15:48 <VoxPVoxD> The office is fully remote again all this week - cheers from the team - because a pipe burst and the whole heating system needs to be looked at. So it's around noon on a weekday that Willie buzzes in with food for Richard and whoever else is there. 15:50 <VoxPVoxD> Looks like it's soup day again. She's got at least 4 big containers. 15:50 <tom> The lock clicks off. Haldane's door is closed- likely he's hiding from the reverberating bass of the mid-2000's cringerock that's blasting from Bob's workstation, interrupted by the frequent squeal of powered tools on metal. Is that Breaking Benjamin? 15:50 <VoxPVoxD> Who is Breaking Benjamin? 15:50 <tom> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbJ7XnYtprM 15:51 <VoxPVoxD> Oh, okay. Boy Music. 15:52 <tom> He's nodding his head to the beat behind the semi-opaque blinds and hefts the rifle up into his arms. The silhouette of the rifle is instantly recognizable if you've ever seen pictures of Northern Ireland in the eighties. 15:52 <tom> He slaps the rail, grunts, goes back to work. 15:53 <tom> The grinder screams back to life and the barriers catch some sparks. 15:53 <VoxPVoxD> Willie doesn't raise her voice - surely Bob's got ears in, and surely it's Bob. Instead she'll just walk past him to set the soups on the counter in the kitchenette (or is it a proper kitchen now?). 15:56 <tom> It doesn't take long for the smell of hot soup to reach his work station. Bob's still got his safety visor on (different, still stupid looking) when he pulls the barrier back to check who it is. 15:57 <tom> The machinery spins down behind him. "Oh, uh, hey Willie." 15:57 <VoxPVoxD> Crisply: "Robert." 15:57 <VoxPVoxD> "It's soup day." 15:59 <tom> He takes off the visor and folds it into his pocket before rubbing his (dark, sunken) eyes and smiling back at her. "God, it's no fuckin' fair they took your share from the Gardener job. How are you affording all this food on your DMV salary?" 16:00 <tom> He turns off the boombox, which is just about to start getting into the Incubus tracks. 16:00 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I get paid pretty well! It's not Aaron money, but I can buy groceries. And it's not like I have to budget for going out." 16:01 <VoxPVoxD> "And it's DWP." 16:01 <tom> He shrugs. 16:02 <tom> "Oh, speaking of the nerd himself, I got his go-ahead to work security the next time you guys meet the supermen." 16:02 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I don't know who the supermen are." 16:03 <tom> Bob goes for the soups: "Whattaya got?" 16:04 <tom> "Oh," He smirks. "You know, the Draculas." 16:04 <VoxPVoxD> Willie slides two of the containers towards him - each one's got about a half litre of soup. "This one is potato, leek, and bacon. This one is chicken satay noodle." 16:04 <VoxPVoxD> Resting her fingertips on the ones closest to her she utters a warding curse. "These two are vegetarian." 16:05 <tom> He grabs the one with the bacon in it. "I think Badawi's up on security with the Waistcoat- sorry, Weskit, or what the fuck ever, people right now. Gonna trade out shifts with Rolf to get some more time in. Poor Karen." 16:06 <VoxPVoxD> Celeriac and cheddar, and lentil bolognese, for the record. "Yeah, I read about that. I imagine you hope to see outrageous things when you sign on to even a minor celebrity's entourage, but that's beyond the pale." 16:08 <tom> "She straight-up noped the fuck out, had me take her to the railway station. Shit, I gave her all the money I had on me." 16:09 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Does that happen on a lot of your first dates?" 16:10 <tom> Bob takes the container of soup over to the conference table and pops off the lid. He looks down into the soup and his eyes start to get watery. 16:10 <tom> "You don't think I'm scary, do you, Willie?" 16:11 <VoxPVoxD> Willie keeps an admirably straight face. "...no?" 16:11 <VoxPVoxD> "I cannot think of a single instance when you've frightened me." 16:13 <tom> He takes a spoonful of the soup up into his mouth, wipes his nose, eyes. "It's uh, spicy." 16:14 <VoxPVoxD> Oh wow. This is bad. He just called English food spicy. 16:14 <tom> Coughs, sniffs. "Well, aside from... that, I think we did pretty good. Those lizards are. not. playing." 16:14 <tom> "They hot-dropped on us from fuckin' orbit, wow. Never seen that before. And this is over... a band, I guess?" 16:15 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Not really. It's about control. And when it's about control, no stakes are too small." 16:16 <VoxPVoxD> "...look, I was just having a bit of fun. I didn't mean to-- it wasn't meant as an attack on your character. I'm sorry." 16:16 <tom> He shrugs again and blows on another spoonful of potato. "Haha, nah, it's okay." 16:16 <tom> "No civilian casualties. We call that a win." 16:17 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "And all the evidence neatly packed away in Strangeways." 16:17 <tom> "They got Badawi but she's got, you know, whatever her voodoo is. Aster caught hands again, though." 16:17 <VoxPVoxD> "Yeah, Aaron had to sleep it off here. He seemed to be doing better yesterday." 16:17 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm surprised you didn't bring a gun back to take apart." 16:18 <tom> "Me too. Oh I'm so steamed Badawi gave 'em all to the nerds. I was too busy uh, chucking Karen's phone into the river." 16:18 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Ah, there'll be more." 16:18 <tom> "I'm counting on it!" Bob beams. "Gonna give 'em the ole razzle dazzle." 16:19 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I suppose using your space gun on a crowded street is a sunk cost if they're already shooting space guns at us." 16:20 <VoxPVoxD> "It's not like shooting back with bullets would make it make more sense." 16:20 <tom> "It's their own fuckin' fault for not using their Hybrid Infiltrators to do the dirty work." 16:20 <tom> "This must be the real deal." 16:21 <VoxPVoxD> Willie sits down across from him with some of the chicken soup. "Is that a military term or a video game term?" 16:21 <tom> "What, you don't know about the hybrids?" Bob looks at her incredulously. "They basically run the DOD." 16:22 <tom> "...So I've heard." 16:22 <tom> "Shit they're the ones who did 9/11... and apparently put an RFID in the vaccine?" 16:22 <VoxPVoxD> Willie scrunches her face up a bit. It probably looks really cute. She's thinking. She's thinking... "Is this David Icke business?" 16:23 <tom> "I swear to God, Icke is there to throw us off the trail by saying insane shit. It's an Alex Jones deal." 16:23 <VoxPVoxD> Okay so it definitely is. "Lizards hiding among us in human skin, you're saying." 16:24 <VoxPVoxD> "Running society from the shadows." 16:24 <tom> "Mina, I just airholed a Reptilian on A57 yesterday. Is it really that far off?" 16:24 <tom> on the* 16:25 <tom> He seems a little upset at the way she's looking at him. 16:25 <VoxPVoxD> Willie smiles into her spoon. It takes her a moment to respond. "Don't look at me, you're the one with the They Live glasses." 16:25 <VoxPVoxD> "It's just - it's not at all parsimonious." 16:26 <tom> "They work, too! You should see Aaron's cranial temps when he's got the module up." 16:27 <VoxPVoxD> "There's the vampires who plainly have their pointy little hands in everything. There's the wizards, who apparently oppose and/or worship the gods that have instilled all pain in the world. Reptilians as well?" 16:27 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm not saying you're wrong, but you've got to admit it's a bit much." 16:27 <tom> He tilts his head. "I mean, okay, sure, I got a lot of this from... unofficial sources..." (an imageboard for racists) 16:28 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Internet people?" 16:28 <tom> "Sometimes a million monkeys on typewriters come close to making something coherent." 16:29 <tom> "It's just that sometimes the normal functioning of a government looks a lot like alien subversion." 16:30 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "It just leaves us asking the exact same questions. Why do aliens want us cutting public services to give tax breaks to banks?" 16:30 <tom> "Or why do aliens want to blow up a scene band? You should hang out with Reveille, she's chill." 16:30 <tom> "Only invaded my mind once." 16:31 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "She did what?" 16:31 <VoxPVoxD> "Did she at least ask first?" 16:31 <tom> He eats some more soup. "We were in a hurry. Just your standard telepathy, I think." 16:31 <tom> "...I thiiink." 16:33 <tom> "Shit, I completely forget with the aliens and the lasers... how are you doing with the ah, dm-sliding fuckboy situation?" 16:33 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "What was she looking for? Is this about what happened with the consultant?" 16:33 <VoxPVoxD> Willie makes a face. 16:34 <tom> "Nah she just told me to get the live one and their guns into the van. Tame stuff. No memory snatching, as far as I'm- what?" 16:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I don't think that's an appropriate use of the word 'fuckboy'. He's a serial killer, he's not Timothee Chalamet." 16:35 <VoxPVoxD> "Next you'll be calling him a 'himbo'." 16:36 <tom> "I don't think he's fundamentally kind." 16:36 <tom> "He's stayed away, yeah?" 16:37 <tom> Bob looks back over his shoulder at the FAL disassembled on his workbench. 16:37 <VoxPVoxD> Willie waves a hand. "That is a hidebound, rudimentary understanding of himbo theory. But yes, so far so good. I've been keeping to Aaron's advice. Kaga goes where I go. I spend as much time with Sergio as I can. It's... kind of nice, honestly. If you zoom in far enough." 16:38 <tom> "Man, what'd he say when you told him we lit Carl the fuck up?" 16:38 <tom> He chuckles at his reflection in the soup. 16:39 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "He was not pleased. I think the Inchcape set has lost a great deal of esteem in his eyes, given their conduct these last few weeks." 16:40 <tom> "It's kinda weird for your uncle to try to bite your girlfriend's neck, I bet. That's a weird feeling to have." 16:41 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "He was going to bite your neck. He left me for Agatha." 16:42 <tom> "Again, no fair," Bob wrinkles his nose. "Why don't the hot ones ever try to jump on me?" 16:42 <tom> "Actually, I need your advice?" 16:43 <tom> He wipes his lips and puts his elbows on the table. 16:43 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Agatha is not-- whatever. Speak your mind, Robert." 16:44 <tom> "It's um, it's kinda a personal issue, so you know, don't tell Sumi-" 16:44 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Naturally." 16:45 <VoxPVoxD> "I should say for the sake of disclosure that Jack might still have secret bugs hidden about." 16:45 <VoxPVoxD> "If you care about that." 16:48 <tom> He rolls his eyes. "I'm sure Sumi would get bored halfway through reading the secret messages in window cracks or whatever that weird fuck does." 16:48 <tom> "It's about uh, Mari." 16:49 <tom> Bob: "Her parents really want her to come over on her birthday... like she hasn't, since the last couple times." 16:49 <tom> "She's really mad at them." 16:49 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's demeanour changes subtly but noticeably. "Because of Mariam?" 16:51 <tom> "Yeah. The thing is..." Bob looks almost thoughtful. It doesn't last long. "I think she might be... wrong?" 16:51 <VoxPVoxD> "About..." 16:51 <tom> "They didn't like, choose the fake over her... they just didn't choose her." 16:52 <tom> "They... it seems like they love them both? And that's... bad, for some reason?" 16:52 <tom> He follows up quickly: "I mean it doesn't, like, it doesn't matter, I've picked a side..." 16:53 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I think that's quite an understandable emotional reaction, don't you? Considering what she went through. And I think, you know, it's clearly not the worst way a seelie fae has reconciled to that reality." 16:53 <tom> "Yeah..." 16:53 <VoxPVoxD> "You've talked to her about this?" 16:53 <tom> "Yeah," He swallows. "I don't ever wanna make her feel worse about any'a this." 16:54 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Right, you want her to feel better. To heal." 16:54 <tom> "But what I can say to her, you know, when... I think it's good, that nobody fought to the death over who was the real one?" 16:54 <VoxPVoxD> Oh, Bob. 16:54 <tom> "And that's like, the worst thing ever, for her?" 16:55 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Did you talk to her about this after what happened with Karen?" 16:56 <tom> "What's that got to do with it?" He snorts, pushes away the empty container of soup. "Great job, by the way. Bacon and potato is a winner." 16:58 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Maybe nothing. But I know, when I feel like I've made a bad mistake, or done something wrong, I often find myself... trying a bit harder. Working a bit more. Going a bit further out of my way for people. You know? It always feels good to help people, to show love and kindess... but it feels especially good in those moments." 17:00 <tom> He laughs. "Seems like the harder I try the worse it goes sometimes." 17:01 <tom> "Ah, it's nothing... just needed to vent about it I guess, it's not like I'm gonna play it any different." 17:02 <VoxPVoxD> A bit ruefully: "But yeah, if I were in your position, and I saw the pain someone I loved was in... I would work extra hard on it. But sometimes work doesn't help. Sometimes effort isn't what's needed." 17:02 <tom> Bob listens as intently as he can manage. 17:03 <VoxPVoxD> "You would be happier if she could share a birthday with her family, if she could let some of the love they still have for her in. Maybe it would sluice away some of the hurt. Maybe it wouldn't. But it's love, right? Who doesn't want more of it? Who doesn't want to see more of it in the world?" 17:03 <tom> He nods. 17:03 <VoxPVoxD> "And, whether or not it's true, it's reasonable to believe that she would be happier too." 17:03 <tom> "It's just, you know, they keep saying they're fakes, they're like a... she called it an understudy." 17:04 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That's very clever." 17:04 <VoxPVoxD> "Same role, same lines... clearly a second-rate talent." 17:04 <tom> "But I met both the Liams... the other was a dick, sure, but it wasn't like, a monster. We sat down and talked, before it got in my brain and made me go over the table at Rolf." 17:04 <tom> "He, I guess." 17:05 <tom> "It's not like I didn't wanna do it anyway." 17:05 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I can't imagine it was terribly hard to make you go over the table at Rolf." 17:05 <VoxPVoxD> "Even if it was well 'ard." 17:05 <tom> "He made me eat a fucking parmo man. Good god." 17:05 <VoxPVoxD> "You poor dear." 17:05 <tom> Bob shakes his head. "Anyway..." 17:05 <VoxPVoxD> "I have something to say that you probably aren't going to want to hear. May I?" 17:05 <tom> "I love Mari. This uh, copy, it's... a Mari, you know?" 17:06 <tom> He nods. "Go ahead." 17:07 <VoxPVoxD> Very seriously: "You aren't going to die. This isn't a dream you're about to snap out of. It's not a lucky run of dice that's about to fizzle out." 17:07 <VoxPVoxD> "This is the real world. This is your life." 17:07 <VoxPVoxD> "There are going to be so many more birthdays." 17:08 <VoxPVoxD> "You do not need to get the any% world record in being a good boyfriend." 17:08 <VoxPVoxD> "Healing takes time. Real healing takes a lot of time." 17:08 <VoxPVoxD> "Let it." 17:09 <tom> "You think we should ghost 'em for another year?" 17:09 <VoxPVoxD> "I think you should let her decide what she's comfortable with. She knows where you stand. She knows her own mind, and she's perfectly capable of changing it." 17:09 <VoxPVoxD> "And a year is a very long time." 17:10 <tom> "Oh, I mean... yeah, you're right. It's not like I'd make her go if she really didn't want to.." 17:10 <tom> Bob grins. "I had the smoke grenades all ready and everything. We can just dip out through a mirror." 17:11 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "She might like that, for all I know. That might be the thing that swings her. But if it isn't, that's okay. If it is, and the day goes badly, that's still okay. It has to be okay, or else you don't have a relationship, you have a crafts project." 17:12 <tom> "Wow," says Bob, in complete earnest. "You're real smart." 17:13 <VoxPVoxD> Willie makes a face again. "Yeah, so anyway, you heard about how I'm letting the vampire mad scientists run tests on my blood?" 17:14 <tom> "Yeah. It's not... they're not doing weird shit to you, yeah?" 17:14 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "No, it's extremely weird. It's not at all a sex thing, as far as I can tell, but that's not the only way for something to be weird." 17:14 <VoxPVoxD> "How on earth did Aaron sign off on that? Did you drug him?" 17:15 <VoxPVoxD> "Did a lizard throw a rock at his head?" 17:15 <tom> Bob's expression tells her he disagrees with her on the nature of weirdness, but he pulls it together: "Nah, just tricked out his van and built him a rifle. He's looking for an upgrade after getting pasted by a microwave gun." 17:16 <tom> He shrugs. "Maybe the raygun gave him Havana syndrome." 17:16 <tom> "...I promised not to hit on any Draculas." 17:16 <tom> He steeples his fingers. "So tell me, how cute are we talking?" 17:16 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That's fine, they're not at all sexy." 17:17 <VoxPVoxD> Willie blinks when she remembers who she's talking to. "Although, there is one woman who wears medieval leather armour." 17:17 <VoxPVoxD> "So you should prepare yourself for that." 17:18 <tom> "Damn I shoulda put that on the bingo..." 17:18 <tom> He sighs. "I will be the very model of professionalism expected of a Corporal in the Armed Forces." 17:18 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "But no, that sounds lovely! Assuming you can keep Aaron happy. I'm rather easier to please, I think." 17:19 <tom> :D 17:19 <VoxPVoxD> :)