malnosso | [Locked to Residents]

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malnosso

[Locked to Residents]

[Appearing on the journals is a written message as follows. A voice option is provided for a computerized reading of the text.]

Attention Luceti Residents.

The following names are being called to participate in a strike against the cultist hordes:
[the names listed here appear on the journal.]

All subjects are required to arrive at the tunnels at 8AM on the 27th of March for deployment. All listed individuals are required to be present. Subjects will then be escorted to TERRACE for battle preparation and further details.

Target will be Region One, a former Malnosso stronghold, presently in cultist hands. Subjects are advised to prepare for combat in forested areas. Further information will be made available at TERRACE. Questions and answers will not be provided at this time.

[The Malnosso will not reply to this message, but everyone is free to use this post to discuss among themselves, whether using voice options on the journal or doing action threads.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She had to stop herself before she blurted the unretractable: you kinda almost maybe sorta had the fatherly thing down in spades. But those were thoughts and dizzying emotional heights she didn't dare revisit so casually. Still, it was hard not to remember him as the patriarch of their house. A house he built, in point of fact.

And now, here he was, coming to her for help. Oh -- he didn't couch it in those terms. She never expected he ever would. But that's what was happening. Horner wanted her help; her responsibility; her duty. He wasn't disparaging it, but commending it. Just by wanting it.

She lined up the four wine bottles on the counter, twisting them until all their labels lined up. "What's she like? You can't let me walk into this blind, y'know..."

What was she like? He had to think about that for a moment. Kids were a mysterious thing. He hadn't had much to do with them since he was one himself. So he thought about how he would describe her that didn't include just include general kid-like traits.

"Well, she's yea high." He indicated a height shorter than she actually was. "Nice enough kid. Got a big thing for zombies. Calls 'em walkers. I guess that's the big thing in her world. So just let her know that you're willing to kill her if she gets turned and she should warm up to you pretty quick."

"Oh, that is so unbelievably twisted."

But then Buffy thought about how many friends, strangers, children, and helpless old ladies she'd slayed. Gladly. And -- eventually -- easily. She glanced down across the wine labels and gathered her thoughts. Most of them tilted 'round the notion of this poor child.

"I get it. Shouldn't be too hard to say..." But it would be. It would be hard. Vaskoth had been so unbelievably hard, and even since then she'd been butting heads with the realization that Jack Sparrow had killed her and his beautiful dream child for all the same reasons: because it had to be done. Even just telling a child she could do the deed was a harrowing prospect. It pained her. That pain, she supposed, was a good sign. There was something human yet left to her.

She swallowed hard. "What a sucky world to be from."

Edited 2013-03-25 18:54 (UTC)

"I've seen some shitty worlds, but hers sounds like a real kick in the pants." He felt bad for the tyke. She should be getting ice cream and trips to the beach. Not surviving the end of the world. Or someone else's war, for that matter.

"I figure if she doesn't have to see any of that stuff here? All the better. She's had plenty of it to last her a few years."

"Mmhm," she hummed her agreement, her mind still a million miles off. Floating somewhere between Sparrow's stories and every iteration of a zombie she's ever witnessed in her too-long-of-a-short-life. In truth, she found that when she pushed past the murky trauma hazing up her thoughts, she admired what Horner was attempting.

This was a new feeling.

"I'll keep her out of the thick of it. It's not like they ever really need me on the front lines. There are more than enough super-powers to go around."

"Good. Then you're ready to meet the little runt. Wanna ditch this place before it gets too busy?"

As a matter of fact, he planned this. Little Clem wouldn't be far away.

"...Not particularly, no. Ditching would kinda be--"

She glanced around. She'd be able to get back in time, right? Probably. Likely. And it wasn't as though she could not meet the girl before taking her life into her hands. "Fine. Let's at least make sure she actually...y'know, likes me."

"This won't take long. We can bring her back. Make her a smoothie or something."

He set aside the bottles he'd been stacking up, brushed his hands off on the sides of his jeans, and made his way round the counter.

"Smoothies. Wow. You really are trying to dad it up, aren't you?"

She hopped over the bar, beating him by the simple virtue of being a show-off.

He shot her a dirty look, one which was aimed at her back, before falling into step behind her.

"Hey, I'm gonna want one too."

"Throw in breakfast and it'll be just like old times," she huffed as she shouldered open the front door.

[Waiting for grownups to talk was boring. But Clem had been barred from entering the bar (who even wants to go in bars anyway? Drunk people say the meanest things!), so it was up to her to find outdoor entertainment in the meanwhile. When the door opens, there's audible scrambling, the patter of little sneakers trying to avoid being caught standing where they shouldn't be.

She comes to a halt moments after the door is fully open, hands coated elbow-deep in dirt. She smiles innocently despite the filthy smears on her cheek. She's totally been waiting patiently like an adorable angel child this entire time and has absolutely not been up to any wrongdoings no way no how.]

[Jack was utterly unperturbed by whatever it was she was up to when he got outside. She could clean her own darn hands later. That wasn't his job. All the same, he gave her a once over, raised his eyebrows in mock disapproval, then gestured to her.]

Buffy, meet Clem.

[ buffy isn't quite so unperturbed by the sight. or, at least, she does drag her rag of a dishcloth off her shoulder and crouch a few feet from the girl being given the introduction. ]

Hey, Clem. Jack, here -- [ she concedes his first name on account of there being a child in the mix and differentiating between jacks by surnames, as she often did, would help no one ] -- has been telling me all about how you can apparently actually stand his company.

[ she makes a little, casual gesture to bring the girl forward. inviting her within arms' reach so she can scrub off some of that dirt. buffy won't be offended if clem doesn't come. it is a lot to ask as a stranger. she knows that. ]

Tell me, now. That can't really be true, can it? [ the question is conspiratorial. good-natured. she expects the girl does in truth like horner. and why not? he was fun enough. humourous enough. cool enough. all appealing traits. and a child wouldn't see the sleaze so readily. buffy could understand the attraction. ]

[Oh. Oh there are introductions. And she's kind of gross and dirty.

She's quick to move slightly behind Jack's pant leg. It's not enough to hide by any means, but it's enough to create a physical barrier of Jack-ness that should be protective enough if this conversation doesn't immediately go well.]

Hi.

[She'll stay there throughout Buffy's attempts to interact with her. Buffy looks nice and all, but plenty of nice-looking people have terrible agendas. It's better to wait and be sure first.

The joke about Jack's trustworthiness gets a smile out of her, at least.]

Put the rag away, Buffy. You go smiling at kids like that, you're gonna terrify them.

[He reaches around to give Clem a pat on the head, before trying to scoot her ahead anyway.]

Clem, she's gonna be going to that place the suits- the Malnosso were talking about. She'll be keeping you out of trouble.

[ she straightens, perching her hands on her hips. ] What? Isn't smiling what you're supposed to do with kids?

Edited 2013-03-26 14:57 (UTC)

[ although she's good in a crisis, buffy isn't necessarily the best sitter. but when jack makes the long-form introduction, buffy offers up a sheepish wave. ] You're in good hands, Clem. [ a pause. ] Is Clem short for something? 'Cause I know this other Clem and he...

[ was big baggy-skinned demon. ]

Clementine.

[Oh, she can be scooted, but that doesn't mean she has to like it! She looks back to Jack instead.]

Is she supposed to help me kill people when they send me away?

Uh. Yeah. Something like that.

[He indicates via hand gestures that Clem isn't going to be killing anybody.]

[ for once in her life, she lets the whole i don't kill i slay thing slip to the wayside. ]

...Sure. [ she answers with feigned enthusiasm, taking her cue from jack's gestures. ] Among, y'know, other things. Other much more survivalish-based things.

Do you have to survive a lot when you're home? Some people get really good at it after a while.

She's great at surviving, Clem. Sometimes she goes a whole day without a shower.

Ignore him. [ she shoots jack a wry smirk. ] He knows nothing of my bathing habits. Besides, surviving is kinda my deal. Jack tells me you're familiar with the concept of the undead? Well, think of me as someone who takes care of the undead for a living. Hah. Get it? Living.

[Bad jokes are all around right now, and it effectively loosens up the tension brought on by meeting a new adult. Clementine giggles. Okay, Buffy. You can stay. You're allowed.]

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