milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

[Upstairs: Order 47.]

Shephard's been busy upstairs, and he's going to be busy for a good portion of today- there are maps to be gone over and forces to be arrayed and all kinds of preparations to be made for the inevitable trip to Mongolia- but just for the moment he's got something of a tradition to uphold. "Hey, Bar?" he says. "Anyone comes lookin' for me for some reason, I'mma be outside, all right? Got me a unit run to do."

The Bar, despite being a piece of wood with no actual face to speak of, contrives to look skeptical.

"Might not be anybody else in it, but I'm still here and it ain't been disbanded, so HECU still exists," Shephard says, unperturbed. "It qualifies."

The air of skepticism fades, in favor of something a little more like resignation.

"Attagirl." Shephard grins crookedly and pats the bartop. "You just make sure'n have a proper cake waitin' when I get back, okay?"

He doesn't wait to see the response, but heads for the back door instead. Anybody who wants to catch him out on his extended run today, be our guest; or you can talk to him when he gets back inside. Either one works.

[OOC: Open until it scrolls off the page!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah, it's kinda hard to finish high school when you're in the country illegally." There were so many other reasons she didn't finish a conventional schooling setup, but that was the biggest.

She thinks maybe the narcotics addiction didn't help.

Shephard makes a rude noise, but then again, Shephard could make the phrase 'clown shoes' sound rude. "That'll do it," he says. "When was this?"

She actually has to think about that, and is quiet for a minute; idly Nori wonders if the noise was at her or not.

"Couple years back. I came to the States when I was fourteen or so, and I'm almost twenty now."

"Ain't that much younger'n me, then," says Shephard. "I'm twenty-two. Twenty-three, soon. Lost track of the calendar for a while."

"Seriously?" she asks, a little amused. "What'd you do, sign up the day after you graduated?"

She looks infinitely younger than he does in many ways, but Nori doesn't think about them. She's not having a bad day, and she really wants to keep it that way. Thinking about herself or her world's situation tends to not enable such things.

"Yep. Momma said no enlisting 'til I wrote my thank you notes."

They were the fastest writing he has ever done.

She doesn't hold back a snort of laughter at that. "Yeah, I never even started high school," she says, shaking her head. "My brother ought to be in it by now, though."

She realizes that while she might not be cut out for academia, she thinks about her brother still in school and wonders if he's anything like her, being a mutant.

"Good luck to him," Shephard says. "My baby brother's one of two Shephards who ever went to college. School's for people who're good at that kind of thing, you ask me."

He probably could've gotten into West Virginia State if he'd busted his ass studying, taken out some loans, gotten a lot of student aid... but Dana had already gotten in before him, and everyone knew Dan was the brightest Shephard in the bunch. It just wouldn't've been fair to his parents to make them pay for three.

"I don't think I've ever really been the type. I mean, I'm not stupid, but...there's just something about the idea of yet more school that just turns me off."

To be honest, she can't really imagine doing anything but what she's got on her plate now. "What made you choose the Marines?"

"Wanted to git out of Rowlesburg'n make a name for myself," says Shephard, stride shifting a little as the slope of the land starts to cant upwards. "Ain't a lot of ways to do that but pro sports, 'n joining the service. Wasn't good enough for the NHL. Don't like flyin'. Navy ain't my thing anyways, so it was Marines or Army, and I ain't the kind to pick the easy option when the tough one's got more honor in it."

The noise she makes when he mentions the Army is most definitely not happy.

"I can't say flying was really fun the only couple times I've done it. Military transport does seriously suck that way." This is about as close as she's come to admitting how she actually got to the States, but she's hoping Adrian isn't going to be offended or anything.

"Any air transport sucks that way," Shephard says firmly. "I musta done something fuckin' evil in a past life or some shit, because I'm stuck flyin' helicopters now. If I never had to git up in the air to fly again I'd die a happy man."

He doesn't always pick up on what people think he's gonna pick up on.

"Nah. The school jet is pretty okay?" she says, though not at all concrete in her assessment. It's still a jet. It still has the ability to fall out of the sky for no good reason.

But as far as those things go it's fairly safe. "It hasn't crashed while I've been on it, anyway. But still...you okay with boats, or is it anything besides land?"

"Boats're fine," Shephard says. "Just about anything's fine, if it don't fly. Flyin' anything gives me the shits. Even when there ain't alien fire takin' out the rest of the formation left and right."

"...Okay, yeah, there you got me. I so couldn't handle that one."

"Got shot down once," Shephard says. "Once is enough. I git my altitude from bein' a mountain boy, thank you very much. I don't need to ride in no fuckin' tin can in the sky."

"I lived on the fifty-second floor of an apartment complex in Tokyo," she says. "I kinda liked it, but only because the floor didn't move."

"Earthquakes?" Shephard guesses. "Ain't real fond of those. Only been through a couple small ones."

"Nah," she says. "No earthquakes that I remember. It was just pretty high. You'd be actually in the clouds if it was raining or foggy."

"Gotcha," says Shephard. "Ain't never been in a building that high, myself. That's big-city shit'n the biggest city I been to was Morgantown. They don't build 'em that big there. Been up a few good mountains, but that ain't the same."

"Wish I could show you," says Noriko lightly. "Tokyo's kind of a sight, like New York. But there's more green."

New York city wigged her out so badly when she got there the first time, having almost literally no green spaces there except Central Park.

"Shit. I've seen pictures of New York a couple times. I don't git how folks c'n fuck themselves like that." Shephard shakes his head. "Sure do hope they don't build it that way again once the Combine's gone, but I ain't holdin' my breath."

"Hey, there are at least plants in Tokyo," Nori argues back. "But I hope your world gets a better second chance than what happened with the first."

"No offense or nothin'," says Shephard, "but where I grew up there were so fuckin' many trees the teachers said a squirrel in a hurry could git from one end of the county to the other without ever havin' to set foot on the ground. Ain't a whole lot of cities out there c'n live up to that."

"Thank you anyways, though. 'Preciate the sentiment."

"I get it. Trees are nice and all...I mean, I live in a mansion in Westchester. The grounds are mostly forested. Maybe you could rebuild it with treehouses?"

She's not actually joking. "You know, like build them around the trees. Natural support system, and renewable resources."