Lola grinned out at the crowd. "There isn't much of a speech to give. Eight-day camping trip with a body count of forty-seven? Sounds about average for back home. Thanks for playing, vigilo confido, I'm gonna shut up and get ratted and so are all of you."

And she promptly sprinted off the stage as quickly as she'd bounced onto it, threading her way towards the bar via judicious use of an elbow. Her partner was there, staring at a measure of Bleepka in a crystal whiskey tumbler and looking rather morose.

"Why so glum, chum? You did really well. Like, scarily well, considering you didn't have your magic until, like, the last day or something. Have you been holding out on me?"

"Would that I had, Commander." Algie picked up the glass and held it to the light, inspecting it half-heartedly. "Alas, it is not my skills that have put me in this dudgeon, but my conduct. I was... I was quite mad, by the end. What can that poor woman think of me? What must Agent Library think? What vile things I have done, Commander."

"Algie, listen to me. I've seen people freak out in a warzone before. It's nothing to be ashamed of. You're going to move on, you're going to get the counselling you need, and you're going to get back to full readiness quick sharp. I'll see to it." Lola gave him a one-armed hug that required her to stand on the lower rung of his bar stool. "And that can be a direct order, if you want."

"I'd salute, but this is my eighth glass. I fear I would miss."

Lola raised an eyebrow at him. "Your eighth."

"Indeed. It is not so very strong, once one gets past the harshness of the taste. I recall meeting a Tartar in Rotherhithe who use to make it out of loganberries... though of course, I may be misremembering."

"Really. You might."

"Indeed. It may have been Peckham. Lilianna had business there... I... think... it does not matter. I shall pay it no further mind. Excuse me, madam, might I trouble you to furnish my partner with a round of Sex on the Beach?"

The barmaid gave him a cheeky grin. "Indeed you might, Mr. Wymbourne."

Lola was already in stitches.

"Excellent," replied Algie mildly. "And by way of recompense, two tickets and a hotel booking slip for a weekend in Margate."

It was at this point Lola fell over, for the first time that night and almost certainly not the last.

"Because I'm pretty sure we didn't earn any price, and I'm not exactly sure why we should go meddling with people who were trying to kill us. Even if it was for a brief time and during a simulation," Marina said to her partner while there were going to the bar.

"I said I had to show you Rudi's someday, remember? Besides, it could be interesting to know more about these people without being worried about violence, right?" Richard said.

"Maybe. And I guess we could work with some of them too, if I got this right. Do they have good coffee here?"

"The very best. And who knows? Since they organise this event, maybe these two psychos are the one paying. If they are, I'll make sure to go for a meal too"

"It would be pretty neat," Marina said once they were seated to the bar. And if they don't... Well I could change my choice of test subject for this potion the the Luxray helped me to discover, she thought.

That was probably the best way to describe the demeanor over at the booth containing the members of what once had been District Cynic. The only person who didn't look slightly sour was Xericka, who still wore the same neutral expression that she almost always had. Even so, there was something in the set of her shoulders that gave off a little disappointment.

"Next to last on the district rankings," James said as he perused the final standings scorecards that had been handed out. "No individual agent ranked higher than 21st place. An average of one eliminated agent per day." He paused, then emptied his glass of bourbon. "Definitely not our best showing."

"No kidding," Laura groused. "I still can't believe that the two us — experienced Assassins! — got fewer combined kills than a single DBS agent. No offense, Gremlin."

Gremlin shrugged. "None taken. It's surprising to me, too. Although I should point out that one of those was a mercy kill."

"It seems that does not matter to whoever happened to score this event," Xericka added.

James peered over the sheet again. "Does anybody know why we were named District Cynic? Seems a bit out of place, if I do say so myself." There was a collective shrug from the other people sitting at the table. James responded with a shrug of his own before tossing the scorecard aside. "I'm going to get a fresh glass. Anybody want anything?"

"I could use another beer," Gremlin said.

"Can do. Anyone else?" The other two agents waved him off. "All right. Back in a second."

...three Spies sat together, nursing their drinks. They glanced up at the stage when Kuroko and Aya began to speak, then returned to their conversation.

"So, as I was saying, if it weren't for that flood, I could've easily won," said Harris, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms over his chest. "You'd just have to lone wolf it from there. I mean, half of the time these people were getting backstabbed-- so the obvious safe route is to work alone."

Spoken like a true sociopath, scribbled Tacitus in his notebook. Yet another thing to add on your raging narcissism complex. The Zorua pushed the notebook to the centre of the table for all to read.

"Why you--!" Harris shot a withering glance at Tacitus, who returned the look with a creepy smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Look who's talking, you creep. You're just mad because you got your head smashed in by Derik!"

Tacitus shrugged and returned to his doggie dish filled with Bleepka.

"Nah, Tacitus is right, man," said Yakov in between sips of his Firewhiskey. "You gotta team up to survive."

"Oh, sure," said Harris huffily. "And look at you: downed by Luxury and her canteen of Single Tears. Working in a group is an invitation to get backstabbed, I tell you. Lone wolf it-- it's better. And speaking of lone wolf..." he looked around. "Did anyone see Gaspard? I thought he'd be here."

Tacitus shrugged and Yakov said: "Iunno. Maybe he wants some alone time."

"His alone time is all the time," replied Harris. "Oh, wait. I see him. He's sitting alone at the counter. Geez, what a weirdo. Can't even sit and socialize properly, can he? I told him already-- I persuaded him to sign up for his own good! Fine, then. Stay in your corner. Have fun over there. Your friends are over here, if you're looking for them."

Yakov shrugged. "Well, if it's what he wants... I don't see why we should bother him."

Tacitus looked back and forth at his two colleagues. I don't even think he has friends, he thought to himself. Not my problem, though.

The former Digidestined spoke to her partner, " You did pretty well in there, Henry. Second place and the same number of eliminations as the champion? That was impressive, specially considering that we are just newbies around here." Suddenly, Aiko started to look a bit down. " I wish I could have done better. Fighting with a Flower over something and accepting "water" after the Arena was flooded weren't my brightest ideas. Should have realized that they would throw something like SIngle Tears in there."

Henry comfortly put his hand on his partner's shoulder and spoke sympathetically, " Hey, most of that wasn't your fault. I mean, maybe you shouldn't have stayed at the Cornucopia and fought with Captain Dandy, but there's no way you could have know the rest of that stuff. There's pretty of crazy, unpredicable stuff in the Hunger Games in canon, so don't sweat it. And from what you said, that Selene woman sounded way too convincing, right? "

Aiko smiled warmly in gratitude to her partner. " Thanks, Henry. So what do you wanna? Do you want to go find us a table? " Henry smiled in returned and responded, " Don't mention it. And well, I kinda want to find Sergio and his partner first. I'm not happy how things went with them inside that thing. I know that killing each other was the whole point of this, which is why I'm glad we didn't end up fighting each other, and those deaths were obviously just simulated, but I really didn't want to end up fighting either of them. So I feel I gotta say something to them." With that said, Henry started to look around the room to see if Sergio and his partners were already there.

Alex, reunited with his beloved fire-lizard once more, laughed and clinked his glass against Zeb's. "It was pretty sick, yeah," he said, taking a long sip from his soda.

"Aside from the... explosions," Zeb continued, his ears flattening against his head. They quickly perked back up again. "But other than that, I had a lot of fun! We totally need to sign up for the next one."

"Yeah!" Alex grinned. He thought briefly about paging Farilan and telling her to come join in the celebrations, but decided he didn't want the atmosphere ruined by her snootiness. Zeke trilled in agreement.

"And we were supposed to be a team," Morgan lamented, glowering at her drink. "But what happens? She -" She waved a hand in Selene's direction " - nicked my stuff, and when I teamed up with you, you got me killed against..." She looked around the bar. "Well, wherever she is. Lo-la." The last word came out in an off-key singsong voice.

Dafydd winced at the sound. "I don't know about that 'team' stuff," he said, ignoring his own (first) drink. "Agent Kaitlyn raided my belongings at least once. And then killed me."

"Heck yeah I did!" Kaitlyn called from the other side of the table. It was only three feet away, but that didn't dampen her enthusiasm. "Elf versus hobbit? Hobbit wins, pants down! Er, hands. Don't want to give Lux ideas."

Dafydd raised an eyebrow and turned it on Selene, as if to say, THIS is your partner?

The vampire shrugged and drained her glass. "We may have been a district," she said, "but that didn't make us a team. There can only be one winner, after all." She chuckled dryly, tried to take a drink, and blinked at her glass in confusion. "And the member of District Huinesoron's-Not-In-This who came closest was the wannabe Hobbit. Who saw that coming? I need another drink."

"Me too," Morgan sighed, pushing her glass around the table. "Or three."

"No, me three." Kaitlyn hopped out of her seat and grabbed their glasses. "Backinasec!"

~

((I'm starting them all off in the same place. Feel free to peel one or more of them off, join the table, grab them when they wander off, or anything of the kind.))

hS