08:47 <VoxPVoxD> It's a day or two after the heist, maybe 6PM or so. Someone has to let Willie in; she's put in the keycode at the gate but the door only properly opens from within. Whatever passes for a peephole in the grey box they use as a safehouse will reveal her in work clothes, carrying a bulky insulated delivery-courier's bag on one shoulder and an enormous purse on the other. 08:47 <tom> Bob's parked at his workbench amidst a pile of boxed-up crap, feet up on the table as he idly carves a shape into a block of wax. So far he's only just barely got the edges beveled out, and it's not clear what final form the piece will take. On the table before him on a greased rag is his machine pistol taken apart, its bolt- is that a nail- soaking in a plastic tub full of something astringent-smelling. 08:48 <VoxPVoxD> Who's there? 08:48 <VoxPVoxD> The door makes — I don't know what kind of signal it makes. Haldane would know. Willie would too, since she opened the door for Bob. But I do not. 08:49 <tom> Bob lifts his head at the buzzer and saunters over to the cameras. After a moment, the panel blinks green and there's a heavy click from somewhere within. 08:50 <tom> Over the intercom: "Hey k-Miss." 08:50 <tom> That done, he heads back to his workbench and resumes polishing the wax block, assuming Willie will carry out whatever her business is. 08:52 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's thanks are lost in the knocking of bags against the sides of the narrow liminal corridor, but she does indeed make it inside the box unaided. "Mr. Goreman! Just the man I wanted to— oh! You're working. Forgive me." 08:53 <tom> He looks for a place on the table and sets the block and carving tool next to his crumpled baseball cap: https://i.imgur.com/IDLQXlf.jpg 08:53 <tom> "I'm not doing anything I can't do later, Willie." It sounds wrong. That's a boy's name. 08:54 <tom> He takes his feet off the table but doesn't really alter his posture, still sorta just perpetually on the edge of slouching right off the chair. He wipes his hands on a cloth. 08:55 <tom> He glances back over to the cams. "Contact." 08:56 <tom> This time Willie's closer to the button. 08:56 <VoxPVoxD> Willie sets her work bag down near the office work area and turns around to look in the viewport (is this a camera? an elaborate set of mirrors? pure psychic project? she has no idea). Who's out there? 08:58 <hrolf> A large, red face attached to a slightly doughy body is looking up at the camera. Rolf waves. 08:58 <VoxPVoxD> "Mr. Hughes! Do come in." Rolf is admitted. 08:58 <dammitwho> "Evening, Willie!" Richard calls from what is increasingly his corner of the greybox. He's kneeling behind a very compact top-loading washer dryer set, pulling some long, flexible hoses directly out of the wall in order to hook them up. 08:59 <dammitwho> It's not as weird a name for Richard to get his head round. That's just her set. 09:00 <VoxPVoxD> By the time he enters, Willie is taking big foil trays, the kind caterers use, each tightly covered with another sheet of aluminium. The tray on top had its covering docked a few times. "Mr. Haldane! How thoroughly domestic." 09:00 <hrolf> Rolf saunters in, turning his body from side to side a bit to make it through the slightly uncomfortable corridor. He raises two fingers in a victory sign as he enters. “Allo allo!" 09:00 <tom> Bob greets the new arrivals with an amiable grunt. He retrieves the block and carving tool and works the wax while he talks. "Hey guys." 09:02 <tom> Bob's workshop is still a nascent pile of boxes and folding tables covered in tape and tarp, but he's cleared out a small corner of usable working space. 09:02 <VoxPVoxD> "I know what Richard is working on," says Willie as she starts the electric kettle. "What about you, Bob? Is that wax?" 09:02 <tom> "Yeah. Just a little side project. Metal casting." 09:03 <hrolf> He grabs the nearest chair and dumps himself into it, sighing slightly and reaching down to massage his calves. He hasn't done that much running around in a while. "You bright little inventor lads are just the ones I wanted to see, actually!" 09:03 <tom> The shape is starting to come out- some kind of roughly ovoid object, longer than it is thick. It's about the size of a thumb. 09:03 <hrolf> "I'm in a bit of a pickle, you see." 09:03 <tom> "I bet," Bob laughs. Without expounding: "No bombs, mate." 09:05 <tom> On the table next to him, an autoclave is humming. Through the view window a small crucible is seething with heat. 09:05 <hrolf> "No bombs, no gadgets, no re-supply - back in the 'uman office, we lacked for decent pay but not for equipment." He shakes his head sadly. "Now I have the opposite problem - plenty of cash, but fings like ghost paint ain't readily available for buying just on the street, like." 09:06 <hrolf> "I was wonderin' what Mr. Jack had in mind for supply; has he talked to any of. you?" 09:06 <tom> "Yeah. My Odin Reticle- you guys have that, right? What," he giggles: "I bet you call it the Nonce Monocle or something." 09:06 <tom> "Mine's been on for 14 hours. Longest I've had it on." 09:06 <hrolf> "We don't." 09:06 <tom> "I think if I turn it off it won't boot again." 09:06 <tom> "So that's a consideration." 09:07 <tom> Bob flips the wax in his hands and changes style, no longer simply abrading the wax down into a smooth shape, he now begins carving huge chunks out at predetermined points. 09:08 <tom> "Good news, the shitposters still take the bait like champs, so I'm not bored." 09:09 <hrolf> Rolf blinks slowly, nonplussed. "The who?" 09:09 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "People who are rude on the internet." 09:09 <tom> He thumbs the frame of his sunglasses and checks to see how many people have piled onto his throwaway comment about 5.7 mm being 'doctored'. 09:10 <tom> "Oh, the usual internet riff-raff." What time is it? His favorite east-coast streamers are probably going to be coming on soon. 09:10 <VoxPVoxD> If it's early evening here it's early afternoon stateside. 09:10 <hrolf> "Oh, yeh. Run into lots of em on facebook - the woke SJWs are everywhere these days." 09:10 <VoxPVoxD> A little loudly: "Is anyone hungry?" 09:11 <hrolf> "In fact, I- well I am a bit peckish, now that you ask marm." 09:11 <tom> Bob, not batting an eye: "Uh huh." 09:12 <dammitwho> "I'm afraid we might not be living in the style you're accustomed to for a while," Haldane admits. "Anything white market I can easily get you out of the logistics share, grey market I'll have to work things out with our employer, and anything rarer than that... well, I can try and find some old Human Office warehouses, if you're up for a bit of the old smash and grab." 09:12 <hrolf> "Raidin' the government's risky business mate." 09:12 <tom> "Well, maybe I could pop open a few of those blue raspberry ghost paint pills and find out they're just full of holy water or the stuff they put in glo-sticks." 09:12 <tom> "Got any left?" 09:13 <dammitwho> He adds: "You'll be getting a proper armoured van out of the take from that first job, at least." 09:13 <tom> "It might not be worth it but.. they never let me get my hands on this stuff outside ops and maintenance back in Snake River." 09:14 <tom> "Good idea," Bob rubs his leg, winces. "We know the power of the wheel." 09:14 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Now I don't know what anyone likes, and obviously we don't have a proper kitchen yet. I made things that will keep and reheat well, so you aren't at the mercy of the kangaroo. This is roasted chicken with fennel, lentils and broccoli with lemon and feta, piri-piri meatballs and homemade hummus..." 09:15 <tom> Bob's leg is covered in meticulously-arranged panels of medical patches, not the sloppy work of a grunt. But he seems to be focusing on a small laceration on his neck, which he rubs idly with his free hand while he turns over the block with the other. 09:15 <hrolf> Rolf rises from his seat. "I'll get the cutlery - anyone else want any?" 09:15 <tom> "I'm good, thanks. Not super hungry." 09:15 <VoxPVoxD> "...and these are the pasties. I stamped them. S for steak, C for chicken, M for mushroom..." 09:16 <VoxPVoxD> She looks over at Bob. "Casting, you said? You make your own bullets?" 09:16 <tom> "Making bullets is the easy part. They're just little ice cream scoops of lead." 09:17 <tom> "It's the casing that's a real bitch, gotta machine-work that brass. I been stealing onto game preserves between god damn fox hunts to find spent casings." 09:17 <dammitwho> "Oh, cheers, Willie." He'll select some lentils and broccoli and a mushroom pastie. 09:17 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "What's the difference between the bullet and the casing?" 09:17 <VoxPVoxD> Ah, vegetarian. Good to know. 09:17 <tom> Bob takes this question like someone being asked what air is. 09:17 <tom> "Well uh." 09:18 <hrolf> Rolf wanders off into the makeshift kitchen. There’s a few clinking sounds as he rummages through what’s been haphazardly arranged, and then he’s back with three plates and an appropriate number of utensils, which he lays out on the workbenches. “Cutlery if you want ‘em.” 09:18 <tom> He removes a cigarette that isn't there from his mouth. "The bullet's just a little ball, right. It needs a push. The casing is full of gunpowder- black powder, Poudre B, whatever, and it prevents the blast from disappating in any direction except the path of least resistance, the bullet's seating." 09:18 <hrolf> "I'll have the chicken, meatballs and hummus. Ta!" 09:19 <tom> He narrates a cylindrical shape. "It's like the casing of a small bomb, right." 09:19 <tom> He scratches his neck again. 09:19 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "So the inside of every bullet is like a tiny cannon with a tiny cannonball in." 09:20 <tom> Yeah. We never actually figured out how to make guns shoot more than one bullet, we just made the guns really small and seated them in a loading machine connected to a tube." 09:21 <tom> "There's all kinds of hilarious old timey guns that are just, chains of tubes full of gunpowder set to explode in every direction if you accidentally set a match to them." 09:21 <tom> "Shooters shoot, I guess." 09:21 <tom> Bob relaxes, which one supposes was Willie's intent. 09:22 <tom> "Hey, Rick- you ever shoot a gun?" 09:22 <hrolf> "Had a mate who grew up next to the royal arsenal at Woolwich. He used to get some spare gear from the dump nearby. Had some good times wif what he picked up." Rolf grows wistful. "Arsenal's gone now though. They don't make things in this country no more." 09:23 <VoxPVoxD> 'Rick' is such an American nickname. The man is clearly a Dickie. 09:24 <tom> The block is now two discrete sections- a large, teardrop shaped ovoid with some sort of inset cut into its face, like a hollow space to be filled later. The front is more stunted- what's still weird, are the eight long flanges sticking off from the body at odd angles. 09:24 <dammitwho> "Once or twice, in America. Bottles and cans off a fence, that sort of thing. I'm afraid I wasn't very good at it." 09:25 <tom> "Most people don't have to be, Thank god." 09:26 <tom> Bob squints at Willie. "What about you?" 09:26 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "You know, being a good marksman and being a gun...smith...? don't seem like inuitively complementary skillsets. Like a Michelin chef who is also a world-class farmer." 09:26 <VoxPVoxD> "What about me?" 09:26 <tom> "You ever pop pop?" He jolts his hand to imaginary recoil. 09:27 <tom> "They're not. I went the other way. Started in logistics, then onto requisitions. Only got my tactical permit three weeks before my cell went bust." 09:27 <VoxPVoxD> She's got one of the steak pies in her bandaged hand. "Not a gun, no. I've shot bows, thrown spears," played polo... 09:27 <dammitwho> "I was much more interested in the machinery. Speaking of which, and not to be precious, but would it be possible for you to try solid copper bullets rather than the lead? I'm sure I can get you a proper power swaging and reloading press so you needn't do all that by hand." 09:28 <tom> "Don't worry, lead is a general term. I use C.P.H.P. like everyone else who isn't an idiot." 09:28 <hrolf> "I 'eard you can get guns anywhere in america. You can buy em from the grocery store even, yeah?" 09:28 <tom> "It's better for lower calibers for its ductility," he adds, like that explains anything. 09:29 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "CPHP? That sounds like an American health insurance company." 09:29 <tom> "Yeah man. I'm guessing you guys don't have Cabella's." He thinks about Badawi's Dragunov again and suppresses a whine. 09:30 <tom> "Copper Plated Hollow Points, sweetheart. The metal deforms on impact and gouges a big ole hole for these little stingers." He whips a .22LR off the bench next to him. It looks so.. small. 09:30 <tom> "You go in through the optical cavity and it'll ping around the skull." 09:30 <dammitwho> Richard winces. 09:31 <tom> Bob is suddenly self-conscious. 09:31 <hrolf> Rolf nods approvingly. 09:31 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's suddenly chewing her food more slowly. 09:31 <tom> The eight flanges are starting to look like legs. 09:31 <hrolf> "Food's bloody delish by the way - thanks marm!" 09:32 <tom> "Why, you thinkin' of getting strapped?" 09:32 <tom> "I mean, you're already packing mean heat.." 09:33 <VoxPVoxD> "My pleasure, Mr. Hughes." To Bob: "I'm not sure. I'm sure recoil is uncomfortable but it's not—" she gestures with her bandaged hand again. "I don't know if I could get good at it in a reasonable timeframe." 09:34 <VoxPVoxD> Is that a spider? 09:34 <VoxPVoxD> Hnnn. 09:34 <tom> It is. 09:34 <dammitwho> "Mmm. Yes, very good." 09:34 <tom> "It's no trick. Believe me miss, I knew some dumb motherfuckers." 09:35 <tom> "The real trick is not being a desk-popping piece of shit cowboy." 09:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "'Pop' means 'shoot', yeah? People shoot their desks?" 09:35 <tom> He sounds almost wistful. 09:35 <tom> "Accidental discharge. A desk pop doesn't always end so happily with just a shredded cabinet." 09:36 <tom> "Everyone likes to keep a round in the chamber in case dracula jumps them in bed." 09:36 <tom> "Assholes." 09:37 <tom> Bob's carving out more insets on the spider's body and fixing up what appears to be a loop for it to attach to a chain, right where the teardrop shape terminates. 09:37 <VoxPVoxD> Willie smiles. "I admit, it's very amusing to know that these hard men of war go to bed at night convinced they're at risk of waking up like Mina Harker." 09:37 <tom> "That doesn't mean the risk isn't real. But they are stupid assholes." 09:38 <tom> "Every year some tacteam maroon airholes his wife." 09:38 <VoxPVoxD> "You never know! Perhaps on some moonlit night, a cold mist will blow in, caressing your sleeping body. In your camouflage nightgown. Better be prepared." 09:38 <tom> "You remember that before you pick up a gun." 09:38 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Accidentally?" 09:38 <tom> He gulps. 09:39 <hrolf> "Some people might of got good reason, though. Think less dracula, more IRA." 09:39 <tom> Bob, who completely misunderstands what Rolf just said: "Yeah, they would have a good reason." 09:39 <tom> He seems to be agreeing, but to what, only God can say. 09:40 <hrolf> Rolf misunderstands Bob in turn, and nods in agreement. "Too right, mate." 09:40 <hrolf> "Like the old lady said, they only need to get lucky once. We have to be lucky every single time." 09:41 <VoxPVoxD> Willie hurriedly takes another bite of food. 09:41 <tom> Bob nods. "Yeah. Having a piece means keeping a finger of death in your pocket at all times." 09:41 <tom> "You don't treat it like a toy." 09:42 <tom> "The basics are pretty easy. Always treat it like it's loaded, clear the chamber and inspect it every time you're about to look down the barrel when you clean it. Never point it anything you're not okay with seeing dead." 09:44 <hrolf> Rolf finishes his meal and puts his plate to the side. “That chicken was top class. I’m parched - know if we got any drinks in the fridge?” 09:45 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Yes, that's all very good advice. I'm not concerned with making a catastrophic error. But how much does one barely-competent clown with a machine gun really contribute on a team of 3 or 4 trained markspeople?" 09:45 <tom> Bob takes the wax shape and fiddles with a tub of some sort of grey sludge, which he pours over the wax. He takes the whole container and slides it into the autoclave next to the crucible. 09:45 <VoxPVoxD> How big is the spider? 09:46 <tom> About the size of a pendant on a necklace. 09:47 <tom> If Willie's watching, he'll turn to explain. "The sand will harden, but the wax will burn off in the heat, leaving a hollow shape." 09:47 <VoxPVoxD> How sweet! Mari must be a goth. 09:47 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Because you're making a mould." 09:47 <tom> "You can make all kinds of useful things with lost-wax casting. Any metal piece you need for a firearm, for example." 09:47 <tom> "Yeah." 09:48 <VoxPVoxD> "What are you going to cast into a spider?" 09:48 <tom> He taps the autoclave. "Got some silver melting down over here. Since werewolves aren't a thing I thought I'd get rid of my old stockpile." 09:48 <VoxPVoxD> Awww. 09:48 <hrolf> "Why a spider?" 09:49 <tom> "Oh, you know. It's a challenging shape to cast properly. If you get bubbles in the legs the whole thing gets amputated." 09:49 <tom> "That's why there's all those sprues cut into the wax. They're vent holes for gas." 09:50 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "If you're doing... sculpture... perhaps you could set some little stones as eyes. Amethyst, perhaps, or peridot. Something pretty that won't cost you your commission." 09:50 <tom> He scratches the mark on his neck. 09:50 <hrolf> "Could never stand the little buggers meself. 'orrible things." 09:50 <tom> "I've already got blue topaz on order. It's a December birthstone." 09:52 <tom> He's literally already sweating. 09:53 <VoxPVoxD> "That sounds very pretty. To change the subject completely. I had some questions about terminology, from our experience the other night. I meant to ask immediately afterward but it quite slipped my mind." 09:53 <hrolf> Rolf blithely continues not to notice. "course the spiders 'ere aren't as bad as the ones in Australia I hear. Size of small rats, some of em." 09:53 <VoxPVoxD> "What is the 'AO'? What is a 'bogey'?" 09:53 <tom> "You wanna field these, Rolf?" 09:54 <tom> "Some of our terms cross over, same phonetic alphabet." 09:54 <hrolf> "Area of operations, basically the engagement area with hostiles, yeah? Bogeys are just targets - although on the last job they were literal bogies." 09:54 <tom> Inside the autoclave, the vent holes on the rapidly-heating block around the mold are sputtering. 09:57 <tom> After a minute, He reaches back in with the tongs and removes the crucible and block. He moves quick, picking up the crucible- brimming with orange molten silver and tipping it into the central vent on top of the mold before the casting sand can cool. 09:57 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I see. Is there anything else I should know, so I'm not confused?" 09:59 <tom> "Uh, if you don't understand what you heard over the radio you shout 'say again', you always yell 'frag out' before you set off a grenade or uh, hellfire." 09:59 <hrolf> "I fink that's the gist. Clock hands for directions, you're probably familiar with that." 09:59 <tom> "We used compass directions from a waypoint but it's the same deal." 10:00 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Yes, from video games. On your six, bag 'em and tag 'em, and so forth." 10:00 <hrolf> Rolf is surprised. "You play videogames?" 10:01 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Occasionally. A lot of my friends have, and it rubs off a bit. I was given a very powerful computer recently and I've been trying it out." 10:01 <tom> He impishly picks up his radio set and mutters into it. The other sets click on with Bob's vocodor, whispering in a deeply inhuman synth: "Dagger Two, Viscon 180 60." 10:01 <hrolf> "That right? You heard of gamergate?" 10:01 <tom> "I see a fuckhead, behind us, sixty meters." 10:01 <VoxPVoxD> Willie, immediately and firmly: "No." 10:01 <tom> "Easy code." 10:02 <tom> "God I haven't gotten to just game out in years." 10:02 <hrolf> "I don't understand half of it meself but some of the younger lads in me footie firm couldn't stop talkin about it for a while. I mostly play FIFA." 10:02 <tom> "Shit's too mainstream for me. No dude, I'm on the Liberal Crime Squad tip." 10:03 <VoxPVoxD> "Liberal Crime Squad?" Oh no, is Bob one too? 10:03 <tom> "It rips. It's like someone made a MUD about beating up Rush Limbaugh." 10:04 <tom> "You win when abortion is mandatory." 10:04 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "What is a MUD? Who is Rush Limbaugh?" 10:04 <hrolf> "Haha. Sounds just like liberals, eh?" 10:05 <tom> "Simple as." 10:05 <tom> At Willie: "It's like a primitive video game for real neckbeards, and honestly with your lineage I'm amazed you don't know, respectively." 10:06 <VoxPVoxD> Somewhat stiffly: "My lineage?" 10:06 <tom> Bob is immediately cowed: "I didn't anything by it." 10:07 <tom> "He's in hell. That's... That's the joke." 10:07 <tom> "Some bigshot radio shithead." 10:07 <hrolf> "'e some kind of yank liberal?" 10:07 <tom> "I'm not a liberal.. anymore." 10:07 <hrolf> "I meant the Rush fella." 10:07 <VoxPVoxD> Willie relaxes. "Ah. Of course. One of the great American shouting men." 10:08 <tom> Tersely: "I didn't listen to his work." 10:09 <tom> "Uh let's uh, talk about something lighter, maybe, like the dangers of the misuse of firearms?" 10:09 <VoxPVoxD> Willie smiles. Whatever trace of tension passed over her is gone. "How is the technical work coming, Mr. Haldane? Anything we can do to help? Something you need picked up?" 10:17 <tom> Bob checks the timestamp in his visor, then picks up a ball-peen hammer from the desk and taps the seam in the mold. It opens with a pop and a hiss. He leans over, fumbling in the chalky dust for the piece. He dunks it in a tub of water, where it hisses and pops. He retrieves it, then reaches into the desk to produce a small plastic bag containing a pair of delicate jewels. He slots them into 10:17 <tom> place with his thumb and holds up the finished product: https://i.imgur.com/NUsa9Sg.jpg 10:18 <tom> "You know it's the small things in life. If you lose your hobbies you go fucking nuts." 10:19 <VoxPVoxD> After Haldane's surely stimulating reply, Willie coos at the pendant. "Oh that's lovely." 10:19 <hrolf> "Fahckin quality, son." 10:19 <tom> "You think so?" Good sign, then. Bob's blushing, but he's playing it off as heat from the boiling silver. 10:19 <VoxPVoxD> Do spider legs really look like that or is that some kind of halloween skeleton spider? 10:20 <tom> Some do! Those are the ones that have to have strong muscle attachment joints to jump far! 10:20 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's never seen a spider in that kind of detail unless it was smeared across the bottom of the Times. 10:22 <dammitwho> "Oh, things are coming along as well as could be hoped. I should have the basics in over the next few days, and after that- well, it's up to you. Everywhere that I won't be actually living is your space." 10:22 <hrolf> "Not bad at all. You gonna wear it yourself, then?" 10:22 <tom> "It's not for me." 10:23 <tom> That's all he says about that. He empties out another plastic bag containing a delicate silver chain. Claps it into position, stows the necklace in a little white box and tosses it onto his open duffelbag. 10:24 <hrolf> "Ahhh." Rolf winks. "Got a bird, eh?" 10:24 <tom> That done, he takes the bolt- it still looks like a nail out of its marinade and begins slapping his gun back together like it's made of lego bricks. 10:25 <tom> Everyone can see that the stock is just a bent arm of patio furniture. It's been painted over- matte black- of course, and it looks professional at a glance.. but it's impossible to hide the telltale signs of handcrafting. 10:25 <dammitwho> "I do have some ideas on that score, but... it should probably wait until we have everyone here." 10:25 <dammitwho> Or perhaps they already discussed them several days ago, after the job. Who knows! 10:26 <tom> Bob doesn't answer Rolf, but instead cringes just a little bit, like he's embarrassed to talk about it. 10:27 <hrolf> "Haha, look at the blushing lad. Go on then!" 10:27 <tom> "I plead the fifth. You guys have that here, right?" 10:27 <tom> He's trying to play it off as a joke, but his eyes are darting back and forth. 10:28 <hrolf> "No idea what that means mate. Tell us about your bird! Got a piccie?" 10:28 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "We have a right to silence, to avoid self-incrimination. But it's not enshrined in our constitution. We haven't even got one." 10:29 <tom> "Wild." 10:29 <VoxPVoxD> To Rolf: "Mr. Hughes, I think we should allow Mr. Goreman a little gentlemanly discretion." 10:30 <tom> "It's uh, for security, you know. Any name I give you could end up in the hands of some very shitty people." 10:31 <tom> He scratches that rash on his neck again. 10:31 <hrolf> "Alright alright mate, keep your alans on. All's well as long as you aren't a nonce." 10:32 <tom> "No sir, and I've already made my stance on Cabal types pretty clear." 10:32 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Cabal types? Is that an American compact?" 10:33 <hrolf> "In a matter of speaking. The Soros lot." 10:33 <tom> "It's real. I don't- look I dunno what Soros has to do with it, if anything- but we literally just fought those guys." 10:33 <VoxPVoxD> Horseshoe theory at work. 10:34 <hrolf> Rolf is confused. "Wait, those lads were with Soros?" 10:34 <tom> "You know. Cheiron. I did some research-" - went to wikipedia-"And their roots are fucking fishy shit." 10:34 <tom> "Before there was Cheiron there was Acheron Shipping. Those guys had their tentacles in the colonial trading companies of all powers. You know they must've got some wild shit." 10:35 <hrolf> "Do they traffic kids?" 10:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Melanie Sweetwater is very good at her job. Media circuits are exhausting and she never misses a step." 10:35 <tom> "Yes." 10:35 <VoxPVoxD> "I imagine you have to be, given what the Group gets up to." 10:36 <tom> "It's fucking sick. I was reading up on-" listening to a podcast about- "The Bhopal Disaster. They're absolute fucking scum and they have their finger in everything." 10:37 <hrolf> "It makes me sick, that does. I read about some o that - they sell kids to the grooming gangs, and use the proceeds to buy weapons and ammunition for antifa." 10:38 <tom> Bob, who isn't really listening: "I'm not sure what they're doing with the proceeds but I know someone is getting very rich." 10:38 <hrolf> "That's right. Soros." 10:38 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That's the other thing. I don't even know how to get a gun." 10:38 <tom> "You pick it up and put a mag in it." 10:39 <tom> "Oh you mean like." 10:39 <tom> "Legally?" 10:39 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Pick it up from where? They don't sell guns in supermarkets next to the whisky here." 10:39 <tom> "Where do they sell pepper spray?" 10:40 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I have no idea. Do they?" 10:40 <tom> "You don't know?" 10:40 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Why would I?" 10:40 <tom> He's completely stumped, bamboozled, and hornswoggled. 10:41 <tom> Bob clicks the side of his visor. 10:41 <tom> "What the fu- A RAPE WHISTLE!?" 10:41 <tom> "Oh no no no, baby." 10:41 <tom> "Okay, I think maybe someone went a little too far." 10:41 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "What on earth?" 10:42 <VoxPVoxD> Is he looking on a screen in there? 10:42 <tom> Bob shrinks back. "Shit! Sorry, I was googling." 10:42 <tom> If Willie looks close, she can see his glasses have a set of impossibly small plastic buttons set into the rim and frames. 10:43 <tom> "Yeah sorry. You guys are allowed to carry emergency whistles apparently." 10:43 <VoxPVoxD> "Is that like Google Glass?" 10:43 <VoxPVoxD> "I didn't think those existed anymore." 10:44 <tom> "Not like, is. The government already put down 400 billion before they pulled the plug on Glass and we had a shitload in requisition so they decided to base the Odin on it." 10:44 <tom> "Fucking Pentagon." 10:44 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "So your monster-hunting specs have a built in Chromium browser?" 10:44 <tom> "That's right." 10:45 <tom> "I will not let you look over my shoulder while I'm shitposting, k- Willie. Sorry." 10:45 <VoxPVoxD> "And no one thought twice about letting your monster-fighting teams walk around with pornography dispensers strapped to their heads 24/7?" 10:45 <VoxPVoxD> "Which government department handles procurement for the Task Force? Is it Defense?" 10:46 <tom> "But it's got some good stuff too. Target acquisition-" What, did you think all those captchas you only got at 2AM that were like 'find all the faces in the dark' were to help self-driving cars, you dumb motherfucker? "-Warning readouts. Thermal vision." 10:47 <tom> "We- they- got our funding straight from congress. If I'm being honest with you I don't even remember my own senator." 10:47 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Being an US civil servant must be the easiest or the hardest job in the world." 10:48 <tom> "Depends on what you're trying to do." 10:48 <tom> He doesn't elaborate. 10:48 <VoxPVoxD> "Or how much you care what you're trying to do." 10:48 <tom> Nods. 10:49 <tom> "I assume the H.O. is similar, yeah?" 10:49 <tom> He glances between Rolf and Willie, the two people he assumes would be familiar. 10:49 <hrolf> "Hah!" 10:49 <hrolf> "Bunch o tightwads!" 10:49 <tom> "Ha. I'm honestly a little jealous." 10:49 <tom> "We have the opposite problem." 10:49 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Sadly no. Not even the defence of the realm is safe from Tory cuts." 10:50 <tom> "You might be better off than us." 10:50 <tom> "We get everything we ask for and more. And trust me, that's a King Fucking Midas curse." 10:51 <hrolf> "Don't get me started on the bleedin 'uman office. Used to run a tight ship, now it's a bunch of immigrants on peanuts for shrinking and shrinking hours." He looks like he's going to turn purple. "It's that bloody Remoaner wet they put in charge - I reckon Boris doesn't know what she's upto. Been trying to send him letters but they're being intercepted by the deep state." 10:52 <tom> "We get whatever DOD can get its paws on, at extreme cost. Fucking, D.I.M.E cans with silver and wrought iron, experimental Israeli shit that never works when you need it. Deployment aircraft that crash if the weather changes." 10:52 <tom> "If I had stuck it out for a few months longer I'd have gotten my plasma rifle. Fucking bullshit, that." 10:52 <hrolf> "Doesn't sound 'alf bad. Why'd you leave then?" 10:53 <tom> "Whole Op's comp'd bro." 10:53 <tom> "We're not doing our jobs right." 10:53 <tom> "We're just an arm of the Cabal." 10:53 <tom> "You remember that if you see any other TF:V shitkickers. They might not know it but it's true." 10:53 <hrolf> "Ahh mate. World's going to hell innit." 10:54 <tom> "Sure is." 10:54 <tom> There's no minifridge with a beer, is there? 10:54 <tom> If not, Bob's going to make a note to get one for his workshop. 10:55 <tom> "Actually, I was wondering- they chip you blokes too, over here?" 10:55 <hrolf> "Don't fink so. Least not for the contractors." 10:55 <VoxPVoxD> There's definitely a minifridge if we've been here for weeks already. It might still have some of the beer Willie puts in it. 10:56 <tom> Bob gestures to Rolf's shoulder. "Right? Shoulder or thigh? Most of our boys go for shoulder. They think letting a doc touch your inner thigh is gay." 10:56 <VoxPVoxD> It's got a space shuttle on the can! 10:56 <tom> America, baby. 10:56 <hrolf> "Any bloke tries to put a chip in me dies slow, like." 10:57 <tom> There's a gentle hum and that nice cool hiss as he retrieves a beer from the minifridge and pops it. 10:57 <tom> "In my case it was a necessary procedure." 10:58 <tom> "Without the chip, no one else can use the tech. So yeah, you don't have to worry about Hezbollah nabbing some when our Rebel Group Of The Week bolts and drops all their guns." 10:59 <tom> "That's true of the Visor, the Reticle, even our grenades and ammo." 10:59 <hrolf> "I guess we didn't 'ave the same quality of gear you lads got. Don't need no chip to use ghost paint, yeah?" 10:59 <tom> "Yeah. Ghost paint rounds literally have a transistor in the primer that won't send the charge if you don't trigger the proximity sensor with your own RFID." 11:00 <hrolf> "Are you taking the piss mate?" 11:00 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Can I just say, again, how absolutely mad that is?" 11:00 <tom> He's absolutely serious. 11:01 <hrolf> "So you still got that chip in you?" 11:01 <tom> There's a bandage where his shoulder meets his neck, right next to the laceration. 11:01 <tom> He palms over it. 11:02 <tom> "I wouldn't be getting screamed at on /k/ right now if I weren't." He makes a face that hopefully neither of them recognize. 11:02 <tom> The haters are mad. 11:02 <hrolf> "So...they could track you here then?" 11:03 <VoxPVoxD> Oh, that's one of those reddit faces. 11:03 <tom> "Please. I use multiple VPNs." 11:03 <tom> "I mean- sure. I can close out while I'm in the Safe House. If you want." 11:03 <tom> "I certainly won't be shitposting on an operation." 11:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "As long as Mr. Haldane is satisfied, I'm satisfied." 11:04 <tom> "I used to wonder if any of the people online were.." 11:04 <hrolf> "'hope you 'aven't been connecting to that 5G mate. They say the chinese invasion force that infilitrated the states used it to bypass your defenses." 11:04 <tom> "I have also heard that." 11:04 <tom> "Sick shit." 11:04 <hrolf> "Stick to 4g and below, is all I'll say." 11:05 <hrolf> "Maybe 3g to be safe."