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[She's had her angry outburst at the actual machine, and after a couple of days of thinking about it, now she's just irritated. Naturally, the slightly hypocritical angle of her annoyance given what happened between her and R doesn't occur to her while she's squinting at the rest of Hadriel.

Julie, of all people, should understand that one individual in a horde can make all the difference.]

Are any of you actually trusting this Null that was so conveniently left here? Seriously, anyone believing a word it says must have hit their head. For all we know it's just tricking us so it can send its location back to the others and they can find us again.

Should just set the fucking thing on fire, bury it in a hole and forget about it.

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[This is the kind of thing that she can easily get swept up in. Something that feels like actually doing something and not just waiting for the next thing to happen.

So, she nods.]

Yeah, okay. I'll meet you there.

[ Curufin is the same. He's all for action and has a hard time being patient when it looks as though there is nothing to do but wait for the next thing to happen. He and Julie have that in common. ]

See you shortly!

Uh-- yeah, okay.

[Something should probably stop her, here. Something about stranger danger, maybe, and the fact she doesn't know this guy from Adam. None of that actually does keep her from heading out, however, and she shows up at the library not long after.]

[ It's true they don't know each other well. But Curufin is sensitive to these issues these days. He isn't very far from the library, so he gets there quickly. He spots her, and he approaches without haste, not to seem in any way threatening. He's tall and strong, and also armed, but his manner is friendly and respectful. ]

Nice to meet you in person, Julie. Shall we try walking around the building. . . what's left of it, that is? Some of those large pieces of rubble could shelter a Null, if one were looking for a hiding place.

Edited 2018-04-09 08:40 (UTC)

[There's something 'off' about him from the moment he gets close enough that she can properly make out his features. Not 'creepy', but more 'not human', and she isn't sure why her mind is coming to that conclusion until she sees the way his ears curve up, tapering to an elegant point.

She peers at him, watching his face carefully while he speaks. Sure, she's seen these people before, but she's never spoken to one of them.]

Yeah... yeah, sounds good. [Julie starts moving, covering the urge to stare with making sure she watches where her feet are going through the rubble.]

Uh... weird question. [God, she has to ask it, though.] ... Are you an elf?

[ He's recognizable as an Elf, even though the tips of his ears are far less pointed than those of say, the tribe that Lup and Taako belong to -- or for that matter, than the ears of his brothers Maedhros and Maglor. He could pass for human if you didn't look too closely. What actually sets him apart is the subtle energy he radiates, which speaks of an ancient world in which titanic battles were fought by gods, demons, and eldritch beings such as himself, all of whom were born in the Morning of the World and radiate the power of that lost era.

They start walking, picking their way amongst the rubble. ]

[ He smiles. ] Yes, I'm an Elf. Have you met any others of my kind? I've got family here, and some friend who are of an Elf-clan from a different world than mine.

[There was something about him that made her look more closely immediately. The ears were the giveaway - the world might have gone to shit a decade ago, but she's at least read a few books.]

Mm, no, you're the first. [When Julie thinks about it, she actually doesn't get out that much.]

I mean, I guess we could have spoken and I didn't know.

[ And who knows what strange ideas are contained in those books! Few seem to have genuinely understood the Elvish race. ]

Well, then I'm honored to be the first Elf you've spoken with. [ Smile. ]

We did speak once before on the net, more than five months ago. I was swearing at the Null, hoping they'd be listening and put me back on their kill list where I belong. But you and I were both on voice mode, so you wouldn't have known I wasn't a mortal.

Oh, yeah... [Julie drags the word out, drawling it as she throws her memory back to places she generally tries to keep it from going.]

I remember. Didn't get your name or anything. [She shakes her head.] Guess you're still doing okay far as first impressions go.

[ It was a bad time for everyone, though exciting -- Curufin experienced it that way, at least. He does not know how it was for Julie, and now he wonders. ]

It's Curufin Fëanorion. And you're Julie Grigio. I looked at your caller ID when we were talking back then. [ Another grin. ] I'm pleased to know that my first impression score is still high. I would say the same for you.

Edited 2018-04-18 10:16 (UTC)

Cabernet. [She corrects quickly, abruptly enough to dismiss everything he says after. Very few people had heard the name Grigio in an introduction, for all the name attached to her messages says.]

Not Grigio. It's Julie Cabernet.

Cabernet? That is a red wine, is it not?

Very well, I shall call you by the name you choose.

Yeah. Always was more of a red wine kind of girl.

[She smiles awkwardly and shrugs.]

Thanks. I'll apologise in advance if I forget yours. That's one hell of a last name.

[ He smiles back. ] There is a richness and intensity about you that is very reminiscent of a red wine.

And no apologies necessary if you forget my surname! Maybe it will make more sense if you know its meaning. Fëanor was my father's name, and the -ion ending denotes a son. So, Fëanorion translates simply as "son of Fëanor." Oh, and my father's name means "spirit of fire."

Hah... God, no one's ever said that about me before.

[Augh, god, is she blushing? She might be blushing. It was so corny, but also kind of flattering.]

Fëanorion. Okay, I got it. You think we have any chance of finding this thing out here?

Well, perhaps someone ought to have said it. It's true. [ He smiles back. ]

[ Elves can be corny, too. XD ]

I don't know if we have any chance of finding the lost android or not. I guess all we can do is look. If we're going to give it a shot, how much time do you have to spend on this? Should we have a cutoff point?

[The corniest. She's going to have to keep that in mind.]

I guess... a couple of hours? There can't be too many places it could be hiding. [Julie huffs out a sigh.]

But then, we don't even know how much of it there is.

[ Always remember the corniness of Elves! ]

All right, that sounds reasonable. I guess it would be looking for certain kinds of places and wouldn't go for just any heap of rubbish. It wouldn't want to hide where people were walking around a lot, much less poking around. So I guess the Library ruins are a good bet. And after that, we could try the unused spires, maybe.

[ He starts moving again, heading into the shadows of the nearest huge fallen blocks of masonry. He's got a flashlight, and he shines it around. ]

[ Singsong voice ] Come out, come out, wherever you are, Name. . .

Ugh, I wish you wouldn't call it that.

[She scrunches her nose up, kicking at a small piece of rubble as they go.]

If it's not enough to have people telling us we've got to protect it without actually giving anyone a fucking choice, they have to cutesy it up with a name, too.

[ He smiles a little. ] I guess they thought it was funny, that it calls itself [ Name ], with brackets.

Well, what shall we call it, if we don't call it that?

Why call it anything? It's a Null, and just because it's tugged on a few bleeding hearts doesn't mean a fucking thing.

[She grits her teeth against the little voice in the back of her mind that tells her she's being a hypocrite. That she should give it a chance just like she gave R a chance.

But it's not the same. It's not.]

It's a thing. And the sooner we can get rid of it, the better.

True, it's a Null. The irony is that, in the Common Speech, the word Null means NOTHING.

[ Curufin himself will change his mind in the near future, not so much for Name's sake but for the sake of what the little android might be able to teach them about its species. He'll be willing to let that one live in order to kill the rest of them in the long run. But at the moment, he just wants to kill the lot of them, starting with Name. ]

I agree.

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