Digimon: Waltz of the Damned--The Second Movement

Rue was alone to interact with the others away. She wasn't so nervous this time because she knew exactly what they all could talk about. But it was one thing to have something she shared common ground with... It was another thing to find the courage to speak. She loosened her scarf a bit. "Hello... Like I said... My name is Haruka Makafari... You can call me Rue I guess..." she said lowly. "That hologram was amazing. I'd never thought I would see anything like it." she said a bit more confident. "It's nice to meet you." she said.

You need to keep calm Rue. she told herself. Keep a good impression and maybe your co-workers might be friends. Lord knows you could use a few. She pushed her glasses to her head and looked to the red haired and green eyed boy, wondering if he was Irish or Catholic. Maybe there'd be some common ground there.

She thought back to her days at her old school. She had been one of few friends all her name. Even in clubs and activities she was more like a co-worker than a companion, focusing on what needed to be done. She had Mari though. The only other girl in her grade that was actually Catholic... They would play games together and Mari would always be looking for rumors and glitches to exploit. "It's never any fun to play the game by the rules." she had said. Haruka needed to think like that if she wanted to do her job as a playtester.

The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.

Shai almost immediately tagged May as 'either impressively optimistic or hopelessly naïve'. After all, the military — or the government, and in most places they were interchangeable in a sense — was bound to be interested in any new, revolutionary technology. After all, it was a well-known fact that things like Velcro and (if she remembered right) vacuum cleaners were first developed by NASA, neh?
So of course the army will be interested in this new VR technology and at the very least be involved in its development. It had multiple military applications; for example, complete-immersion VR could be used to train pilots, astronauts, et cetera, or to interrogate captives, or for debriefings, or a plethora of other things. So it was rather suspicious...
She turned to Rue. A shy one, huh? Well, she has seen enough people like her to know how to act.
“Hi, Rue,” she said, “my name, as I've said before, is Shai, Shai Arieli. I am from Israel. I assume you're from hereabouts?”
She flicked her head aside and gave May a sidelong glance. “I must note that this technology – complete-immersion virtual reality, if I am not mistaken — has multiple military applications. Of course the military, or at the very least the government, would be involved. Thus, if there isn't any involvement... it's fishy,” she said and turned to Rue again.

The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground

"Japan doesn't have much of a military. We love our electronics technology, though." Haruka said. "I sound like such a stereotype." she said quietly while forcing a chuckle. "But honestly I don't see why a country with a tiny milatary would use this kind of thing for war. But I bet it's very different in Israel." she said. "It's the holy land, right? Lots of war there... I don't think I'd like to live in a place with so much death and fighting." she said reflexively touching the cross hidden under her scarf. She remembered for a second a flash of red and the flowing of blood on white pavement. She then pictured lakes of blood, and hundreds suffering in her sight. "Thsat would ve terlibre for me." she said nervously.

She was a bit embarrassed for how rusty her English was. She used to talk with her father all the time in English but she had been so busy in school that she didn't talk to him much. "I apologize for the accent. No used to speaking in this language anymore." she said. "And I get upset easily... And people speak with what they know when they're upset."

edited 17th Aug '12 4:56:53 PM by RhymeBeat

The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.

—In the aftermath of Geo Greymon, Alistair wordlessly followed Mr. Weiss along with the others, grinning from ear to ear and giggling under his breath. Never before had he beheld something so awesome, and the very idea of seeing a whole WORLD so rendered put a definite spring in his step. To be able to touch it, as that one (very calm or very nuts) kid demonstrated, was even cooler.

On the elevator down, he bounced on the balls of his feet, very slowly beginning to calm down.

When they finally exited, after what felt like a small eternity, he raced out, looking every which way for some fresh new surprise. Only now did the English businessman's dialogue reach him. 'Harvey', huh? Some technician on the project? Heck, maybe they have some kind of artificial help program to run the tutorial. I mean, it's JAPAN! They have artificial pop stars over here!

He eyed the multilingual CAUTION sign with a smirk, even while at the same time the others worried over it. Gee, they sure have a sense of the dramatic.

And then the doors opened to admit a stunning woman in a strangely-coloured business suit. Before Alistair could appreciate her beauty, however, the woman's positively glacial eyes made him flinch, smile slipping from his face like soap across water. Only when she wheeled back around and returned through the doors did he also realise he was holding his breath.—

"Jesus Christ, Ah guess we know now who's on tha testin' staff an' who's with PR. Maybe they have some kinda experiment or surveh goin' on. Kinda dramatic 'bout it, tho."

— The Southerner turned to face the surprisingly small Japanese contingent, thinking for a second. Then he bowed to them, sweeping the fedora from his head. —

"O Hayo gohzai mAH-soo. Think that's it. M'name's Alistair Macleod. Sorreh, don't know much Japanese."

edited 18th Aug '12 2:44:19 PM by Colonial1.1

Ayako was in fangirl heaven. This was going to be so great! The game would be absolutely magnificent, if that short display of holographic technology was anything to go by. And this was just the beta phase! She could not keep herself from grinning like an idiot at the thought of soon being able to test it out.

Thus, the Japanese girl was something of a trance as she followed Mr. Kurosaki, and finally snapped out of it when she realized that the testers had been left to themselves. She looked around a bit confusedly, when suddenly one of the testers from overseas came over to her and the other Japanese testers.

Ayako scrambled desperately to bow back and reply, not wanting to appear rude. Her English was, in truth, abysmal. She could read and write English just fine, and understand it when spoken slowly and clearly enough. But she had driven several teachers absolutely mad with her pronunciation. And yet, she spoke.

"Hi! I emmu Ayako Takahashi! Werrucome tu Japan!"

Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!

"Eric Jones." Eric had quietly responded to being addressed as 'Mr. Unnamed'. Shai was a sharp one, and had apparently come to the same conclusion about this technology as he had. As for the others in this conversation... May wasn't seeing the bigger picture, and Rue seemed to have allowed the topic to drift. "The accent isn't something you need to apologize for. Seriously though, even if this stuff wasn't going to be used for military purposes, it could easily be sold off to other countries who would pay dearly for this technology. And probably sponsor the research, something I hear scientists are always looking for." He blinked, as a new thought occurred to him. "If they're bringing in public testers, this probably isn't government sponsored, and considering how revolutionary this stuff is, the government might not even know about it."

He brought a hand to his face and began to absentmindedly rub his forehead. "I'm not even going to go into about how a games company could do this much right under a government's noses - or at all for that matter, given the resources they'd be expected to have... And then there's why they would do something like that..." He sighed. "We really need to be on our guard here."

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.

"Huh... Rooting out the weak... That seems... logical." William mumbled out. It helped him at least understand what became of the missing player. It was better than jumping into conclusions and thinking "they got sucked into the game world and we have to rescue them" or something. Then they talked about how the military should be all over this technology.

"Well, you don't see the military researching and toying around with the Wii or Kinect, so I doubt they might..." That is when he realized he was speaking out loud. He then cupped his hands over his mouth and sat near the wall, curled up in case the others hound on him.

edited 18th Aug '12 10:02:45 PM by Psyga315

Normally Lucas wouldn't have spoken up. He would be too concerned that he would say the wrong thing and alienating any potential friends, but at the same time too afraid of starting to form a connection and having to leave. Normally he would have stood in the back and observed like he always does

... but he seemed so scared, so unsure of himself. How could he stand there and do nothing to reassure him, even if this isn't something he's good at?

"He has a point. While plenty of things the military and the government invented are used primarily by civilians, it does work the other way around. Dynamite, for instance, was invented for use in construction by a businessman and I don't think anyone can dispute its military applications. Video games are a huge industry, and this really is the next logical step forward."

edited 18th Aug '12 10:31:50 PM by luckybreak91

TV Tropes Powers. Activate!!!!!

Shizuko had been quiet through most of the events, even the Geo Greymon (though her eyes widened, and she was ready to jump out of her seat before she realized it was a hologram. She WAS amazed at how advanced the tech was for that hologram to even be remotely possible). Upon seeing the woman, Ms. Verde was her name, and hearing her wish them good luck... It didn't really make her think anything was off. She had people wish her luck on games before... But... She shook it off. There was no real reason to be paranoid about this was there? No, not really... At least, she didn't think so. Shizuko didn't want to admit it but... there was a feeling of paranoia rising within her. She still highly doubted there was anything truly dangerous with the game...

... Right? The "Caution" sign put her a bit more on edge... The equipment could be dangerous...? Shizuko felt the paranoid feeling rise a bit. Not entirely sure what to think here...

My RP site. Please feel free to join!

Quill wondered about the small room, yet nothing caught her eye as particularly noteworthy. Instead, she found conversation to be a more worthy subject, listening to the idle chatter about the room.

It seems I'm not the only one with similar thoughts. She piped up after William. His voice was barely audible, a mere mumble into the small space. Yet, she had heard it all the same and like a preying harpy she descended on the conversation quickly. "Yes it seems all too logical. That or they have another elaborate surprise awaiting us and I, for one, am not about to be caught off guard again. What if this is truly meant to scare us and by scaring us, it entices us to buy their product. If nothing more it is brilliant marketing on their part.

Though none tickles me more than the thought of a well dressed highly ranking official hunched over a Wii controller attempting to find various ways to control people with its super advanced controls."

"Does anyone else have any other ideas as to what they are going to do with us? If I had to take one more guess, I'd say that we would have something akin to the Digital Version of the Hunger Games."

Olivia had watched Ms. Verde leave, idly raising an eyebrow at the older woman’s frosty demeanour; who the hell had pissed in her cornflakes this morning? You’d think that someone involved in a big thing like this contest would have had the decency to at least be a little more cheerful and polite to the people they’d dragged halfway across the world; if you wanted your beta-testers to have a good time and recommend your game to others, a reception as cold and aloof as the German (or maybe she was half-German; Ms. Verde certainly seemed mostly Asian, her accent and European features notwithstanding) seemed counterproductive in the college student’s eyes.

As the sound of the frosty businesswoman’s steps faded into inaudibility, Olivia simply shrugged and sat down at the table. No point in getting strung out over the attitude problems of some corporate bigwig, after all; whatever was going on between Verde and Weiss was not the blonde’s problem. A couple of magazines lay scattered across the table’s surface, and Olivia pulled one of them over as her fellow contestants began to yammer and speculate amongst themselves; she didn’t bother to put on her headphones, for she knew now that any effort to drown out their conversations with music was doomed to failure, and so she sought to lose herself in the contents of the book. Alas, this too was doomed to failure; the androgynous young woman’s brows creased as she saw that not only was the book written entirely in Japanese, but that it was a gossip magazine as well.

She closed the book and tossed it aside with a huff, having no interest in reading about the sordid stories and tawdry doings of celebrities she did not recognize and not being able to read them if she were, and settled for drumming her fingers on the tabletop. As she did so, Olivia could not help but pick up snatches of the various conversations going on around her; in particular, she found herself paying an undue amount of attention to what the chatty Israeli girl Shai and that British kid—Eric Jones, or something like that?—were saying. As she listened to their concerns about the technology, Olivia was not able to keep the faintest hint of a mocking smirk from spreading across her face.

“You two are overthinking this way, way too much,” she said, her voice low and somewhat rough. “We’ll have to be on our guard? Against what, jackbooted thugs and computer viruses? There’s no conspiracy at work here, people; it’s just a game involving technology which is clearly brand new, otherwise I’m pretty sure that at least some of us would have heard about it by now.”

Here the young woman jerked her thumb over her shoulder, indicating the door through which Ms. Verde had left. “Plus, that whole bit with the ice queen? I’m willing to bet she’s ticked off at Whitey because they just broke up or something stupid like that. That’s all there is to it; we’re here to play games, not get plugged into the Matrix.”

---

“Nice to meet you,” Silas replied, taking Joel’s hand and giving it a firm shake. “I believe that I already caught your name on the way here, though. Name’s Silas, though you probably caught that as well.”

With that out of the way, the grey-eyed youth let go of Joel’s hand and cast his gaze about the room; he noticed that a lot of the others had begun talking as well, many of them voicing concerns and speculations about the nature of the technology involved in this game. While the curly-haired Canadian certainly had concerns of his own about just what was going on here, he could not help but feel that Eric and Shai may have been blowing things just a little out of proportion; and judging from the reactions of several others, including William, the multilingual guy in the red jacket, that blonde woman in the green sweater and one of the local girls, it was clear that he wasn’t alone in that sentiment.

Not wanting to get involved with that particular discussion, he turned his attention towards another part of the room, where Alistair was introducing himself—rather loudly—to the other members of the Japanese contingent. The young man could not help but quirk an eyebrow as his doppelganger belted out a greeting in what was probably horrifically mangled Japanese, a little amused by the sight; he was struggling to keep a smile from forming, for it wasn’t polite to make fun of people for not being able to speak a language they had no familiarity with—particularly when he himself was no better at it. Even so, Silas was unable to stop a faint chuckle from escaping his mouth as one of the local players—a slightly-tanned girl who may or may not have been around their age, dressed in a white jacket—replied in equally-broken English.

The young man brought a hand up to stifle the laugh, a little ashamed of himself for doing so; amused, to be sure, but ashamed nonetheless.

Silas cast his gaze elsewhere; much as he might have wished to get to know these people, the language barrier was a significant hurdle and he did not wish to make a fool of himself or anyone else by stumbling through his words. Instead, his eyes fell upon a tanned young woman in a blue t-shirt whose dark hair fell partway down her back in a finely-knotted braid, and whose face was framed by bangs dyed an interesting shade of dark blue. The Canadian youth tilted his head thoughtfully, realizing that he had seen her before; she had been with them in the limousine earlier, though he must have overlooked her at the time. She seemed rather quiet, to say the least; as far as Silas was aware, this girl hadn’t said so much as a single word since their group left the hotel earlier.

She also seemed a little nervous as well, he thought. This notion did not sit entirely well with him, and the youth decided to do something about it.

“Please excuse me, Joel,” he said with an apologetic smile. Silas then stepped away from the New Yorker and slowly made his way over to the subject of his curiosity, stopping at a respectable distance so as not to infringe upon her personal space. The young man coughed into his hand in an attempt to get her attention, and once he had it he adopted a friendly, if faint, smile.

“Hello. I’m sorry if I’m disturbing you, but I couldn’t help noticing that you seemed a little…withdrawn. Is everything okay?”

The Danse Macabre Codex

Joel offered only a small smile and a curt nod as Silas walked away to talk to one of the other testers who'd been suspiciously silent so far. That was fine by him. Not like they'd have much to talk about anyway, and the Canadian didn't seem to him like a sparkling conversationalist. Then again, neither was he, but that was beside the point. With a screech of legs against metal, Joel turned his chair around so that it faced away from the table, leaning back and crossing one leg over the other as he scanned the room. Might as well get comfortable.

Most of the local testers seemed to be mixing it up with the foreigners, though that language barrier seemed to be a bit of a hurdle. Sounded like they'd stuffed their mouths full of cotton balls before coming over here. Hell, maybe they had, he couldn't say for certain. He couldn't help but snicker a little as one of the Japanese girls, Ayako was her name, made her introduction. Seemed like she and Al had about he same comprehension of the English language, though he could at least sort of understand her. He just hoped he wouldn't have to listen to them at the same time. Mushmouth in stereo was not what he'd signed up for.

Some of the other contest winners seem a little nervous. And after Ms Verde's little display, why wouldn't they be? That woman could freeze a bonfire if she had the inclination. Though some of the stuff they were discussing got another small laugh out of Joel. That Eric kid, especially. Did he seriously just recommend that they watch their backs? Bandai was a game company, for chrissakes. It's not like they'd stepped into Area 51 or some bullshit.

"yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with blondie over here." He said, jerking a thumb towards the androgynous girl. Looked about college age, certainly older than anyone else in the room. Hadn't caught her name on the ride here, though she didn't seem like the most sociable person anyway. "There's no secret conspiracy behind any of these. Wait an' see what they've got in store before busting out the tinfoil hats, eh?" Though he was starting to get a little anxious himself. Not that he expected anything sinister, hell no. He was just wondered how long Weiss was gonna take. Not like he was defusing a nuke back there.

"You have more than enough potential. So tell me what is the one wish that would make your soul gem shine." -Mitt Romney, probably

— Alistair coughed a little, trying valiantly to keep a straight face. He gave up, and rose from his bow with a smile. She seemed like a nice enough girl, so he wouldn't comment on her mangling of his own language. —

"So you do speak English! Well, Ah lihke what Ah see around heah. Tokyo's tha busiest, craziest city Ah've seen yet. Kinda odd that theah aren't maneh Japanese playehs around, though. Why do you reckon that is?"

"We are rathah rare." said Haruka trying in vain to disguise her accent. "I suppose they wanted a strong international crlowd for this MMO. Probarly want to rlocalrize it quickly." It's not working. Haruka though. I'm letting my nerves get the better of me and slipping up. Why can't I talk to people anymore? she thought. "I'm sorry for my Engrlish." she said. "I'm not much bettah than Ayako on this flront. It's a weakneths of mine I guess." she said. "But as I was saying... This tech must have cost a huge amount up front. They want to make up their money as quickly as possible to covah that expensthe. Beta testing with all thieah tarlget demogrlaphics acrosth the world would let them sorlt out anything that could arlienate foreignahs before it is sold outside Japan." she proposed.

Haruka looked around the room for a reason to escape the conversation. She'd tried to keep quiet but she knew she had trouble keeping her mouth shut when she was interested in the topic at hand. She decided that maybe she should let her actions speak for herself. But I need something to do. she thought. "Umm..." she said. "Is there anything you could use me for?" she said. "I may not talk well, but I'm useful." she said, a bit more confidently than before.

The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.

May responded to Shai's statement with a sigh. "Just because the technology is advanced doesn't mean the government has to be involved." Seeing that a few other testers seemed to agree with her she gave a nod. "Sorry but I just don't think this is something we need to worry about. She was probably just warning us because of minor bugs. We are supposed to be helping them after all."

William warmly smiled when Olivia stood up and spoke out her mind, as did Joel. It was a good thing they were helping him calm with this situation. Quill's comment on this becoming something out of The Hunger Games however sent a few shivers down his spine. He's heard of the premise, and quite frankly, he'd rather have some sort of government conspiracy than be forced to kill other people. He kept calm though. "In a few moments, you will be playing that game... with that dinosaur..." William thought.

For a little while, Shai's eyes glazed over as the conversation swamped her mind. She was having problems listening to all of the people around and giving coherent answers in the same time. Then she decided to spin around and answer everybody in their turn.
First, she turned to Rue. “Well, matters aren't fun,” she said, “with soldiers everywhere, security checks, et cetera. Also, I don't mind the accent. I've seen worse, and yours is pretty much understandable compared to, say, my father's, or the Dalai Lama's.”
She pointed at Ayako. “See? Another person with an accent worse than yours. Hi, Ayako! Thanks for welcoming us!”
She turned to William. “The difference, Unnamed 2, is that VR has more military uses than a remote control.”
To Quill: “The Hunger Games? That shitty Battle Royale ripoff? Let's hope that is not the case. I don't want to be like that Katniss, or that idiot Peeta. Pfft, Peeta. Bread. Heh heh.”
To Olivia: “Better safe than sorry. Also, why all the negativity? What's wrong with some baseless (okay, not baseless, but whatever) speculation? Why don't you join the fun? Same to you, Mr. Joel.”
Back to Rue: “You worry too much. Just enjoy the confusing mass of conversation, sulkiness, speculation and general mess, neh?”
And finally to May, with a wide smile: “You just wait and see.”
Shai's mind practically went into overdrive. Too much information, too many threads of conversation to follow. This is why she hated large gatherings: she'd probably start spewing nonsense soon if the conversation continued in its present, very confusing way.
She took a deep breath. Focus! she admonished herself.

edited 25th Aug '12 4:55:05 AM by desdendelle

The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground

A blush started to creep up Ayako's face. She could sense that some of the Americans were laughing at her. Of course they would; they spoke this language every day and she probably sounded terrible. But then again, they didn't speak Japanese. How else were they to communicate? She pouted at Haruka. It was no fair saying outright that her Japanese was bad...still...

"I tinku that Rue-san is correcuto, Macreodo-san. For an MMO, peoporu from arr ova za warudo are gonna puray. And Digimon is internationaru!"

She smiled brightly.

"Because Macreodo-san is a fan of Digimon also, yeah?"

Her blush became even stronger when one of the strange foreigners started spinning around and pointed at her. Ayako thought she'd heard the girl introduce herself as an Israeli. At least she just said her accent was bad...wait, that was no better! Gah, she was beginning to regret opening her mouth in the first place.

"Y-You're welcome..."

Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!

"So The Hunger Games is a 'rip off' of Battle Royale. Well honestly it's not like we're not guilty of plagiarizing western plots. I heard Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica is inspired by the Western Faust story." she said with her usual accent. "But I really hope we don't end up in a fight to the death.... I'd be dead meat within the first hour." she admitted, playing with her scarf. "But they were most likely talking about a bug or something. Nothing to worry about. They wouldn't move to Beta Testing if they weren't sure the core technology was entirely safe." she reassured herself.

The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.

"Well," Quill announced to no one in particular, instead making a declaration into the confines of the small space. She closed her eyes, waving a gloved hand about as she talked. "If they do or do not intend to pit us against one another, they could at least provide an adequate meal. After all the only truly important Hunger Games are the ones played with the stomach. There isn't any telling how long we are going to be trapped in this soulless room and I would like the privilege of a nice well rounded meal." She rolled the word 'soulless' around until it was polished with sarcasm.

"If only conspiracy theories tasted as well as Brie paired with Raspberry Chutney and the sweet tartness of apples." She sighed lightly-almost dreamily.

"Maybe then they'd be easier to swallow and more acceptable to the common thoughtless palette."

—Alistair rubbed at the side of his face, smile reduced a little so that they wouldn't think he was laughing at them. —

"Ah guess that makes sense. Kind of a new thing foah Bandai to care 'bout tha foreign mahket first, tho."

—He quirked an eyebrow at the scarf girl. She seemed to be growing more uncomfortable by the minute, maybe even getting nervous. —

"'Useful?' What do you mean? Jus' to let you an' Ayako know, yoah English is okay. Ah can undehstand both of you jus' fine."

—He smiled a little wider when he noticed the camera-sporting girl blushing, and chuckled when she addressed him by his last name. Man, language rules must get WEIRD for these people when using something they're not used to. —

"You bet he is. But please, call meh Alistair. You can leave out tha 'l', if you want."

—He was about to say more, when the seemingly hypersocial Israeli girl pointed to Ayako, to both loudly thank her and point out her linguistic issue. The Southerner frowned with a hard blink, his train of thought derailed. He shook his head, looking to the girl of fancy dress and dark skin.—

"Ohr some cheese an' crackers. Maybe some sandwich meat. We'ah some hungreh teenagehs, raight?"

Yay, he had complimented her English! So at least she was making herself understood. Alistair had a thick American accent too, she finally noticed. Perhaps he understood her. She smiled.

"Thank you. Naisu to meetchu, Aristaru-san."

Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!

“Hopefully we won't have to kill anyone, yes,” Shai told Rue. “Killing's bad, neh, especially when someone else is trying to do it to you.”
A spin. Now she was facing Quill. “Brie, raspberry chutney and apples? What's this, a bad sort of gourmet restaurant? If they'd serve food it'd probably Japanese — I wouldn't mind some gyouza myself, ehehe. Though nothing beats spaghetti with cheddar cheese. Mm, cheddar...”
She smiled. She liked cheddar: its orange-red hue, its smell, its wonderful taste... and it was even better when it was grated and grilled on top of a plate of spaghetti...
“Also, I might be stating the obvious here, but you can't taste theories. Unless you're some weird sort of thought-creature.”
To Alistair: “I still want some pasta, ehehe. Mr. Mickety-Mick-Macleod, your accent is funny. Though easier to understand than that of some people I know.” She imitated the expression of a monkey. “Serves you right for standing in my way!”
She giggled, putting a finger to her lips. “Ehehe, nothing like Warriors Orochi's Toyotomi Hideyoshi. I assume you guys” — that was aimed at the Japanese testers — “know who he was, neh?”
Finally, back to Ayako: “Atashi-wa Shai Arieri des. Yoroshku onegai shimas.”
She bowed her head politely. Then burst out laughing. “That's the extent of my Japanese, ehehe. In Hebrew it would sound far worse, heh heh.”

edited 25th Aug '12 3:04:51 PM by desdendelle

The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground

Joel frowned, though only slightly. These people were starting to get on his nerves. Just didn't know when to shut up, did they? Now he knew how Blondie over there felt. Still hadn't gotten a name out of her, now that he thought about it. Would have to ask later. Whatever, he could deal with this. Let 'em jabber amongst themselves. better to fleece them when they were to busy babbling nonsense. It was probably just his nerves talking anyway. His fingers drummed hard and fast against the metal table, rhythm-less metallic tapping filling the room. One leg bounced up and down like it was on springs. Come on already, this wasn't rocket science. Or maybe it was, he didn't give a shit.

"Maybe it's because your baseless speculation is retarded." He said, almost snapping at Shai. That girl was the worst of the bunch, no doubt about it. God damn, and Joel thought he was mouthy. She could talk the ear off a mountain if she had the inclination. He just hoped he wouldn't be seeing more of her once the game started up. Only thing worse than having someone kick your ass was having them not shut up about it. Wasn't much of an issue either way, she seemed to be ignoring him for the most part. So were most of the other kids, now that he thought about it. He liked it that way. Out of sight, out of mind, out of pocket.

That probably didn't sound as good as it did in his head, but whatever. Seemed like the conversation had moved somewhere else by now, and it was astoundingly even more banal that it'd been before. They were talking about food now, for chrissakes. Food and the Hunger Games, which he guessed sort of fit in there. He didn't think much of the series anyway. The movie was kinda hum-drum in his opinion, though he was hardly a professional critic. Why the hell was he even considering this?

"Well, you're making me hungry, now." That was true enough. He hadn't had anything to eat since last night. He wasn't sure if that early-morning bag of gummy bears counted, though, so who knew. "I could go for, like, a pizza after this.You guys want pizza?" he asked innocently, spreading his arms wide and glancing about the room again. "Just me, over here?"

"You have more than enough potential. So tell me what is the one wish that would make your soul gem shine." -Mitt Romney, probably

“Pre.cise.ly,” She annunciated each syllable happily as she turned to Alistair. “We are hungry teenagers and I think we all could have something in our stomachs. Though, a full stomach does dull the senses. I wouldn’t even mind cheese and crackers and meat sandwiches.”

She saw Shai turn toward her. “I prefer French food, if I had a choice. And I haven’t had much Japanese food,aside from Wagyu steak. Perhaps one of our lovely Japanese co-players could show us some great places. Authentic is always best.” She ended her sentence by extending a hand toward one the local players. She looked their way briefly before Joel caught her attention.

“Pizza sounds good.”