pile up in the drain.

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He must have had his mouth open, because a flake landed on his tongue, and he knew from the moment it landed that it wasn't snow. Well, it was called snow, but from the numbness and the tingle he knew what it was. He'd spent more than a night face down in it.

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His showerhead was spraying cocaine at him.

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He felt his throat go dry, and he closed his eyes and shook his head, and the hiss of water returned. He opened them, and there was his shower, nice and hot, like it had been spraying water the whole time. The numbness on his tongue, however, was still there.

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Ira had dreams like this sometimes, when he thought he'd sunk as low as he could go. This didn't feel like a dream. Normally he'd treat it like one anyways, and go about... whatever he'd normally do in his apartment, it all blended together.

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Today? Today felt different.

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Uriel, Lien, Charles, James and Agri

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The group proceeded towards the entrance to the Complex.

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As they entered, they spied a lone customer at Angie's coffee shop, a middle-aged man in his bathrobe holding a newspaper under one arm. He was staring into the middle distance as he sipped his coffee.

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Angie, herself, was diligently cleaning the countertop at the bar. There were no other customers and as far as anyone could tell, no Managers watching them. They were free to ascend to the 7th floor.

[Doctor Charles Volcov]

Doctor Volcov eyed Angie warily as he passed through the lobby. She must be connected to the strangeness of this place somehow, but his memories seemed to suggest she was more approachable than the rest of the staff. She would be worth interrogating eventually. He glanced at the man in the bathrobe briefly and tried to place his face. The day's events had left him resolved to keep track of who he was sharing the complex with. He was growing tired of surprises.

[z019]

Lien moved smoothly through the lobby, her eyes tracking the man in the coffee shop and the barista at the bar, but her focus was on getting to the seventh floor. The sooner they looked into the room, hopefully the sooner they were out of this damn place and she could find Daniel. As ancy as she was to be on her way, though, she kept just far enough behind Uriel to keep a steady eye on him. He was...a number of things in her mind, few of them complimentary at the moment, and she wanted him where she could see him.

[SalmonMax]

James' eye started to bounce right off the guy in the coffee shop at first. After all, what could be more normal? A guy drinking coffee, reading the news, chilling out. Sure, okay, bathrobe, but was that really such a big deal? He lived here after all...

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Newspaper, eh?

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Huh. That was kind of interesting. Did it come from outside? Didn't seem likely, with all the crazy security. But was that weirder than the idea that somewhere on the grounds was a big printing press with ink and newsprint just to make fake newspapers for the...like, one or two people who actually still read them?

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A quick detour was needed.

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He went into the cafe and to the counter. "Morning, Angie," he said with somewhat excessive brightness. "Great day, isn't it? Hi there, mister. Say, could I borrow that newspaper for a second? I gotta check the numbers and it looks like the machine's fresh out."

[Charlotte]

The man didn't speak, and James found that the man smelt strongly of peppermint, of all things. This close, James could also see that the newspaper wasn't fresh - it was dated December 26, 1975, yellowed and fraying around the edges. Besides the date, James could make out that the paper was from Pittsburgh.

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Angie stopped cleaning the bar, and watched the two of them carefully. After a moment, she spoke up. "Ethan? Aren't you going to introduce yourself to James?"

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Ethan continued to be silent.

[z-Agrippina Solas]

Agri watched everyone carefully. When James stepped away from the group, she edged after him, half-following so she could see what he wanted. When he asked for a newspaper, she rolled her eyes. Her mouth opened to say something but the barista cut them off. “Look.” Agrippina caught James by the arm and leaned close. “We have that card game to get to, remember?” She raised her eyebrows at him and gave him an urgent look.

[SalmonMax]

James' eyes went from the paper to Agri's scarred face, then back to Ethan. He couldn't explain why, but he felt like the paper was important. Not in and of itself, maybe. But what it represented. She was right though, this was wasting time.

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"Yeah," he said with a sigh. "I remember. Sorry to bother you, Ethan. Angie."

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He got up and went with Agrippina back to the others.

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"That paper was from 1975. He must have had it on him all this time."

[Uriel Arcadia]

One of the requisite qualities for any proficient spy, was having a sixth sense for knowing when you were watched. Of course, situational awareness in Uriel's case pinged much quicker when he realized it was Lien, eyes boring at him. Strange, it was as if her attitude towards him had done a sudden fierce dive to sub-zero.

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"Is something wrong, Lien?" He asked curiously, unaware of her percolating suspicions.

[z019]

She just stared at him for a moment, floored that he would even ask such an obvious question. "No, I'm just peachy," she snapped at him, careful to keep her voice low. "It's been nothing but roses and rainbows around here."

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She pursed her lips at James' comment and shook her head, still keeping her voice down and trying to herd the group to the stairwell without having to take point. "Newsprint isn't that resilient, not if he's been handling it. It would have corroded from the oils in his hands. Unless it's like the river, then who the hell knows?" She shrugged, then added after a second of thought, "But maybe that's the whole 'Kiosk' scam. Make you think you can get stuff, then double dose you on whatever it is they give you here and make you forget you even ordered something. So they look like there's a link to outside, but it's bullshit just like the quarantine. It'd be a good way to see when someone's getting too lucid."

[SalmonMax]

"It looked pretty yellow and old," James said musingly, "but...he reminds me of this woman I saw earlier. Shy, hardly said a word, but she flipped out over this one particular coffee mug. I just have this feeling if I'd tried to take that paper from him, he'd have had the same reaction. And that paper...Christmas 1975."

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James shook his head as he tried and failed to find words for what was going through his mind. "I don't know. Maybe it's nothing. Two people clinging to little objects. Not so weird in a place like this, I guess."

[Ira Sagebrush]

Ira Sagebrush

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...His showerhead was spraying cocaine at him.

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He felt his throat go dry, and he closed his eyes and shook his head, and the hiss of water returned. He opened them, and there was his shower, nice and hot, like it had been spraying water the whole time. The numbness on his tongue, however, was still there.

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Ira had dreams like this sometimes, when he thought he'd sunk as low as he could go. This didn't feel like a dream. Normally he'd treat it like one anyways, and go about... whatever he'd normally do in his apartment, it all blended together.

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Today? Today felt different.

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Christ fuck me with a pineapple, I am losing it.

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Ira stripped and stepped in the shower. If he was going to complain to management about cocaine smoke machines in his pipes, it was probably better to do it sans the stench of Doritoes and Johnnie Walker. He occasionally glanced back as he soaked himself, worried about what else might come oozing out of the fixture. He tossed an empty bottle of Captain Morgan over the curtain rod and numerous bars of hotel bar soaps from his caddy, where the hell did I get all these, before finding a bottle of Dove. It performed as shampoo, body wash, shaving cream and lotion before the water was turned off.

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He dried off with a reasonably clean towel and scavenged among the clothes until he found what he thought were clean jeans and a white t-shirt. I need to fire the maid...do I have a maid? If I do, they are fucking terrible. He eventually found socks, but gave up on underwear and decided that the upcoming confrontation required going commando. He finished off with styling wax in his hair, cologne everywhere else and double-taked when he thought he saw a small puff of white come out of the sink faucet when he wet his toothbrush.

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You are not insane yet. He couldn't locate any toothpaste, so he brushed without and vowed some impromptu mouthwash with Mr. Daniels.

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His mundane routine finished, he scavenged for his wallet and keys before leaving the apartment. God I need a vacation, my life is hell. He closed his door behind him, fished a cigarette out of his back pocket, guess they weren't that clean, and lit it with his ever-present lighter before heading for the stairs.

[Doctor Charles Volcov]

"Object attachment of that magnitude isn't especially common. At least, it is rarely indulged in more reputable institutions." The Doctor replied to James, speaking lowly and eyeing the man with the paper. "I believe we would have a better chance of determining just what this place is if we could get a better sense of its occupants' deviations."

[Charlotte]

The group reluctantly disengaged from Ethan, and Angie went back to cleaning the countertop.

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The six of you make it to the 7th floor. It has the following Aspects:

• They're All Out To Get You
• 
  
• Lies Will Save You
• 
  

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They went up the stairs, without incident, and emerged onto the seventh floor... just as Ira opened the door to his apartment.

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All six of them locked eyes with each other, and they remembered...

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OOC

A bit of a quickie post as I still have midterms. ,,

The sight of Ira has caused the new memories everyone just created (and the extra one that Ira's player made) to bubble up. You have access to the Aspects now.

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Feel free to make new friends, or rediscover old ones.

[z-Agrippina Solas]

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Is everyone in this nuthouse someone I bounced out of a bar, saw my worst day or let me sleep on their couch?” Agrippina pressed her fingertips to her forehead and spread them slowly, trying to hit all the pressure points on her head in one go. I am the master of my rage. I control my rage. She didn’t mention the fact that her former shrink was here, too.

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She opened her eyes and found that she was calmer. “M’kay. We gonna check out this room or not?”

[Doctor Charles Volcov]

"Yes... yes let's." Doctor Volcov wore a pained expression. If he hadn't been able to remember Agrippina, a very interesting case now that he recalled, what else had he forgotten?

[Ira Sagebrush]

Ira gasped in surprise and then accidently swallowed the mouthful of tobacco-laden air. He winced as it went down painfully, choked, and coughed as he did mental acrobatics trying to make sense of things.

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What the hell was I smoking last night.

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He gained control of himself and glanced at the group, arched an eyebrow at Lien and Uriel.

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Do I even wanna know why those two are together? And why do they have a posse? I am either over-thinking or this is God's way of going in dry.

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Ira took a drag to further calm himself and approached the group, "You all mind if I squeeze by?"

[z019]

Lien glanced at Agri, her expression settling into deeper lines of worry and aggravation. At this point, she felt she really shouldn't be surprised at seeing another familiar face. She groped around in her mind for a minute, trying to remember the guy's name. She hadn't been as drunk as the rest of the girls that night - which was why she'd woken up on the couch instead of strung out somewhere in his bedroom - but she remember that mostly they'd called him Riker, which was a play on the German word 'reiche' which meant rich man, and when you're a half-dozen drinks into a dozen bottle night and a closet Star Trek fan, it just seemed terribly hilarious.

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Yeah, it had been one of those shore leaves.

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No, he'd told them his name. Earlier on in the night before everyone was drunk or high or both. It started with a vowel, right? Eric? Ike? Ira?

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"Ira?" She asked, mostly sure that had been the name. She held up her hands to keep him from just breezing past them. "Wait, do you recognize me? Do you know how long you've been here?"

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They could get to the room in just a minute; they might have another ally here, or someone with more answers. Or, her mind added uncharitably, another pretty boy to screw things up. Her eyes slid over to Uriel for just the briefest second while she waited for 'Riker's' answer.

[Uriel Arcadia]

Uriel's attention was not on Lien in the least, very briefly shifting over to James before neutrally retreating. Duncan probably didn't know about Uriel's involvement in 'the scares' at all, and given the guilty nature of what Uriel had taken payment for - the former espionage specialist had no intent to lit that potential powderkeg.

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Not when that kid Ira Sagebrush was right there - Semtex and C4 mixed with a thumb on the detonator. Here Uriel had no regrets, the spoiled boy had demonstrated no sense of perspective in their previous interactions. Ira had placed at most a token effort towards hiding his activities.

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Once law enforcement glanced his way, Ira's little clamshell business would have turned into a pile of collapsed cards, with or without Uriel. And having timed actually reporting to his clients precisely for maximum milking, Uriel had known that their prodigal son certainly still was far from penniless despite closing up shop.

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Though if Lien recognized Ira... no, Lien had too much integrity for Ira Sagebrush. Besides, jealousy was unprofessional... wasn't it?

[Doctor Charles Volcov]

Dr. Volcov shook his head, examining the newcomer intensely but briefly. He then turned to face the Door In Question but did not approach it yet. He had no desire to interrupt the latest of these surreal reunions until he was sure nothing educational would come of it.

[Ira Sagebrush]

Ira's eyes flicked back and forth as he followed Lien's glance at Uriel.

Yeeeeah. Somethin' ain't right here. Gotta play it cool.

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Ira mentally paused briefly as he considered what to say here.

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Chicks dig guys that smoke.

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Ira took a drag on his Newport and answered Lien's question on the exhale, "Yeah, sure, I may or may not remember you." He intentionally did not answer the second question. Unless he was under arrest, he had no reason to reveal more information than necessary and even then, his lawyer would be answering questions. "I see you've taken to hanging out with douchenozzles."

[SalmonMax]

James just frowned at Ira, and Agri's outburst confused him for a second...then he realized they knew each other, and that put a sarcastic smile on his face. Oh yeah, he knew that feeling. The sudden paranoiac burst where you didn't just suspect the universe revolved around you and meant you ill but knew it. Bone deep.

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Then he looked over at Lien, because she was nicer to look at...and something about how she was looking at Agri stopped him cold. That intense stare, full of conflicted emotion that only showed in the eyes.

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Jesus Christ...it was her.

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His hand went to his chest, over his heart, and he stepped back right into the wall. The dog tags. The long talk. He'd asked her to tell him how she'd died...and she did. Seeing her was almost as bad as going through it again, but worse still was that it had taken him this long to remember.

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What the fuck were they dosing people with?!

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Answers.

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"I'm with Agri on this," he said. He'd barely even registered the douchnozzle thing. Too much to process. Some stupid punk kid wasn't even on his radar. "Lien, if you want to talk to your friend..." James glanced at Ira assessingly, and shrugged, "...we'll let you know what we find."

[z019]

Lien gave the cigarette a disdainful frown and waved the smoke away from her face. "Apparently. You seem fairly lucid," if way less interesting when I'm not plastered. She managed not to add the thought aloud. "You and Uriel know each other? Seems like this place is reunion-city along with being some sort of fucked up prison."

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She gave him a level look; she may or may not have actually got to spend time being a mother, but being the only woman and medic for a bunch of Marines had perfected her 'mom' look anyways. "You want out or is desperately trying to look cool taking up all your time today?"

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Okay, maybe not as diplomatic as she could be, but this wasn't Oktoberfest and her son was still out there somewhere. She wasn't going to waste time on Ira if he was going to be just one more prick in the pack.