hadriel | 003 [Video]

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003 [Video]

[The video feed turns on to show what is probably a strange pair of people to be making a post together. It's also a really, really important post about an incredibly important subject.

Chris offers a small grin and a wave at the camera.]

Okay, so, I feel like I should say that I'm not announcing anything horrible about monsters this time. Just... Making that clear upfront.

[Is everyone relieved? Good.]

Instead, Cashmere and I are taking a super important poll.

[He glances toward Cashmere, waiting to see if she wants to continue from here.]

Very important. [ She agrees and pauses for a moment, fixing her hair in the camera. ]

I'm sure you’ve all noticed Chris and I have something special in common. So we need to know who else out there shares our special quality. Are you blonde?

[ Yes, she is serious. ]

We're here to make sure those of us who are blonde are having the most fun. If you're not having fun, we’ll think of a way to fix that.

[ She glances to Chris. Ideas?

Chris looks over at her in response, then fixes the video with a serious expression.]

Yeah. And if you are having fun, could you like... Tell us your secrets? Because that'd be pretty awesome.

[That covers the totally important stuff, he thinks. Any last remarks, Cashmere?]

Non-blondes need not reply. [ That should win some friends. ]

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Oh, I--see.

[Maketh wonders if she ought to say sorry for that. This place is no one's home. But everyone is - for now - alive, and relatively whole. And at least Chris and his friends have each other. A bond like that must help, she thinks. Though Maketh doubts it makes up for being stuck here in the first place.

She decides not to say anything, in case she gets it wrong.]

I ran into one of them when I first arrived. I haven't had a chance to speak with her again, so I thought--perhaps I would ask you. If that's all right.

[Is she doing this right? It seems much more complicated than demanding a status report. Being social is hard. Maketh clears her throat.]

Her name is Emily, I believe.

[It definitely helps to have people he knows well here; everything would be even more stressful without them. But at the same time it'd be nice if his friends were somewhere a lot safer.

Still, it's nice to know Jess is alive. He'd been pretty certain she'd died that night on the mountain, and he's never been happier to be wrong.

He's definitely not expecting Maketh's next words though, brightening a little again.]

I didn't know you knew Emily. I can't speak for her too much but she's complaining to me about the quality of the coffee here, so. Can't be too bad.

[It's half true; as far as he understands, Emily's as good as she can be in the situation. It's just that the situation doesn't allow for a whole lot of good, since she'd been a wendigo.]

Edited 2016-03-14 03:17 (UTC)

[Maketh brightens a little at the mention of coffee. So there is some. Excellent.]

We've only met the one time, at the...beginning. I'm glad she's...as well as you can get here, I suppose.

[Emily had done her a favor with the birds, one that Maketh intends to repay sometime.]

You mentioned coffee?

Oh, did you guys like... Run into each other in the arena?

[Somehow he thinks Maketh and Emily would clash a bit, unless they were more concerned about not dying than about what the other was saying.]

Yeah. We've had a run of luck in that department, at least. Which is good, because I think the whole house is running on caffeine at this point.

[Five traumatized teenagers equals not a lot of sleeping, for several reasons.]

Yes. She, ah, helped me.

[The bird wasn't, perhaps, the greatest threat at the time, but Maketh is still thankfully that Emily made it stop. She still hears the screaming sometimes.

It's funny. Before Hadriel, she slept very well. Now she has nightmares more often than not.

Maketh smiles a little.] I can understand that. Could you tell me where you found it?

Oh, cool. She's uh... Pretty tough.

[Which is surprising considering she doesn't always act like it, but Emily's pretty badass when she wants to be.]

Yeah, sure. It was in the little cluster of shops by the lake; I think the one closest to the broken bridge but I can't remember exactly.

That will be helpful here.

[Hopefully. Maketh doesn't know Emily very well at this point.]

Thank you. I shall look for it. Strange, how much I miss coffee.

Is coffee a big thing in your world too?

[If so, he finds it amusing on some level that coffee is a somewhat universal thing.]

Oh yes. Wars have been fought.

[Not really. There might have been some stabbings. Trade negotiations get weird sometimes.]

Wouldn't be surprised at all. Coffee's serious business.

Very. Switching out an officer's coffee for decaf is the standard revenge scheme, if you happen to dislike whichever aid happens to be serving them.

I, of course, would never do such a thing.

Sure. Never.

[Said in a tone that makes it totally obvious he doesn't believe a word he's saying.]

Do they have energy drinks where you're from?

Oh yes. I'd say most planets run on them. I prefer coffee myself. I end up less--jittery. I suppose you do as well, then?

I actually did mostly energy drinks in school. More kick and I need like, a lot of caffeine to actually feel it.

Coffee's way better than nothing, though.

[Maketh winces in sympathy.] You must have had some bad headaches since coming here.

[Caffeine withdrawal is Not Fun.]

[He considers that a moment, then gives a small grin.]

You know, it's kind of funny and not funny at the same time, but I think I had a concussion when I first got here. So I didn't even feel the caffeine withdrawal.

[It had all blended into one headache, which is probably a really good thing.]

But now I've gone and like, done the same thing but with coffee, so when we inevitably don't find more of it at some point I'm totally screwed.

[He'll just try and avoid that happening.]

[Maketh looks surprised at the news, but not particularly horrified.] That would do it, yes. I suppose I couldn't have been the only one who came in with injuries. Did you have someone look at it?

[Because head injuries are awful, even in Maketh's world.]

Ah. Well, enjoy it while it lasts.

I think uh... Unfortunately I think a lot of people get here already banged up.

[Which makes the whole 'appearing in an arena full of monsters thing' even worse than it otherwise would've been.

And uh... Three guesses what the answer to that question is. At least he looks a little sheepish about it.]

I sort of didn't even think about it much.

[His knee had hurt a lot worse, and fortunately if he did have a concussion it wasn't severe and resolved fine on its own.]

Yeah, thanks. Probably not going to last all that long with five people sharing the supply, but we'll worry about that when it comes to it.

[If these two were talking in person, Chris would be getting the full glare of Maketh's stink eye. As it is, she merely gives him a look.] I see. How's your leg doing, by the way?

[You're gonna be in trouble if you haven't gotten it looked at, kid.]

Drink more water. It helps if you're hydrated. With the headaches.

[He knows that look.]

Oh, um, I think I hear Ashley calling for me to get something off the top shelf for her...

[It's not even meant to be convincing, just a joke that doubles as an answer by its very nature.]

Yeah. I'll try that. I think dehydration headaches are worse than the caffeine withdrawal ones, actually.

[Or at least really serious ones are, which he has no desire to ever have again. Keeping up on water is definitely a good idea, and not one he's really in the habit of considering he's a teenage boy.]

[She rolls her eyes.]

You're worse my troopers, I swear. Do get it looked at. I mean it.

[If she has to, Maketh will drag him there herself. Neither of them will enjoy the experience.]

I suppose it depends which one makes you hallucinate first. Though I can't recommend the experience, honestly.

[Yeah she's had those. Keeping on top of the Empire's nonsense requires a lot of paperwork, and a lot of caffeine.]

I will, I will.

[Eventually. It's not that he's purposefully avoiding it, life is just... Life, here.]

Oh, ouch, I've never hallucinated before from either one. Gonna try and avoid that.

[At least he's pretty sure he hasn't, anyway, and the whole idea creeps him out for lots of reasons. He knows hallucinations from lack of sleep or dehydration or some other things are relatively normal and nothing to worry about as long as the underlying problem is resolved--maybe it's actually weirder that he hadn't started seeing things when he'd been buried alive for three days--but he's not going to complain. He's perfectly happy not to hallucinate ever.]

See that you do. These things can get worse if you ignore them, and we don't have the supplies to fix anything serious.

[She's going to be keeping an eye on him for a while now. Because while she might wander around with blast trauma and internal bleeding - you know, all the fun stuff - that doesn't mean Maketh will let anyone else get away with it. Especially civilians.]

One time was for survival training. The other--

[Well. Maketh clears her throat.]

Paperwork. There's a great deal of paperwork if expensive technology gets blown up on your watch.

Yeah.

[He's pretty sure it's too messed up to do much about in this place unless he bothers one of the people with magic, which he's not sure he wants to. Sure, fixing it would be great, but he's both a little hesitant about magic and not sure about asking people he doesn't even know for that kind of favor.

But he'll figure something out. At least it's a lot better now than it was when he first got here.

He raises his eyebrows slightly at her response; the survival training thing is weird but not all that surprising, but the other is so incredibly mundane that it's almost funny.]

I always knew paperwork was dangerous stuff. Was it like, days worth or something?

There's someone here named Thom. A healer. He helped me when I first came, and my injuries were extensive. Go see him.

[She ought to check in with Thom, actually...

Maketh huffs, though she's still grinning. It's almost funny, now that she's stepped back from the Empire and all its complications.] You have no idea. That prototype was probably a year's worth of my salary. Possibly two. And of course the engineers needed funding to do repairs and my idiot troopers think launching rockets is going to solve any of that.

I'm fortunate you lot are smarter than that.

003 [Video]

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