Alright, so it's just a little bit freaky - but in the past few months, 'Masque has kind of gotten used to that, and if the weird alien bug gets frisky, that's what flamethrowers are for. The big synthetic-skinned Tiger tilts his head forwards a little to let the creature prod him gently with its antennae and then tilts back, extending a glass and chuckling wryly when the 'bug finds itself unable to speak for several minutes, gently patting it on one shoulder as it splutters and offering a warm, "Is good, yes - be putting hair on your chest like razorwire fence!"

 With this unhelpful benediction he extends another hand to Mah and accepts the palmtop, casting a quick eye over it in order to confirm that the fellow is in fact in the right place, checks any code-stamps against the orders of the day and then extends a self-guiding datajack which slots home in the side of the box and updates it appropriately with the squad frequencies so that the thing can get in touch with its new officer. Unjacking and spinning the computer he offers it back to its owner, "That should be seeing you right - welcome to Pluto Company, and good luck."

Hopper stands up straight after a few moments, forcing a quick recovery.

"Yes it was very... it was ... I just I think... I think I just... need to... have a drink I think... of water..." Hopper staggers his way over to a water cooler and spills water all over his feet and the cup he was trying to fill. He rests one arm on the cooler and his head starts to bob as if he is falling asleep.

Continuing to drink whisky straight from the bottle Drano looks over to the grasshopper Dee-bee, and wonders if the booze poisoned the poor thing.

“Hey, uhh Grasshopper, you got a name? You going to be okay? If the booze hurts you you don't have to drink it to fit in.”
This message was last edited by the player at 20:13, Mon 22 June 2009.

Mah nods his head to Silvermasque. "Thanks you sir, good luck to you as well... though, I imagine we will see more of each other. I am a gifted healer by nature, and will likely visit your squad on more than one occasion during those darker moments of war... Until then however..."

He then walks out of the room towards the crew quarters of Squad Two.

PM

 "I was asking first whether his sort is being able to handle alcohol - maybe is just having low tolerence..." 'Masque states, turning his head for a moment to watch the Amana stepping out of the room and raising his voice just a touch to call "Hey, Moh - before you are going, could you just be reassuring us that Jiminy is going to be okay?"

Amy seeing the odd grasshopper man go down hurries over towards him despite Drano's proximity. "Hey here let me help." Though she slows as she reaches him cocking her head to observe him carefully as she finds his cup to fill it with water.

"Ah... thank you my dear... perhaps I should sit down..." He grabs onto Amy's arm while he makes his way to a chair. His antennae move Amy's hair out of the way to touch her face on the way.

Once he is seated, he gladly takes the cup of water and looks around the room at the others. His head wobbles a bit, but other than that he seems ok...

Shimrod looks for a clear area by the tables to set down the beer and hot food. He listens to the others talking at first, and finds himself a chair.

"There we go Silvermasque, now I will have one of your death drinks..." Comartin digs into the food right away and eagerly awaits Masque to pour him a drink.

Drano gets up and leaves the rec room, bottle of booze still in hand.

 "Ah good, you are being other RPA pilot we are having in squad, yes?" asks 'Masque of the Kittani as he arrives, making room by shuffling over a little and then pouring a few fingers of the clear lighter fluid in his bottle into each offered glass, which promptly frosts with condensation because there is only one way to drink vodka, and that's cold.

 He does look up as the radio signal goes out, but without having received further clarification to the contrary, he's fairly certain that 'squad leader' means 'Drano' at the moment and goes back to getting to know his associates, "May I be asking what sort of modifications you are having to suit?" he asks of Shimrod.

Amy twitches a little as the antenni brush across her fur but she doesn't flinch away and settles next to him. "So um, what is your name, I'm Amy Wayland-Yutani." Offering her hand

McCloud barges into the rec room, beaming happily despite the obvious signs that he's suffering the after-effects of a long night of pickling his organs.

"Mornin' folks," he says, cheerily, nabbing himself some coffee and liberally spooning heaping amounts of sugar into the steaming beverage.  He sits by Comartin and sips at his mug, wincing.  "More sugar" he mutters, dumping in another half-dozen spoonfuls.

Van eventually comes out of the shower. He seems frustrated. After getting dressed he grabs his bag of pot and a seat at the long mess-hall table. He rolls up a dubious blunt. "So anybody wanna talk about it?" he states in the mocking tone of a post-trauma psychologist, "Downstairs was pretty uneventful. I don't even know what was going on above ground. Did we lose anybody out there?"

In response to Van "I know 4th lost a few during the fight. 3rd and 5th didn't lose anyone. Nobody died anyway... Cannon Fodder teleported out to avoid being over run by the CS. Doc and feral were fired... That's about it."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:32, Wed 24 June 2009.

In response to Amy "I go by Hopper, though I am sure I have just earned a new nickname among the troops."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:32, Wed 24 June 2009.

Drano enters the rec room and makes an announcement, bottle of booze still in hand but now only one quarter full. “Listen up; we’re moving out tonight at 1600 hours. Can’t say where, just make sure you take care of any unfinished business you may have such as a will or procreating.”

“Don’t be late, because we will leave without you and at that point I will consider you a deserter.”

"Are you serious? We just got here..."

It's as though the joy was literally sucked out of the room when Drano informed everyone that they were going back out.

Mephisto and Private Karnon are still off somewhere in Tolkeen together, and the new sergeant (Forge) was presumably still with Mars Company.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:33, Wed 24 June 2009.

 "I am pretty much past point where talking is going to be much help - plan is currently that after I am settling in new squad members and getting to know what they are and can do, will be getting good and drunk together. We are telling lies about how brave we are, singing off our dead - cry if we need to, laugh when we can, da?" 'Masque states as lightly, a terrifyingly powerful hand sheathed in synthetic fur 'dongs' off his chest in an almost playful fashion, belying the seriousness underlying the words, "Even with heart made of titanium and teflon, am knowing that is bad for to be bottling up too much insi..."

 And that's just when Drano comes in and makes his announcement, causing a grimace and a spattering of extremely unfriendly-sounding and thickly accented Russian to emnate from 'Masque's corner before he raises his voice a little and addresses Drano directly - though in a slightly more constructive fashion than Conmartin "Is better this is being joke - are still not having met most of new squad members, let alone shaken down into squad. What is being so important it is pulling us from our beauty sleep?"

 Slightly.

"1600?! Fuck that's not even tonight. That's lunch man!" Van continues to roll his blunt and despite looking forward to some of the activities that Drano mentioned (specifically the procreating), he really can't think of what else he'd rather do. "Whatever man. The more skullfaces we rack up the sooner this shit is over."

Even as he says it though, he gets the sinking feeling that it will never really be over. To live is to fight. He is glad to be learning that at his young age.

"Maaaaan..." McCloud gripes.  "The welds won't even be cool on my suit's new upgrades by 1600..."

Karnon spends his private time working, writing scrolls and crafting talismans of protection for the foot soldiers with the remaining arcane supplies Tolkeen can afford to him. He worked with great elementals by his side fueling their arcane energies, more capable of filtering it out of the great ley lines and faster than he himself could.

The message was received like any other, and the news was frankly expected. It was more work. But all the work meant dead men. So Karnon worked harder until it was time to teleport himself and his elementals back to the rest of the squad at 1600 hours.

The wolfen mage located Lt. Drano and handed over a number of amulets and explaining how any of the ground troops could use them to summon sheaths of magical armor around them. Each amulet good for three shots, but Karnon had made enough for each soldier in the platoon to get more than one. Their squads needed every edge to stay alive they could get. The new recruits needed time to get used to the death, and the veterans would stay alive longer to kill more of the other guys longer. And Karnon wanted the Coalition boys dead really really bad.

Drano thanks the Wolfen for his hard work and ensures each member of Third Squad who is capable of using them receives two of the amulets when they arrive at 1600.