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[wheyoftheadept]

[Saturday looks like hell.  She's showered, at least - her hair is wet and there's a towel around her neck, but her visible skin is covered in scrapes and bandages, and there are bags under her eyes.]

Hi, guys.  Just got back from - well, I'm gonna be real honest here and tell you my own memories are a little fucked. Jorg pulled me right outta medical to run escort on some civvie caravan.  We ran into a Stuff storm.  They tell me it's been like two months?

 [She runs a hand through her hair, wearily.] 

What have I missed?

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[wheyoftheadept]

"I'm glad I made it back," she retorts, coloring faintly at his expression and not sure why. "One guard! One fucking guard for a five-man civilian team, in unknown territory! An' the goddamned sandstorms on top of it! If it was a regular job I'd be blackballing the Johnson from here to fucking Tir Tairngire!"

She throws up her hands, waving them wildly in the universal gesture of what the fuck.

"I get that they don't care if we live or die but the paid employees, at least - !"

The more outraged she is, the less room for noticing how unexpectedly soft his eyes have gone.

[garmr]

"Well, that explains why you're all beat up."

His voice is more casual, but his face remains as content as it was before. It was nice having familiar company in their room again. It reminded him of his mercenary days.

"I bet the other guy looks worse off than you do, though."

[wheyoftheadept]

"Guys. Not human. Some fucked up toady troll thing - man, I hate saying that, but I'm not shitting you, it looked like someone crossed the biggest troll you ever saw with a toad and then gave it a prehensile tongue."

Satuday's shifted to sit cross-legged, hand free and gesticulating as she talks. There hadn't been time, before, not when she was trying to keep her Five Idiots alive. But now that she's home safe - as much as she can be, anyway - she has so many things to complain about.

"Smart enough for pack tactics, didn't see any sign of real communication, no weapons except natural ones - don't think they were people. If they were, they did a damn good job not lettin' me know. Natural weapons include claws, teeth, and I mentioned the fucking tongue? The fucking ten foot long tongue that wraps around you and is slimy?"

And unarmored, thank fuck; it never took more then a moment to cut free, but that's cold comfort to a woman who has been covered in toad tongue slime for a week.

"And no showers. For the nerds, sure, but I'm hired help so I go last, and it's just crazy how long those people took - somehow there was never any damn time - at least gettin' thrown around the sandbox rubbed most of it off, eventually."

[garmr]

He listens contentedly, watching her gesticulate her story with quiet interest. It was nice to have her voice in the room again. It was much preferred to his own internal one.

The slime certainly explained the urgent need for a shower, that's for sure. Killing monsters made messy aftermaths.

"Toads, huh? If we ever run into those again, we could try making a soup with them."

The deadpan way he said it made it seem like Guts would actually gobble down the hypothetical troll-toad stew without so much as a wince.

[wheyoftheadept]

Saturday makes a face. "I bet they taste gross. Anyway, all that fuckin' fuss an' bother an' I didn't even get to find out what was so important they had to send a team right away. Whatever it was, the nerds were happy. At least someone was."

She flops back against the wall of her bunk, groaning.

"God, I never thought I'd be glad to see this place again. But I'll take cold corridors and the smilebot over toad sand hell any day."

[garmr]

"Shame you didn't keep a toad skin to show for the effort. Could've brightened up the gray of the room."

The Jorgmund decor was awfully dull, but the readily available showers was a thing one did not have in the Wilds.

"Sounds like we're lucky to get you back in one piece. It was gettin' too quiet in here without you."

[wheyoftheadept]

"Oh? Not what I hear. Shapeshifters an' such? Gotta say I don't like this face-stealing business."

She really doesn't. As she'd told Loken, she knows she can catch possessions. It's not hard, once you get the knack. Someone who actually is a real flesh person, identical to someone she trusts... under the right circumstances, she'd never know.

"And mistletoe?"

[garmr]

"The pain in the ass almost knocked us out trying to get rid of that thing's eggs. I told him to use fire."

Washington briefly gets gets his old nickname back. Briefly! But aside from an annoyed huff, Guts seems mostly over the blunder of his companion there.

"Aside from that, though... room's been quiet."

Just Guts and his chatty self.

[wheyoftheadept]

"Oh, god, it laid eggs>? Nobody mentioned eggs... you're totally sure you got them all?" It's not that she doesn't trust the crew, but a series of brief and horrible visions are playing out in her mind's eye. "What was Wash's genius plan?"

There's a weird sort of lump in her throat. Something about what he said, and the way he says it. He doesn't look like he's been sleeping that well, either.

"It wasn't quiet in the desert," she says, looking away. Maybe coloring slightly. "Lonely, though."

[garmr]

He hadn't been sleeping well, though that was a problem Guts was used to. At this point, he didn't think much of it. He scratches the back of his head, noticing the slight blush to her and unsure of what to make of it.

"Well, he tried pouring some kinda cleaning stuff on it. Looked like water, but it smelled like crap. Bleach is what it's called?"

He grumbles.

"Then the whole damn room exploded with some kinda rancid cloud that knocked him out cold. Alia made us go to the doctors to get looked at. Everything was fine in the end, though."

[wheyoftheadept]

"Ah, christ. I know what he did. There's a couple of tricks you can use with bleach to make a kinda poison gas - the thing musta had something to do with um, ammonia, I think it is? Or something like that. Chemical reactions."

She rolls her eyes. "Really fucking stupid thing to do if you don't have a gas mask on, 'specially in a closed space. I guess it mighta been the only option? Not like Jorg would give us the right gear even if it was."

And everyone was fine in the end, which is what matters. Alive, and the bad guys dead: as through a win condition as there ever was.

She bites her lower lip for a second, then takes a very risky gamble and moves in for a hug. Guts, if he doesn't notice or doesn't stop her, finds that she is an excellent hugger, very warm and cozy.

"I ain't glad to be stuck back here still," she says, from somewhere around his shoulders. " - but I'm really, really glad t'see my friends again."