DAY :33

[wille]

[ Fatigue is the clearest sense that bleeds through when she opens the link, but it's not dwelled upon, just an old bedfellow grown familiar. In contrast, Misato tries her darndest to seem nothing but determined, confident, enthused. It's not a lie if she also believes it. ]

( Hey everyone. We've found a few things we can use to our advantage.

First, if you want to pander to the judges' preferences, you should go colorful, electric, violent, sexy and loud. It's no time to be shy. Miss Mystery hates forest green and wears shoes dipped in liquid metal. Saldo Saldo likes soft vore, shiny and over-the-top body modifs and, uhm, transformations, like ugly duckling turning into a swan stuff. Now Talius Rex loves exotic pets, the more human-like the better, exploit that, he also likes cute things and dressing them and himself up. You may have seen his pets around . . .

Sam has also found that the chips the competitors wear are tracking their vitals, location and they act as credit cards. We may be able to use this. I know we've got a few tech-savvy people out there.

Lastly, I've got some experience choreographing giant weapons, so talk to me if you want help with that.

We can win this! I know it! Let's do our best!! )
 

Comments

[inflori]

[ No the word you're looking for is 'stupid' ]

( I know how to act. )

[ His tone is akin to someone whose interest was finally peaked, adjusting themselves to face and focus on the matter at hand. ]

( I'll kill one of them. Someone just needs to get me in, I can tell the guards and whatever to go fuck themselves. )

[ ... Maybe not in those words. Misato saw what he can do back at the coffee shop. ]

[wille]

[ Behold, Misato still thinks Petre is nothing but a squishy human boy with awesome persuasion skills. ]

( Hold your horses, mister. If we're going to go through all the trouble of impersonating one of them, we might as well do more than just give our teammates a couple of extra points.

Would you be ready for that? )

not!here-ish

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ Hi Misato you've definitely caught Sam's attention.

He doesn't say anything, but with his and Misato's connection as strong as it is, there's definitely the faint hint of curiosity across the mental link. ]

[inflori]

( 'Course I am! I've done it before. )

[ lemme at 'em lemme at 'em ]

[wille]

( Okay, lemme think. I'd rather not have us kill anybody if we can help it. Not cause I'm squeamish. It's just a lot of trouble to clean up. )

[ This makes her sound like some sort of serial killer, but hear her out, she has a chockfull of experience covering up casualties from battles that supposedly never happened against enemies that never existed with weapons that were never made. Cleaning up takes a sickening amount of work. ]

( What did you do last time? )

[inflori]

[ And here we go: ]

( I ate the chick, so clean up's easy. I pretended to be her and a bodyguard her girlfriend had, too. )

[ Hope that wasn't TMI or anything. ]

[wille]

[ Hang on-- ]

( You what? )

[inflori]

[ #woops ]

( What? )

[wille]

( You ate her. Like ate her, swallowed her whole like a-- you know, and all that? )

[ Okay, now she feels sick. ]

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ ...well now Sam knows how they got that information back on Concordia. He kind of feels a little sick, too, now. ]

( How about we try to keep the eating people to a minimum, all right, all we gotta do is distract one of them long enough for Petre to pretend to be them and try to get more intel on the ship Katie found. Before anyone tries a grab and go without knowing what they're in for. )

[wille]

( I'm with you on the not-eating, or even killing, part. They're gonna be missed and searched for, with or without a body to be found.

What are you thinking, Sam? )

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ And, you know. He hasn't actually done anything wrong, and killing people for no reason is bad, all right. ]

( T-Rex over there's always got those weird pets with him, you mentioned exploiting that for the competition? No reason we can't do that for this, too. Just so happens that Bucky and I've been working part time at an exotic pet store. If we can lure him there... )

[wille]

[ T-Rex. Somehow that makes the judge seem less intimidating. The power of nicknames. ]

( I can manage that. Nothing an invitation to a private showing of a near-mythical creature can't do, right? We could make it sound almost illegal, make him cover his own tracks.

How long do you think the two of you can keep him there for? )

[sizeofyourbaggage]

( Hell yeah. Even better if we actually got a near-mythical creature, maybe we can see if we can get some volunteers from the Nest. )

[ They're all mythical creatures in one way or another, really. There's a pause as he considers that - particularly Bucky's involvement, and how much potential for violence there's likely to be playing the distraction. ]

( I'll ask if Bucky wants to be there or if he'd rather clear out during it. But I can probably get you a good chunk of the day, more if I got someone else with me. )

[wille]

( Wait. You mean have one of us pose as the pets? )

[ The kneejerk reaction is that it's a bad idea, so bad that it could be good. She comes around soon enough. ]

( It'd be good to have company. Fighting alone sucks, right? I'll keep Petre company, whether or not he likes it. )

[sizeofyourbaggage]

( My partner from back home's a spy; he's used to going undercover. I can just stick some purple feathers on him and call it a night. )

[ But he's teasing, and there's the obvious impression that he isn't going to do that, just something to lighten the kneejerk reaction. Clint may have been a spy, but Sam'd never even think of asking him to do something like this. Not after Loki.

It's a good idea, though, and he definitely agrees with her about having company. It hums across their mental link, an echo of fighting alone sucks. ]

( A couple of us taking care of keeping T-Rex distracted, you and Petre and whoever else getting up there to get as much info on the security as you can - hell yeah, we got this. )

[wille]

[ Let's just say she has complicated feelings about the espionage line of business, which shows only in the few beats it takes her to reply.

And, fighting alone is ineffective, dangerous and, yes, it sucks. ]

( We got this! It's great hearing it from someone else. Some days it feels like nobody's buying it. )

[ The optimism, she means. Her brand of blind knuckleheaded optimism. ]

[inflori]

( Not whole. I just ate the parts I liked the most, it's not like we had a lot of time. )

[ He can sense it - the aversion that twists inside her stomach. He finds it offensive, in the way a child would resent being chided after he'd just bragged. ]

( Why do you care? It worked. Everybody thought her girlfriend did it, it was the distraction we needed. )

[wille]

[ The thought of body parts is somehow more sickening than imagining a human being swallowed whole and still she needs to stop herself from asking which parts are your favorites? Damned curiosity. ]

( I care cause you could've been talking about me, Petre . . . )

[ Did he ever think about eating her? She doesn't want to ask. ]

( Would you still want to impersonate one of the judges if you don't get to eat them? )

[inflori]

( What the fuck. Why would I ever be talking about you? )

[ He actually likes her. As aggravating as she likes to be, she's also... nurturing. In her own way. Petre isn't intelligent enough to see it that way; all he knows is that she gives him attention, that she cares, and that's why he wants her to be around. He wants a good number of people to be around, which is a great upgrade from where he first arrived. ]

( ... I don't care. )

[ Of course he does. 8( ]

[wille]

( I don't know, just-- eating sentient beings? Not that cows aren't sentient. But they don't talk. Or wear clothes. Honestly, I don't know. Forget it. )

[ The irony is lost on her. There so many attention-deprived youngins on this Station and she has unwittingly collected them all like pokemons all while convincing herself that she's through with ever attempting to be anyone's mother anymore. The more he says he doesn't care, the more she thinks he does. ]

( So, okay, if you say so. I'll stick around, keep you company. )

[ She won't be protecting him or anything. ]

[inflori]

( That's stupid. It's what I need to eat. Just like you need to eat fucking cows or whatever. )

[ Why is he picturing cows with clothes? Amazing. ]

( Why, 'cause you don't trust me? )

[wille]

[ Misato feels an oncoming headache. ]

( No, that's not it. It's safer to go with company. We don't want you getting kidnapped by the aliens. It's dangerous, remember? )

[inflori]

[ He's just as ready to tell her she could murder every alien in a matter of minutes, filled with arrogance to the very top of his head. Petre thinks that maybe he wouldn't mind her company for the sake of it, though. So. ]

( Right. If you're so determined to do that. )

[wille]

( I sure am. )

[ Arrogance? That makes two of them. ]