[Locked to Residents]

[malnosso]

[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.]

Comments

[originaljackass]

[Jack would also like to know why the hell we're talking about roasted squirrel.]

[herotypical]

[ it's called casual conversation, horner. learn to have it. or...perhaps just have it with someone who isn't buffy summers. ]

Beats me. I suspect I wouldn't be a fan of squirrel -- never mind how much meat they have -- [ and how the little girl knows that. ]

Anyway. Maybe it's not even true. I heard it from a guy who knows a guy who lives with a girl. In gossip terms, that's practically untraceable.

[smallsurvivor]

[Because sometimes roasted squirrel comes up in conversations that happen between a half-dozen starving adults. It's so not even weird.]

It's not good to gossip. That's how a lot of lies get spread.

[originaljackass]

Yeah, Buffy. You heard the kid. Shame on you.

[herotypical]

I am what I am. I can't be changed.

[ and instead of saying anything else, the immediate area was filled with the sound of a blender rather violently blending. ]

[smallsurvivor]

[It's a startling noise that Clem wasn't entirely prepared for. She yelps and jumps, burying her face against Jack's middle. Please don't be getting your hand gnarled off now, Buffy. Please don't be getting your hand gnarled off.]

[originaljackass]

[Oof. Well, Jack hadn't been quite prepared for that. Of all the things to make her react, a blender wasn't one of them. Momentarily at a loss for what to do, he pats her on the back.]

Easy, Clem. It's just a blender.

[herotypical]

[ with a reaction like that, buffy can't help but scrabble her fingers over the blender's face in the hopes of shutting it down. she knows its buttons like she knows almost everything else in this bar, but the overwhelming desire to stop spooking the girl drives logic well outside of her brain. ]

S-sorry! [ she stammers, finally opting to just unplug the damn thing. ] I should have yelled fore. Or maybe timber. Or whatever the blender equivalent is.

[smallsurvivor]

[Of course it's just a blender! But it's a blender with sharp blades and it sounds just like the kind of accident that would leave terrible horrible things all over!!]



Is there a lot of blood?

[originaljackass]

Blood? Who said anything about blood?

[herotypical]

No blood. We're bloodless. Just -- [ she waggles her fingers ] -- strawberry juice. [ and then promptly sticks the stained finger in her mouth, tasting the tart red not-blood. there's so little of it that she suspects it wasn't the juice that spooked the girl, but the sound. an important fact to file away. ]

It takes more than a blender to...[ make me bleed ] hurt me, I promise. Everyone's a-okay. And very close to smoothie goodness. [ she glances at jack. ] Why don't you two go pick one of the much quieter booths and I'll be along with the drinks soon. Lickety split.

[smallsurvivor]

[Oh. Is there no--? Oh.

Clementine slowly peels herself away from Jack, eyes downcast.]

Sorry. It sounded like an accident.

[originaljackass]

[Jack pats Clem on the head. Despite himself, he's fond of her, even if she's weird.]

Nah, see, that's just how it always is with Buffy. She makes everything seem like an accident.

[herotypical]

Oh, sure. Because that's going to inspire the gal with every confidence in my ability to -- well -- do anything. Thanks a lot, Horner.

[smallsurvivor]

[Clementine doesn't think of herself as weird! It's this place that's weird. It's way too normal and things haven't earned the right to be so normal yet.]

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you upset with each other. [Because what is all this play fighting even. Mom and Dad never undercut one another like this.]

[originaljackass]

It's fine, Clem. Me and your aunt Buffy fight all the time. It's why our marriage didn't work out. Also, I turned into a dragon.

[Just when you think you know a guy.]

[herotypical]

It didn't happen like tha--

[ but there's something about clementine's apology and horner's casual conjuring of their 'marriage' that gives buffy pause. she busies herself with pouring the smoothies. adding umbrellas. sliding strawberry slices onto the rims. ]

Ever see one of those nature shows, Clementine? The ones where the moose have these big antlers and they kinda ram into one another? [ she sets each glass into its proper place and sticks a straw in each -- only now and then offering simple eye contact to the girl.

and slightly less simple eye contact to horner. ]

We're like that. It's kinda in our nature: butting heads. B-but there's no harm in it.

[ we don't go too far; we don't hurt each other. and in the moment she thought it, she understood it as an approximate truth. horner rarely dishes out what she can't take, and buffy's retorts are borderline fangless -- built on strawmen and exaggerations. ]