Urban Dead: This Means War

Caz · Post by **Caz** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 6:00 pm

She shook her head.

"I have no idea," she said with a bit of a laugh. "And he was fucking certain of it, too! He looked at me with that big open-mouthed 'I'm a mule' stare when I said no."

After thinking for a moment, she glanced over to him with a bit of a snicker.

"Which of course spurred my curiosity. You haven't said anything to him, have you?"

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 6:05 pm

"What? No, no. I had no idea he- God, how embarrasing."

Caz · Post by **Caz** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 6:16 pm

"So you didn't tell him we were..." she waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

He'd really come to that conclusion on all on his own? She admitted to herself that sometimes Petro could be an odd duck, but just pulling something like that out of thin air was odd even for him.

After all, this was the guy that supposedly could read people...

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 6:24 pm

"Why would I tell him that? I mean, it's not like- Erm. Well, not to say. Ah. You know what I mean." He started to go red.

Caz · Post by **Caz** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 6:35 pm

She put a hand on her hip, standing and canting her head as she examined the unique shade of red he was turning. She'd seen Mike get embarrassed before--Hell, more than once--but this seemed to be just a level beyond what she (and he) was used to.

"Wasn't like what?" she asked, partially wanting to draw his sheepish misery out as long as possible but mostly just curious.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 6:47 pm

"Well." A cough. "It wasn't like that, obviously. Unless I've got some blank patches in my memory." A pause. "Gestures, you say?"

Caz · Post by **Caz** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 6:57 pm

"Wait... wasn't like that..." she stared at him incredulously. "So you did say something?"

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:07 pm

"No! What made you think that?"

Caz · Post by **Caz** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:11 pm

"Well," she said, "saying 'it wasn't like that' implies that said 'it' exists!" and by 'it' of course she meant the telltale conversation they seemed to be discussing. And really, she wouldn't have given a shit either way. It was just a point of contention now, like everything else in her life eventually became.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:15 pm

"No, not that it. The other it. The it which he was wrong about. You know. The it with the gestures."

Caz · Post by **Caz** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:18 pm

"Well obviously," she said with a blank stare and a few blinks. "If we were doing it, I think I'd know!"

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:19 pm

"I'd bloody well hope so."

Caz · Post by **Caz** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:24 pm

She thought of a rather lewd remark she could make in response to that, but for the second time in an amazingly short while, she managed to keep her mouth shut.

But the smirk slowly crawling up her lips kind of gave it away.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:30 pm

He looked at her and sighed.

"Don't you dare. I might have a stroke! My feeble public-school sensibilities, you know."

Caz · Post by **Caz** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:38 pm

"Sorry," she said with a grin. "Sometimes I forget you weren't raised on the mean streets."

Which is mainly what she'd meant when she'd told Petro that she and Mike came from different worlds. Even if they were both interested parties, it wouldn't matter: they'd just never be able to relate on that kind of level. He was just too damn hopeful for her.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:26 pm

"Raised no, but the streets are pretty damn mean nowadays." Mike's particular brand of self-depreciating humour could sometimes obscure the fact that he'd been forged in the same fire as the rest of the Irregulars.

Caz · Post by **Caz** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:28 pm

"You're right," she agreed, realizing she might have misjudged him a bit on that. Which led to her next few words: "So... You obviously know my story," she glanced away for a moment, uncomfortably remembering the prison where they'd first met, "but how the Hell did you get involved with these misfits?"

She smiled, patting the fountain next to her as she sat down. "To get your mind off your embarrassment!" she said cherfullly.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 3:53 pm

He took a seat, leaning back against some art-deco animal the mall's architect had inflicted upon the populace. He closed his eyes and sagged a bit, obviously tired.

"Believe it or not, it's a long story. But you know how they always start. Running like hell, the mobs and shit. Anyway, after a week or so I was pretty out of it when I met this soldier guy, fresh from one of the forts. Yeah, it was FM. So we spend a few days living off the land... Who am I kidding, we got shitfaced in this pub, all nihilistic and crap. Then this grizzled survivalist type -that's Zimmerman- and a guy with a scar and no fashion sense -Petro, of course- Drop in, and we all get shitfaced and decide to save the world. And that's that."

He opened one eye. "Yeah, I suck as a storyteller."

Caz · Post by **Caz** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 4:27 pm

"That's okay," she said with a shrug, "we've all got our strengths." She grinned, lifting the hem of her shirt a bit to show him the thick scar tissue running down to her navel. "I can bullshit up a storm, you can fix shit like this."

She clapped him on the shoulder--a bit hard--and grinned. "I, for one, think you are very useful, Mr. Mike Freeman. And I believe I speak for everyone here when I say I'm glad as Hell you joined this little family."

A pause, she glanced down to the wounds, letting her shirt hem fall to cover them.

"... Some of us moreso than others."

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 4:49 pm

"Yeah, we've got something here." Mike shifted himself into a more upright sitting position. "A family. Or a tribe, maybe. It's interesting from an intellectual standpoint, really. People seem to naturally gravitate towards- I'm babbling." He shifted the conversation. "How are the Blackcaps doing?"

Caz · Post by **Caz** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 5:00 pm

"Hey," she said with a shrug, "feel free. I think what you're sayin' is interesting, babbling or not."

She shifted as he asked the question, yawning a bit and shrugging.

"Things are going well. We've been letting 'em take out the shamblers that breach the perimeter to get 'em used to combat. Some of them are wet behind the ears like nobody's business, let me tell you..." She smiled. "But I think good things are gonna come of this. Besides, an entire mall full of people and one scout for the whole city was a bit out of proportion."

She grinned, then remembered that there was something important she'd wanted to tell him.

"And... I meant to say this earlier, but I either tricked myself into forgetting or just blocked it out." Looking up to him, it was apparent that her mood had shifted a bit. "I just wanted to thank you... for doing what you did with Colin. I think I knew deep down that he wasn't going to make it... but you made it painless. Thank you."

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 5:06 pm

Mike shrugged. "It's the least I could do, but I still wish I could've done more. Especially when we can't even give them a decent send off. It's just "Out the window you go, blow your head off next week."

Caz · Post by **Caz** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 5:09 pm

She smiled sadly.

"Yeah, yeah it is."

An uncomfortable silence settled over the two.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 5:26 pm

In the silence, the heavy rain that had been impeding their movements nightly for the past two weeks seemed to get louder and heavier.

"England, a green an pleasant land. Or alternately," He poked the slumbering Jack Russel with his foot, "Mad dogs and Englishmen."

Caz · Post by **Caz** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 5:30 pm

"Sounds nasty out there," she said offhandeddly, hoping the the few rookies she'd alotted to the patrols were coping with it all right. If not, she could always pull them back in... undoubtedly, they were jittery as hell after being under Jaycee's leadership, and it would be more difficult than training from a fresh slate. Because she'd have to clear the slate by un-training all the bullshit he'd drilled into them.

She yawned. "Hope the thunder doesn't start up tonight... those kids that came in a few days back are gonna be up all fucking night."

LibriumArcana.Games

Urban Dead: This Means War

#26

#27

#28

#29

#30

#31

#32

#33

#34

#35

#36

#37

#38

#39

#40

#41

#42

#43

#44

#45

#46

#47

#48

#49

#50