(Untitled)

[wrecking_bell]

Once more into the breach!

...or is that the secret hideaway? This narration can never quite remember.

Comments

[aerialpsychotic]

Val and Val lead the way into the tiny room.

"Okay," says Val. "Is this everybody?"

[mad_patron]

Steve, Chips, Satya, Chainsaw, Aaron, Val, Val...

"Yep, all present and accounted for. Where to next?"

[transbiomorph]

There's a small, battered speaker set into the wall.

"Jesus, Floss," it says, in a thin, electronic near-monotone. "Did you invite half the population of this reality of yours?"

[wrecking_bell]

"No, they wouldn't fit."

Just the present population of the little room is more than it was really designed to hold; it's about the length and breadth of a small steel-walled elevator. One would imagine that a fair amount of jostling is going on.

"Could you open the door?"

[quasi_atlantean]

Chips pauses once he's outside behind the stinking bins, though only for long enough that he knows whoever's coming out first can see him.

"This way," he hisses. "Stay quiet until I tell you it's safe."

In his opinion, both Chainsaw and Abruptly-Named-Roy are being too cocky and swaggering about the situation, but if they want to do this then he's not going to waste time trying to dissuade them.

[nowait_letme]

Dead silence.

(Ha ha.)

[nneverwas]

Roy's grinning.

Chips, your concerns have been noted and willfully ignored.

[quasi_atlantean]

God. This is going to be great fun, isn't it?

"I'll get in the house and try to negotiate, and then you two can do... whatever the hell it is you're planning on doing."

Okay, there's an officer keeping watch outside the door, but right now he's doing it in quite the wrong direction. So, a-one, and a-two, and a-stroll.

When he wants to, Chips can do a masterful performance of someone walking innocently home to find the police breaking down his door. There's some horrified spluttering from him, some rough words from the cop, and then the sound of Chips being just about manhandled inside.

The stage is set, then.