HALO 181: 0.55% Cooler Than The Last One!

[Cyber Punk]

[Shooting Range]

Lucky chuckles. "Oh, you made yourself clear, all right." He still has that smile on his face... that plastic smile.

He glances at Linda's tail. Oh, how he wants to cut it off! Be a real human instead of an accursed doomed-to-die-via-Lucky fox.

Pointing to Grant, he continues. "You! Be sure de one you're addressing actually cares about your words before speaking. Dat being said, you want to rephrase dat."

[DoomITP]

Shooting Range

Grant's eyes flash from blue to yellow for a brief moment, dry pops like the sound of fire hitting air pockets fill the air.

"I think you mistake me for someone who cares. It does not mater who you are. Everyone in this base is your comrade in arms and your equal. You will not insult or threaten anyone here, especially one of my troops."

"I know your type, you've never had someone best you. You think you're the toughest thing out there but let me tell you this, there is always something bigger. Many of them live here and none of them will suffer someone who does what you did to their friends."

[Fenric]

[Shooting Range]

Linda changes out the spent battery pack for a fresh one, and tries to decide if perhaps leaving is the better plan. Having seen Grant in action once already, she wouldn't want to be in Lucky's shoes... but she's not all that eager for a "stray round" to come her way on "accident", either.

After a brief thought, she takes off the earmuffs and sets them down, then waits: the two portable shield generators ought to be enough to let her get away if this goes the way it seems to be headed.

[Cyber Punk]

[Shooting Range]

Lucky just laughs. "Oh, Lucky's been bested before. More times than you can count, but Lucky always got back up."

He glances at Linda, then back at Grant. "Why do you stand up for Linda? What do you stand to gain?" He asks, questioningly.

He doesn't want to, but he starts to remember how his Uncle Barten stood up for him... and got killed as a result. He's seen very few people do that for another person since.

[DoomITP]

Shooting Range

Grant looks confused by Lucky's question.

"No benefit desired. It's called taking care of your own. Simple as that."

[Fenric]

[Shooting Range]

Linda scowls

Calling me lazy too, now? I never sat down.

[Cyber Punk]

[Shooting Range]

Lucky looks confused. "Helping people with no benefit? I don't understand..."

The image of his uncle, again.

"Dat isn't common. Dere's always something to be gained, yet you do this out of... some ting..."

Lucky steps back and leans back on the wall, confusion thoroughly masking his features. "In dat case... I stand down." He bows a bit to Linda, but keeps silent

"You stood up for her without gain." He attempts to pat Grant. "I've not seen dat in decades."

[DoomITP]

Shooting Range

The strange burning sound fades away though for whatever reason Lucky's hand doesn't quite reach Grant.

Well that's how things operate around here. You'll notice it more if you stick around.

[Fenric]

[Shooting Range]

Linda blinks

What awful place are you from?

There is no sarcasm in her voice, only genuine surprise

I am Lieutenant Iolanda Naxira NarCelma - and I know that's a weird rank trust me, formerly assigned to the Forward Lower Starboard Weapons Group of the Imperial Dreadnaught "Lance of Eternity". I have four battle stars, one meritorious conduct badge, twice wounded in combat, twice commended for bravery, and... as far as I can tell... killed in action at my station. Or at least, I would have been, but for this strange place.

I don't know what weird reddish brown pointy nosed furry things you had back wherever you came from, but they weren't me or my family, or my people.

[Cyber Punk]

[Shooting Range]

There's really no reason why Lucky's hand shouldn't reach Grant, but all the same, he pulls it away.

"Since we're sharing life stories, I'll share a bit of mine. Duval Bagge to family members, Lucky to everyone else. Orphaned and on the run, double-crossed more times than you can count and everyone dat ever gets close to me has wound up dead." He chuckles. "Lucky's said too much already. Dis might be a different place, but Lucky can't afford to keep his guard down."

[Lady Serpentine]

[Kitchen]

"Perhaps if the situation is unclear, your first reaction ought not to be giving insult to people, hm?" Tiri shoves him back against the wall a bit more, raising him a little higher, then simply lets go; it's up to him to recover if he can. "You'd rather sit here and waste away than share your knowledge? Or try to figure out what it is that's stopping people from healing you? Fine. But you shouldn't expect people to treat you like it's a good thing. Especially not people who used to look up to you."

[DoomITP]

Kitchen

I actually do have a school now. I never asked anyone to sympathize with me or to think that I'm doing the right thing. I'm merely letting you know. I have problems but I am working on a solution.

Evan forces himself to stand back up, the look in his eye when he looks up at Tiri is different than it was before. They are the sniper's eyes, the ones that were world renowned for being an assassin of the highest caliber, a savant with the rifle and the person that had been virtually unmatched in firing at a distance.

Used to.. Look up to me? That's more worrisome to me than anything else you said. He observes dryly.

Shooting Range

Grant's voice becomes almost robotic as he recites all of his essential information.

Grant Brandt of the First Daemphage Regiment, hand crafted to kill monsters, demons and worse things. Born twenty seven years ago. Married. Father to two daughters.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Kitchen]

"You call this a solution, huh?" She kicks the bottle to emphasize her point, staring defiantly back into his eyes - hers are defiant and angry, those of someone who's simply been kicked one too many times and won't take it again. "I guess it meets the chemical definition. And yes, used to look up to. You were handsome, funny, skilled, older than me but not so much so that you were old, you knew the person I quite literally revered and whose order I dedicated my life to serving..."

She trails off, sighing as she slumps back into her chair, burned out and defeated she looks back up at Evan. "Now you're sitting here doing the same things that we both saw **** up Carrie half the time, much as I still respected her for what she did and meant, and saying I shouldn't have respected you in the first place. So screw it. You got another bottle, or do we need to go get one?"

[DoomITP]

Kitchen

Evan forces himself all the way up, biting back the pain as he does.

Now hold on there. You listen to me one... AGH. Second... Who says that you're totally right? You catch me having a drink and think this is all I do? Please.

He points down at his injured leg.

I have bad moment. So what? Everyone has them. Means I'm down. No one said a bloody thing about me being out. I'm Evan Armire, the best sniper in the entire Nexus and if you think I'm gonna sit here drinking away my problems cause you see me having a bad day once...

The trademark Evan grin comes out briefly.

All I can say is have a little faith. I haven't changed THAT much. But you know what? If you think I was half decent enough to pay attention to, well maybe it wasn't wrong.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Kitchen]

"You did," she replies, rather bluntly - though she does seem a bit more hopeful now. "Said you were nothing but a 'washed up half-bit instructor'. It's... Good to hear you're not like this all the time, though. Y'know? Too many people I knew have been breaking lately. And yeah, I did. Do, if you're still like the Evan I was growing up with. So..." She offers him a weak grin in reply, standing up again, and offering him her left pair of hands. "...How about we go out somewhere tonight, try to cheer up a bit, hm? I know a few good bars, if that's what you're in the mood for."

[DoomITP]

Kitchen

Evan's expression turns into something positively wolfish.

That I can definitely do. Come on then, we've got some bar shenanigans to get started.

With that he grabs his rifle and rests it on his should as he stands by the door way.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Kitchen]

"Aww. You get a gun." Tiri pouts at him, then sticks her tongue out, giggling a little. "Do I get one too? Or is that solely your place tonight, Mr. Sniper? 'Cause I think that I could work out one that goes with this, seeing as we don't plan to actually do any shooting. Not that I couldn't if we had to, but still. Rifles don't tend to work well in bars. Too crowded."

...Wow, that's a big change. Almost enough to make you wonder if she's high on something or drunk herself, though she doesn't look it.

[DoomITP]

Kitchen

Evan's grin spreads wider as he produces a short barreled shotgun and offers it to Tiri.

I approve of this change in mood. Also, if you really want one. Be gentle with it, it's one of my favorites.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Kitchen]

Tiri blushes a bit as she takes it from him, nodding. "I do have ones of my own, if you'd prefer... I mean, not as many as you, probably, but." She shrugs a little, tucking the shotgun into her coat. "I know these mean a lot to you. And it's not like we're not going to my room first anyway."

[DoomITP]

Kitchen

Something in Evan's smile turns sly.

Alrighty. Lead the way.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Kitchen -> Tiri's Room]

And, presumably, they make their way here shortly thereafter; Tiri doesn't seem to care if he follows her in or not, once they get there - the door's left open behind her and she doesn't say a word for the moment.

[DoomITP]

Tiri's Room

With that Evan decides he's gonna mess with Tiri a little.

I am being a good sniper, I am a perfectly innocent sniper that would definitely not enter a strangely opened door to an impressionable young friend of mine's room. He says quite loudly, looking up at the ceiling, smirking to himself.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Tiri's Room]

"I am being an oblivious sniper who is forgetting this version of his friend is only a couple of years younger and already impressed," Tiri retorts, giggling again... And, naturally, since he seems to be distracted, hurling a pillow at him! After all, she's going to stick to tradition somehow, doesn't she?

[DoomITP]

Tiri's Room

Evan was about to send another comment Tiri's way only to catch a pillow to the face.

Mrrf!!

[Lady Serpentine]

[Tiri's Room]

"Told you you were being oblivious, y'dork." She laughs again - and the sound probably brings back more memories, happy ones, this time, of Tiri and Carrie's daughter walking around the base together, simply hanging out and enjoying themselves. "Now bring that back in here, hm?"

[DoomITP]

Tiri's Room

The sound changes Evan's smile slightly, it's not so much the charmer's smile that he is normally associated with. It's more genuine, remembering when things were happier. No crazy gunshot wounds, no constant threat of death.

Evan steps through the door holding the pillow under his arm.

I come bearing gifts, oh great one.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Tiri's Room]

Tiri - who, whatever Evan's hopes or fears, is still fully dressed - bows regally to him, somehow maintaining a straight face as she replies. "A princely gift, O valiant defender of my honor. I thank you deeply for the return of my lost treasure. Might I beg your aid again, in helping me to pick out which of my weapons are to be brought upon our most perilous quest?"

[DoomITP]

Tiri's Room

Evan offers Tiri a courtly bow before he looks across her selection of weapons with a professional eye.

What kind of fighting does the lady prefer to do?

[Lady Serpentine]

[Tiri's Room]

Tiri's selection is pretty poor, really; a couple of pistols (a 38. revolver and a 45. automatic) with nothing particularly special about them, and... That's about it for what she's laid out. Though he can probably see a rifle case tucked away in her closet.

She doesn't really answer, beyond a noncommittal murmur, a bit embarrassed by it, really.

[DoomITP]

Tiri's Room

Evan doesn't look disappointed in the slightest. Instead he looks excited.

"Wanna borrow from my gear? I bet I've got something you'd like."