[video]

[ownperson]

[ The woman on the video may look somewhat familiar; it's the shape of her face, the ice blue of her eyes, the blonde of her hair, her height. South and her brother aren't identical, of course, but the family resemblance is clearer than she'd like it to be.

(More than ever, these days; who wants to look in your own reflection and see your dead brother's features looking back at you?)

She's shoved the sleeves of her coveralls as far up her arms as she can get them, revealing a variety of tattoos up one of her muscled arms. There's hints of old purple dye in the front of her hair. Around her neck there's a puck, dangling from a chain, holding a chip of some kind.

She looks... pissed. ]

So this ████ing sucks donkey— [She blinks, then squints.] Oh for ████'s sake, I can't even ████ing swear? ████. ████. ████ing ████-████ ████████████.

[ There's a pause of a few seconds before South visibly decides to test this thing's limits. ]

████trumpet. Bull████. ████biscuit. Dip████. ████face. Jack███. Fuck██████— ha, ████ed that one up.

Ugh, whatever. My name's South. Yes, that's a ████ing codename, no, I'm not telling you my real name. Guess I'm stuck here with the rest of... whoever the hell you guys are. Which ████ing sucks.

[ Not that things didn't suck where she came from, but at least she was something resembling free and kind of in control of how much stuff sucked. Call her old fashioned, but she'd much rather ruin her own life than have someone else do it for her. ]

Comments

[Video]

[bringinghopewithme]

Guess you sure are.

[It is time for Attitude to bump up against Attitude as Bunny props his communicator up on a knot in the oak tree to keep working on growing the vetiver that Dan asked him for. The grassy plant is growing slowly under his outstretched paw, in a small plastic pot with a hanging sling made of woven, dried grass.]

I'm the Easter Bunny and that's not a codename. What's your favorite fruit, and do you need any plants grown?

Re: [Video]

[ownperson]

What the ████?

[ South didn't really know what to expect from the people here, but the Easter Bunny wouldn't have come close to even making the list. ]

The literal ████ing— yeah, y'know what, sure, I'm not even gonna ask. Today's already ████ing unbelievable so why the ████ not add the Easter Bunny to the mix? Goddamn ████in... [ She trails off into indistinct muttering. ]

[ She'll process what she's seeing... at some point. Maybe. ]

████in', strawberries I guess? [ She can't actually remember the last time she ate actual fruit and not something from a military mess or meal pack. ] Why would I need plants? And why the ████ am I answering questions coming from the Easter Bunny?

[ That last question might be more for herself. ]

[bringinghopewithme]

[Sometimes it's funny to watch adults react to him existing, and sometimes it's just an exercise in feeling disrespected up front.]

Maybe because I asked you politely, maybe because I'm growing your produce. Pick one or the other, I don't care.

[South is in luck, as he already has a well-established strawberry patch, even if it's only able to yield about two berries per resident kid and maybe a few left over for adults he likes at the end of the day. Now if only he liked South initially.]

[ownperson]

[ She actually can't argue with either of those points, though her instinct is to want to. What can she say, it's her in nature. ]

Yeah, yeah, whatever. Like to see you react all ████in' polite and ████ when faced with uh— um—

[ Whatever point she was trying to make falls apart when she realises she has no idea what an equivalent would be for the Easter Bunny on the other side of the equation. ]

Look, it's just ████in' weird. This is all so ████in' weird.

[ Failed at a comeback? Just fall back on more vague attitude! ]

[bringinghopewithme]

Oh, when faced with slavery and a shock collar planted around your neck? Sure and I wouldn't know anything about that, would I, mate?

[Honestly he could stand to be a little more patient with her, given that she's new to these circumstances and he's had more time to adjust to them, but even mortal adults have had time to learn to mind their manners under stress. Usually.]

We're all in the weirdness together now. [He manages to say that a little more gently.] So what is it you're bringing to the table, besides a vocabulary?

video

[parannoyed]

[He has his comm set on float because he's moving very quickly through the hallways and doesn't want to fuss with it while moving. He isn't running. The injured knee doesn't hurt anymore and he doesn't need the crutches but it's still weak.]

[Still, he's moving as fast as he can, in a purposeful trot. Practically machinelike. Driven by a cold fury she can see etched into every line of his face. The lack of helmet certainly means he's...expressive right now. And he looks a little older than when she saw him last.]

[Instead of looking at the hall as he moves, for a moment he directs a sharp gaze directly at the camera, icy blue eyes carrying a threat of at least violence, if not murder. His words come out with a menacing calm, a cold disdain the Freelancers never heard in his voice before the project fell apart.]

How unfortunate for you. Being stuck in here with us.

[Yes, it is a threat. Whether she's from the moment before he killed her, or from some time before, it doesn't matter. He has a score to settle.]

[And he recognizes where she is from the background behind her.]

[ownperson]

████ing Washington?!

[ To say South looks like she's seen a ghost would be the understatement of the century.

It's not possible. She *shot* him. Left him bleeding out on the ground. He should be dead, either from the blood loss or from the Meta cleaning up after itself.

But he isn't. He's right there, and oh, she does not like the look on his face or the tone of his voice. Or the fact he's moving.]

████.

[ She cuts her feed. ]

--> action

[parannoyed]

[He catches up to her. He knows the rig by now, has the layout memorized. After that nasty business with the Spirit of Murder, he made sure he knew every inch of this place, and the most logical paths to take, the ways she might retreat from a fight, or ambush a New Hire.]

[He catches up to South in one of the common rooms. Ironically it's the one near the still out-of-order elevator shaft where he'd survived multiple grenades and having the elevator dropped on his head.]

[Whatever had protected him then probably won't protect him here. It seemed like the power was triggered by extremes. But he figures he won't need it. She got him once because he dared trust someone, but when it comes down to a fight, she'd fallen off the leaderboard. And he has muscle memory that makes him much better than he used to be, even if he can't remember that his training partner is usually Carolina.]

[He comes in through the doorway and immediately raises his fists, but waits to see what she does before attacking. He's become...patient.]

You seem surprised to see me. This world sometimes pulls people from different places in time. What's the last thing you remember? You putting a bullet in my back?

[Hate. His voice is filled to the brim with hate. It's ice cold but it's still hate.]

Or me putting a bullet between your eyes?

[ownperson]

[ South falls straight into a defensive posture, fists raised to match, hackles up like an animal backed into a corner that's more than prepared to fight its way out if it has to.

The tone of his voice sends an unnatural shot of cold down her spine and her stance tightens. She'd like to call bullshit on the idea of people being pulled from different times, but she's not stupid. She won't deny the evidence of her eyes, or the things she's heard and seen since they dragged her into this place.

Still, the idea of him having shot her? That makes her snort. ]

Don't give me that shit. Like you could do it.

[ The Washington she remembers couldn't. At least, she doesn't think he could. Even under direct orders he let her live and, well, that had been his mistake to make, hadn't it?

Of course, nothing much about this feels like the Washington she remembers, either. ]

text

[turntex]

[Because clearly what South needs right now while in this mood is to be assaulted with candy red text...]

youre better off giving up dude
thats a losing battle
no one wins in the fight against the profanity censor
i mean i guess we as the audience kinda win because we get to watch you flail futilely at an uncaring computer program but thats probably not what you wanna hear right now huh

[ownperson]

[ South blinks. Yeah, didn't expect the visual assault of bright red text. ]

Yeah, no, definitely ████in' not. [ She huffs. ] And like ████ I'm gonna let some stupid ████in' censor stop me.

[ She's stubborn. If she can get it to break and miss a word even once more she'll feel way more vindicated than anyone should feel over a computerised censor. ]

[turntex]

[It does slip up sometimes. Maybe she'll get lucky eventually.]

well ok then
guess the rest of us can start popping some corn then
maybe get some nachos
weve got a feature length show ahead of us and we gotta get our snack on

[ownperson]

[ South snorts. It's hard to tell if it's amused or dismissive. Probably a little of both. ]

Glad I can be so entertaining. [ The sarcasm is dripping. ] Fancy yourself a real ████in' comedian, huh?

voice;

[notvulcan]

You're going to have people taking that last bit wrong, you know.

[ownperson]

What, think I shoulda been more specific? The situation ████in' sucks, I'll reserve judgement on the rest of you until you ████ me off or don't.

That better?

[notvulcan]

Just making an observation. I suppose anyone who makes that kind of assumption would be someone who gets on your bad side immediately because of it, anyway.

[ownperson]

[ She snorts. ]

Yeah, probably. Y'know, assumptions make an ███ out o— oh come on, really? ███. ███umption— ████. Did I actually just make it worse?

[ That's what she gets for overdoing it. ]

[fuckcable]

Nice.

[ That’s not sarcasm. Don’t mind him; he’s just admiring the skill needed to connect trumpet with a curse word. ]

You’re not the only one here with a codename, so I don’t think you’re gonna get too much shit about it.

[ownperson]

Thank ████. You never know with that ████, some people can be real nosy.

[fuckcable]

It’s not like noses are $&@?ing hard to break.

[ He’s only swearing to join in, so he sounds downright cheerful. ]

South’s better than a lotta codenames. I know a guy who goes by Egg.

[ownperson]

Damn right.

[ South snickers a little. ]

Egg? ████, that makes being named after a ████in' cardinal direction sound cool by comparison.

[ Not that her codename actually comes from the cardinal direction itself, but she's not looking to get called Dakota either if she can help it. She's South, just South. ]

video; (if you're not vibing with late tag-ins here just lmk!)

[fuckingaqua]

Hey, imagine how we feel. We were stuck with each other way before you showed up. Now we gotta incorporate this whole situation. It's like being in the world's ████tiest goldfish tank.

[ Bold words for a guy who has not been socializing well and made no new friends to date. And also who hasn't been here long enough to fully commit to that "way before." ]

[ownperson]

[ South snorts. ] Well aren't you a ████in' charmer.

[ She could not sound more sarcastic if she tried. ]

[fuckingaqua]

Give it time. Not that you're one to talk or anything, but my charm's a grower. Not a shower. And only really outmatched by my good looks.

[ The thing about being used to the relative privacy of a helmet is that Tucker isn't good at looking committed to this bit. Eh, Jorgmund probably isn't gonna scrutinize that much. Whatever. ]

[ownperson]

[ South pulls... such a face. She's much too gay to make a judgement on that last declaration, or to deal with this shit. ]

████ing christ, really? Yeah, no, I don't think I need to give it any time. Don't think your kind of charm is ever gonna 'grow' on me. Like. Ever.