16 - All hands

[der_umgekehrte]

I'm not good with children. They aren't a thing I have much to do with. I hope there're unaffected folk who are better at it?

[Filtered to Stildyne's regulars-- not even his friends, strictly, but expanded out to people he talks to]

Report in if you can-- who's younger, who's all right, who remembers where they are.

Comments

[uberwaldian]

Who are you supposed to be?

[der_umgekehrte]

[Well that answers that in one case]

Chief Brachi Stildyne, lately of Ragnarok. And you, miss?

[Although he may know that accent]

[uberwaldian]

[The accent is definitely recognizable, although the German-esque is far more pronounced now. As is the sheer level of noble haughtiness.]

I'm Angua von Uberwald. Of the stupid Uberwald von Uberwalds. What are you supposed to be chief of?

[der_umgekehrte]

On Ragnarok, 'of security'. Here, of nothing in particular. Just 'chief'.

[That's what he was afraid of.]

[uberwaldian]

Oh, you're a guard. [This is said sort of like: "Oh, you're a rock under my feet."]

What kind of a place is Ragnarok? Doesn't sound like anything I've heard of.

[der_umgekehrte]

Ragnarok's a starship of Jurisdiction fleet. Cruiser-killer class. [He doesn't take offense; he doesn't really have the knack for it.]

[uberwaldian]

[This, she understands not a word of. Future!Angua would try to figure it out, and Angua the younger sort of narrows her eyes and looks like she's about to ask a question... But then she remembers that she's rich and undead and doesn't need to understand things.]

That's some kind of joke, I suppose. [She frowns thoughtfully.] What do you kill?

[der_umgekehrte]

Not generally, no. Nobody's told me the punchline.

We kill who we're told to. That's what Fleet means. More cruising than killing, these days. Diplomatic missions.

[uberwaldian]

[This is another puzzle, and her brow actually furrows for a moment in thought before her expression clears.]

Oh, I understand. You're in someone's army.

[der_umgekehrte]

Armies that I know of are planet-based, but it's a military. [A nod.] Decent work, if you can get it.

[uberwaldian]

[She looks at him with the distant coolness of someone who, at this point in time, does not expect that she will ever have to work, much less want to.]

Of course. I imagine so.

[She narrows her eyes again, giving the screen a critical look.]

So you enjoy it, do you? Killing people for money.

[der_umgekehrte]

[Stildyne just gives the young woman a slight headshake.]

I enjoy being employed.

[Or had. Blazing a new trail in Gonebeyond is going to be an adventure he's too old for, but he's committed all the same.]

[uberwaldian]

[Again, this is a statement she has no frame of reference for.]

Oh.

We sometimes kill people for food, you know. I know it's not the "done" thing normally anymore, but for special occasions. My horrible parents have started taking my idiot brother out, so I guess it's my turn, soon, too. [This is all said in the same lofty manner, but with something else behind it, in the way she looks at Stildyne. Like she really wants to see how he'll react to that information.]

[der_umgekehrte]

[She just gets a raised eyebrow. Only the one, the other being immobilized.]

The other person I know who eats hominids has the grace to eat non-sentient ones. They farm them for cattle. More civilized.

[uberwaldian]

[She doesn't know the word 'hominids,' but she definitely knows the word 'civilized,' and bristles like her fur is standing on end.]

What would a guard know about being civilized? It's-- we-- the Game, the hunt, it's been around for ages and ages and it's an old noble tradition.

[der_umgekehrte]

I'm just saying. Must be difficult to talk with you folk and know you look like lunch. At least you know that Two wouldn't eat anyone who'd talk.