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Boring was a relative thing, Lou knew. There were people out there who hunted boars and who fought fires and who got shot in wars who weren't excited at all. There were people out there who stopped leaping off cliffs for fun, because they had ultimately decided that leaping off cliffs wasn't fun and that they simply didn't feel the rush, anymore. Jon was in the DMS - and he found it boring. Boring! Lou was astounded. She widened her eyes, just a touch. Her heart was beating a lot more conspicuously than it usually did. She was feeling quite warm. Gosh, she thought.

'It's boring,' boring she thought, still astounded, 'too. It has lots of variety, though, so the boringness stays fresh. Gosh.' She glanced at the table. She glanced at Duane. She ignored everything he said.

'I don't think you'd have boring stories. Are you sure they're boring? They might not be.' She was feeling quite warm.

((I love this bloody weird situation they've both ended up in, where neither of them have any idea what's going on, yet are very certain they know exactly what's going on.))

"There was this girl, Natasha, and she somehow got Mew's powers. As a complement to that, my mom and I both got Celebi powers. Chris and Ami decided I didn't do anything really bad, so they brought both of us, plus my friend Brenda, back to HQ," he said. "Mom doesn't use her powers, though. She works in the Nursery. I haven't seen Brenda in...oh, gosh, at least two years. Wonder how she's doing?"

"I can't say I've met anyone with that name before. It's pretty. Where are you from?"

((Miguel was a bit character when I recruited him, so he's an average-sized teenage boy. He's wearing a nice gray suit right now; he usually wears a black t-shirt and khakis. Brown eyes, dark chin-length curls, sepia-tone skin.))

It felt--well, it felt good to be asked for stories. He'd never been asked for that before. When he started thinking about the stories he had, though, he deflated. Most of them involved Lirene Sedai saving him from Sues and Stus. What would that look like to Lou? Not very good. "Most of them are boring, though," he said. Then, to distract her, "What's it like in the Floaters? I've, uh, never been in it. Um. Obviously." Jon mentally kicked himself. If this conversation ended with Lou not detesting him, he'd count it a victory.

((-Alleb))

She thought about digging for a new one, then realized that would hold the current round up too long. "Hey, Orc-"

"His name is Davug," Virro interrupted distractedly.

"Davug, then, switch with me. You check armor, I'm gonna loot a weapon." She walked over to the weapons rack and began doing exactly as she had said she would. Davug glared at her, but did what she had suggested. At that moment, he sorely wished he could have done something else, but it was, admittedly, far more practical to go looking for armor than anything else. Virro, who had been looking at the map, made sure to memorize what he had seen. He turned to the chest, and tried to see if there were any more scrolls or potions in the chest that he might take, particularly necromantic ones or ones that might help him gain some control of his magic in those instances where it flared too powerfully for him to control.

Bellas continues to search using the same parameters as the previous round

Uriel attempts to scan the current room for any secret passages, unaware of what Virro has found.

'Gosh, DMS,' she said, face going slightly blank, as she pictured it all in her mind. 'Duane thinks DMS are all a bunch of spotlight-hogging over-violent madmen. But even if they are, I don't see the problem with that. Duane wants to know if-' she cut herself off and glared at the rock.

'Sorry. He's a butt,' she said, looking up. Her annoyance was then promptly wiped off her face, and she leant in once more. 'Do you have stories? DMS stories?'

((Pffft, I've almost called people 'boss' and said 'bloomen' once or twice, myself. Fun stuff, that.

I am having fun experiencing him being the least horrific thing you can!))

"After I was made in the badfic I'm from, I wandered around the world, doing my own thing, until I ended up in Amestris, and I found a couple things that pointed me in the direction of Central at the Promised Day. I saw part of the big showdown between Van Hohenheim and Father, and because of the whole living-ish souls thing, I ended up here, 'cause my maker said that I didn't have those, just formless energy." Apecian sighed. "It's stupid, I know. Only thing I can say is that he was an idiot and I was supposed to be there so he could kill me after he failed to right after he made me. So, how 'bout you?" he asked, eager to both find out more about Miguel and draw attention away from his backstory. Why couldn't he have come from a goodfic?

((Argh, accidentally pressed "Send" early. Please be patient while I actually write the post.

UPDATE: It got late; I got tired. I'll finish this tomorrow.

--Key))

She took a breath. "I mentioned earlier that I wasn't the one who wanted to come here, right? That's still true. And I still didn't come here looking for anything, especially not love or whatever the equivalent might be for one such as me. But not looking for something and not finding something isn't the same thing, as a certain memory has decided to remind me."

Lu looked straight at her partner. "I'm still not in love with you. I don't trust anyone this quickly, not with anything, especially not something important. It's just not who I am. But, I suppose, I'd be willing to continue conversating with you after tonight - if that makes sense."

(This is her way of saying that she likes Cat. Again, still not romantically, but she's okay with having her around - which, for Lu, is pretty good praise. She's no people-person.)

'No. But I-m bloody sure I-ve hallucinated something like that before, one-ve the times my audiovisuals broke. He looked up at her, tilting the ocular. 'Hang on, are you in Bad Slash? I would-ve figured you-d be a little more insane, from all the things I keep hearing.' He did give a brief consideration to the possibility that maybe she really was insane, and that her own biological audiovisuals, maybe plus a few more things, had broken. She hadn't tried killing him with a flamethrower yet, however, and as far as Finch was concerned, that was all that mattered. She could go around being as insane as she wanted to, so long as she kept that nozzle firmly in the opposite direction of him.

((What's the different, ridiculous thing you're doing? The, whatsit, lots of internal monologuing, or some such?

Also, have they actually, genuinely met? I can only remember that one non-canon RP that we all agreed to not remember. You know. The one where Finch became Abraham Lincoln. That one.))

"That was Lirene Sedai," Jon said. "My partner, yes, and we're both agents in the DMS. What Department do you and Duane work in?" He hoped that Duane--if he was sentient--wouldn't keep insulting him or urging Lou to leave. She didn't seem very inclined to listen, but Jon wasn't sure he could look at his eyeless face in the mirror if he were defeated by a maybe-sentient rock.

((I've actually started saying "Light!" as an exclamation when there's either no one around or no one who will judge me. It's so much more fun.

Hehe, I'm glad; that's what I'm going for. Actualy Myrddraal really are horrific, so I'm having fun making him the least horrific thing I can.

-Alleb))

He made a mental note to watch more Brotherhood when he had the chance. "So how'd you end up here? I don't think I've met an agent from FMA before."

decided that she would be flattered. In anyone else, this would be insincere. The smile would seem fake, it wouldn't reach the eyes. The general mood of the whole thing would go down, just a touch. This was not the case with someone like Lou, whose entire face seemed to brighten up.

'Aw, thanks!' she said. 'I don't know what those are, and Duane thinks you're subtly insulting me, but I don't think so. You're nice!'

She shook her head. 'I'm from World One. It's the boring one, and they don't have Arad Domans or Flowers or even Fades. Oh!' Lou started, remembering something. 'There was a woman! Was she your partner? Are you an agent?' There was, of course, an alternative possibility regarding a woman sharing a table with him on a night specifically designated for dating, but Lou very specifically went out of her way to ignore that one. It'd somewhat put a damper on the whole thing, she felt.

((Such a fun swear! I mean, look what we got today, in comparison. 'Drat.'

Bit boring, innit?

And I keep saying this, but Jon is bloody adorable and I love him. ))

Maybe my show's not as well-known as I thought...eh, whatever. That's not as important as being sociable, she thought. "It's nice to meet you, Sonia. My name is Ami Seeker." She offered a hoof. "Your armor looks beautiful!"

Another hard question. He definitely couldn't tell her he was from the Blight, because that would then lead to him having to describe what the Blight was. He also didn't really want to tell her the name of the continuum he was from, because then she could look it up, and then she would realize what he was and be terrified of him. "Oh, um, a bit north of Kandor," he said, his voice sounding like gravel being ground between two slabs of stone. "What about you? You look like you could be Domani," he said, smiling. Then he froze. Jon, you Light-forsaken fool, he thought. She might not think of that as a compliment! "Er, I mean, you look like you might have family from Arad Doman," he clarified. Sheep swallow and bloody buttered onions! he thought, and was slightly shocked by his own foulness.

((The Domani are universally acknowledged as a beautiful people, but their women wear incredibly scandalous dresses, hence Jon's backpedaling.

"Sheep swallow and bloody buttered onions!" is billed as "impressively foul language." I love The Wheel of Time.

-Alleb))

Was she meant to respond to that last half-audible comment? Maybe Lu hadn't even said it aloud -- some species with poorly-developed psychic abilities leaked stray thoughts, she remembered T'Magu mentioning, after one of their earlier unsuccessful lobbying attempts. She'd been somewhat drunk at the time, though.

The best course seemed to be to ignore the whispered comment, particularly since Cat didn't understand it. Then again, the only way to begin to understand something not understood was to investigate. Cautiously, of course. No assumptions should be made, and utmost tact should be used in the asking.

"You said something about seeking and finding? What did you mean by that?" she said.

"Although I didn't know that people could establish a being without a story to come from --" wait. Was that what that exorcist had meant? "Actually, I think I might have met someone in the same position. The partner of a Bad Slash agent I've been working with. He's a little fluffy crab-thing, very shy -- you wouldn't happen to know him?" Not even this narrator, with unparalleled access to Thorn's thought processes, knows how she decided what gender to assume Burd was, considering the Venusian bore more resemblance to an armchair than any man or woman she had ever met, nor how it occurred to her that Finch and Burd would know each other. Perhaps she thought FicPsych held a support group for non-humanoids hailing from unbuilt universes -- or perhaps she was desperate to keep the conversation going. Perhaps she didn't quite know herself. Small talk is terrifying that way: you must swing from one delicate, tenuous, potentially offensive rung of thought to the next. Thorn could navigate the aerial swings with surefingered ease, but once in a while she gripped something she wasn't sure would hold her and had to hold her breath and pray to Ghezen she wouldn't fall into the silent abyss.

((Trying something different here; it's probably ridiculous. Isn't that what RPs are for, though? Mucking around?

--Key needs to stop staying up so late))

Those sounded like magical, beautiful things - pacifistic creatures of goodness and holiness, possessed of blood that acts as a sort of reverse-acid, healing all things it touches. What luck! Lou was glad that she had abandoned whatever it was she had abandoned in order to sit here, doing this, instead.

'Oh, that?' she said, looking from Jon to Duane, Duane to Jon. 'Oh. Well, Duane just doesn't like people, so he only talks to them when he needs to, and he only needs to talk to people when he wants to say something mean or stupid to me.' She paused briefly in consideration. 'But sometimes people don't hear him and they think I'm crazy. But, gosh, I don't think I am. Duane would tell me if I was crazy!'

She tilted her head, looking straight at Jon's sunglasses. Her smile was unnervingly relaxed. 'Gosh. Where are you from?' she asked, half-certain it may have been somewhere in Russia. Russia seemed the kind of place to have Fades. Russia seemed like the kind of place where people had inhuman-feeling hands, and where Duane would feel immense, deep terror. She would have been very surprised if it wasn't Russia.

"I hope so as well, Captain," she said, shaking the hand. Great galloping *moonrascals**, she thought. She fished her card out of her pocket and began walking away, waving one final time at Steele. *If my next partner is Paragor himself, I'll be glad, she thought.

((Oh dear. XD Something like that happened in the Rudi's RP once; everyone threw their red-eyed characters at Alleb. It was quite fun.

-Alleb))

She extended a hand with a large smile, which happened to fully expose her teeth for the first time. "Here's hoping we can see each other again sometime, Lady Alleb!"

(She just keeps getting the weird ones, doesn't she? Ahaha. Now I really want her to meet Lu - her only visible eye is red, so... I'm sure you can make the connection I'm thinking of. Considering what you've told me of Miss Nalleb's home.)

To him, "not very monster-ey" was an unprecedented compliment. "I'm not human," he admitted, trying to make his voice sound a little less... like his voice. "I'm a Myr--" no, what was he thinking? "Myrddraal" practically reeked of evil. "Um, a Fade." He thought he should probably try to move the topic on to something else, because if she started asking about what Fades were, he'd have to tell her he was an eyeless abomination spawned by mutated beasts for the express purpose of fighting all that was good and holy. And he had acid blood. "So, er, why can't I hear Duane?" Maybe the sentient rock only spoke very quietly, or he had some sort of mental link with Lou.

((Hehe, thanks!

Maybe Lou is the sane one, and the rest of us are just mad.

-Alleb))

Duane began releasing helpful strategies on escaping from a handshake while inflicting horrendous pain on the part of the opposing handshaker at the same time. Lou ignored him, and shook away. She, in fact, shook away just a tad longer than she would have, otherwise.

'Yeah, he's my partner. Sorry about him being rude,' she said, glancing at the rock. 'He's a butt who's scared of new people and is really loud with it.'

She dropped into the chair opposite to him, observing his hand. Naergondir had disappeared. The plan had disappeared. She would have been struck with a deep confusion, if you asked her about either of those things, at that particular moment. 'Hey, are you human? Your hand feels weird, and Duane keeps calling you things like "monstrosity" and "inhuman." But he's probably exaggerating.' She placed Duane on the table, by her side, with a thunk. 'At least, probably with the "monstrous" one, because you don't seem very monster-ey.'

((I like Jon, Alleb. He is bloody terrified and confused and he has no idea what to do, and it's adorable.

And, you know, you can't prove Duane's not sapient! Might be right.))

Lirene Sedai had been his partner for a year, and was always kind to him, but she never touched him, not even when he was in disguise. He knew that was specific to him; she was the type to put a friendly hand on someone's shoulder or pat them on the back. Jon couldn't ever remember having someone hold out a hand for him to shake.

Slowly, so she could pull away if she had second thoughts, the Myrddraal took her hand and gave it a very gentle shake, grasping it delicately. He hoped his hand wouldn't frighten her; his skin felt normal to him, but to a human, it probably felt... wrong.

What Lou had been saying suddenly registered. "Duane?" he asked, tilting his head. He focused on the rock in her hand. "Is that... um, pardon, is he your partner?" Were there such things as sentient rocks? He supposed there might be. Lou didn't seem frightened of him at all, but Duane was, so he supposed the sentient rock was the sane partner. He wondered suddenly if he was taking advantage of Lou somehow, if she were insane. If she were sane, she never would have approached him. Was it wrong of him to try to talk to her more, if a saner her would have run away by now? Jon wasn't used to moral dilemmas like this. He wished Lirene were there to tell him what to do, but she had disappeared from her corner and was nowhere to be seen. He bit the inside of his cheek and hoped he wasn't doing something wrong.

((Most people's response to Lou: She's talking to a rock like it's a person. She's insane. Jon's response: She's talking to the rock, so it must be a person!

-Alleb))

"Conversely, staying here might make it happen again." She felt her card buzz in the pocket of her gown. "Oh, dear, it appears my time is up. Can you stand?"

((Alleb would be quite grateful for a normal-looking partner at this point. XD Watch, she'll get paired with an Orc or something next.

-Alleb))