Laundy Time
Who? RED Spy and BLU Sniper What? Ariadne is snooping around, and Dale just wants to find the damn laundry room. Where? The RED basement, specifically the laundry room.
<Fish> It was a nice night - a little nippy, but nothing that a sweater wasn't enough to deal with. Altogether it was too nice to stay in, and so Ariadne had decided to spend it infiltrating the RED base. <Fish> Despite what one might expect, she was not actually looking for the intel - she had come out of uniform and unarmed other than the paintball gun she had introduced the Engineer to during his little visit. Of course, this was a terribly good way to get killed, she knew, but as far as she could tell even if someone did get the drop on her, armed, she wasn't altogether sure that any of the RED team actually cared about the supposed free-for-all enough to try and off her. <Fish> And perhaps they would be confused by the fact she was simply wandering around the lower levels, looking around and not really bothering anything.
<raumkins> Laundry was, for Dale, one of those necessities that she loathed taking care of. It would sneak up on her; one day, her underwear drawer would be full to the brim. The next, every pair that she owned would be on the floor, and she was faced with the choice of going commando in dirty jeans or acting like an adult and washing her damn clothes. <raumkins> If there had been a single pair of clean underwear left, Dale would not have been down in the basement with a basket full of dirty clothes. Since there wasn't, she was, and she couldn't for the life of her remember where the damn laundry room was even though she'd been in it just a few days ago in her explorations. Way to fucking go, Dale. She was in her last clean pair of comfortable pants with a knife tucked into her waistband, and she was getting a bit irritable with herself.
<Fish> For as flippant as she might act, Ariadne was not actually looking to get shot. So when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, she automatically ducked into cover, and then peeked around the corner carefully - and grinned. Why, just who she was hoping to run into. She stepped out from her hiding place, and cleared her throat. "Good evening."
<raumkins> Startled, Dale went for the knife at her waist, a difficult feat with both hands occupied in carrying a basket of laundry. The knife jumped through the elastic waist of her pants to clatter harmlessly to the floor; half the laundry spilt out of the tilted basket; and Dale, unused to being caught off guard, cursed colorfully. "Jesus fucking..." Dale shot Ariadne a dirty look as she knelt to scoop the clothes back into the basket and throw the knife on top, where it would be easy to grab. "Next time you do that, I'll stab you."
<Fish> "Well then, next time I'll shoot first," she replied, strolling down the hall with her arms crossed. "Apparently I'm not as bad at this sneaking thing as one would think. I'll have to keep that in mind if I get up the urge to actually seek out your intel."
<raumkins> "Sneaking up on one distracted spy," Dale said, hoisting the basket up higher and striding right past Ariadne as she approached, "Does not a track record make." She stopped at the end of the hall to stare down the corridors branching off. "Especially a spy who has been down here for twenty fucking minutes looking for the laundry. I think I might have hallucinated it." As for the Intel, Ariadne was welcome to it.
<Fish> "That explains your sunny disposition, I suppose." She smirked, and followed the other woman. "I think I might have seen it down the right, there."
<raumkins> "You're /kidding./ I went down that way!" At least, she was fairly sure she had. All these hallways looked the same after twenty frustrating minutes. Still, she turned right, eyeing the walls for signs. "Where?"
<Fish> "That door on the left there, if I'm remembering correctly. I rather dismissed it at the time." Maybe you shouldn't be taking directions from the enemy agent that infiltrated your base, Dale? But Ariadne was being honest. Presumably she was too lazy to try and trick the other woman.
<raumkins> What exactly would be the point of tricking Dale at this moment, anyway? That was obviously not a real gun Ariadne was carrying, and Dale had a knife she was very proficient with. In the worst case scenario, she wasn't exactly terrible with her fists, and she was also perfectly willing to brain someone with a basket of clothes if need be. Really, though, it boiled down to Dale simply not thinking - Ariadne did not come across as a threat right now, even though she obviously could be one. "Would you - never mind." Dale hoisted the basket one-handed onto her hip to open the door herself. "That sign is the size of a /postage/ stamp." Excuses, excuses.
<Fish> "These bases turn you around worse than any I've seen," she offered, mostly because it was true. IT had taken her three days to get a mental layout of the BLU base, and reversing it to navigate RED hadn't exactly been easy. "Now you know, though?"
<raumkins> "Now I'm going to make a bigger sign." She /would/ remember now, but one must be dramatic about one's irritation. Dale dropped the basket with a thump by one of the washers and squatted down to dig her bottle of detergent out of the bottom. There was, more than likely, detergent in the cabinets against the back wall, but it was probably industrial-strength shit meant for getting bloodstains out, and was not suitable for her non-bloody clothes. "Thanks, by the way."
<Fish> "Of course. Anytime I can improve an enemy agent's day." She had apparently decided to stick around, because she hoisted herself up on a dryer and crossed her legs, watching the Spy. "By the way, is this attitude of yours a constant? Or is it because of the circumstances you've found yourself in?"
<raumkins> "I'm agreeable when it's necessary for me to be." Read as: I don't want to talk about it. Separating whites from colors is more interesting at this moment. Dale dumped clothes into the washer, spreading them out evenly around the drum. A careful amount of detergent went in, and then she had to spend a moment staring at the dials to figure out what to do. "Do you always sneak around in the enemy base like you're a Spy?"
<Fish> "No. But I thought I might as well, after your Engineer found his way into the BLU base the other night." She smirked a little. "I'm guessing you've already been."
<raumkins> "Of course." Dale pulled herself up on top of the washer to sit cross-legged. "I'm a Spy." Don't ask her why she isn't using multiple washers when no one would care if she did, she won't have an answer.
<Fish> "Of course," she agreed. "So I suppose this is where I asked you just what happened to get you stationed here, since you hate it so very much. Not that I expect an answer."
<raumkins> Dale smiled thinly. "Someone overheard something they shouldn't have and they told it to the wrong people." That was the bare bones answer and it was all that Ariadne was going to get for now. "What did you do before you became Classed?"
<Fish> More than she expected, honestly, and it made her smile a little to hear it. Unlike Dale, she was perfectly willing to share, and she replied, "I was a detective with the NYPD."
<raumkins> "Really! And what made you quit what was most likely a rewarding job with a decent paycheck to do ...this?" Dale gestured broadly to the room in general.
<Fish> She stared at the other woman, for a moment, and then laughed a little. "A rewarding job with a decent paycheck. That's usually not how you hear 'being a cop in New York' described."
<raumkins> "At least you were somewhere, doing some/thing,/" Dale said. "I'd honestly rather be doing what you used to be doing than be out here."
<Fish> "That's certainly why I got into it, yes," she replied, still chuckling a bit and rubbing a hand through her short blond hair. "With a hefty dose of 'proving dad wrong' thrown in there, I'm sure. But the precinct I served in was... one of the more corrupt. There's only so long that I found myself able to deal with that, and then I was quite vocal with my disapproval of their methods. I resigned before they could fire me."
<raumkins> "Fair enough. So instead of finding a new city to be a cop in, you came out here." Dale propped her chin in her hand, elbow braced on a knee. "Explain your thought process in coming out here and killing people for no reason other than 'Because the people who hired me told me to.'"
<Fish> "I may have been a little burned out," she acknowledged, tipping her head. "For all that you seem to hate it, it's not a /bad/ job. And the people don't stay dead. That's a plus."
<raumkins> "Nearly everyone who is Classed for more than a year or so gets some sort of cancer," Dale said. "When you leave, the only people you can talk to about these years of your life are other Classed. Now, I enjoy having a bit of mystery around myself as far as the masses are concerned, but most people, when they get burned out? They take a vacation, not a job that's going to give you cancer and partly ostracize you from society."
<Fish> She shrugged a slender shoulder, looking at the other woman. "At the time I may have thought this was the best course of action."
<raumkins> "Enjoy being asked if you've ever peed in a jar when you try to get a regular job again." She swung her legs out to dangle over the edge of the washer and leaned back against the wall. "How long have you been doing this?"
<Fish> "Just over a year. I suppose I'm due for that cancer any day now," she commented, with a ghost of a smirk.
<raumkins> "Give it a few years," Dale said, smiling just a bit in return. "You've still got time to get out and possibly avoid it, you know. What's kept you here?"
<Fish> "I suppose I haven't had the drive to move on yet," she replied, evenly enough. "But I'm getting the urge."
<raumkins> "It would be better for your health in the long run." Idly, she picked at a piece of fuzz attached to her pants. "Although someone is still bound to ask if you've peed in a jar like they heard Snipers do."
<Fish> "I have," Ariadne all but drawled in return. "Mandatory drug testing, and all that. As a tool? I think I'm better than that."
<raumkins> "You know how they'll mean." Again with the hint of a smile. "Or they'll ask if you've ever met a Sniper who has."
<Fish> "I haven't," she admitted. "I imagine I would avoid them if I had."
<raumkins> "I don't think they exist. I don't know what Sniper did it in the first place, but..." Dale shrugged and twisted her torso around to look at the dial. Still a few minutes left.
<Fish> "Today? No, I rather think we've moved on from that," she agreed. "Perhaps one did it, and it makes such a horrifying story that people just can't stop talking about it."
<raumkins> "One Sniper did it long ago because the bathrooms were full and never lived it down," Dale said. "Threw it at an annoying enemy, never lived /that/ down. Have to wonder why he kept it, though."
<Fish> "That is a very good question," she agreed. "I can't say I've ever been angry at an enemy enough to throw a jar of pee at them. ... to kill them, yes, but /that/'s just childish."
<raumkins> "Maybe it was a Scout? Although that would be the worst person to throw it at, a Scout would never let it die. That's probably why the rumor is still around."
<Fish> "I always figured it was a Spy. Two most annoying classes - no offense, for two very different reasons."
<raumkins> "Oh, none taken. The point of a Spy is to irritate the other team, just as much as the Scout." Another glance at the dial and Dale slid off the washer in preparation for the buzzer going off.
<Fish> "Indeed. For me, it's more of a hobby." Ariadne smirked a little, watching the other woman.
<raumkins> "Oh, you're irritating enough," Dale said, waving a hand. "A few headshots and anyone would be fuming."
<Fish> "Oh good. I do try." A bit of a chuckle. "At least it's the head, though?"
<raumkins> "Quick, at least." The buzzer went off, and Dale flipped the lid up to drag out her wet clothes. She crossed over to the dryer next to the one serving as Ariadne's seat and threw them in. Once they were merrily on their way to being dry, she went back to throw a second load into the washer. "Nothing like getting shot in the leg and having to hop somewhere safe."
<Fish> "Indeed." She shifted, stretching herself out a little. "If I shoot you in the head, it's nothing personal. If I shoot you anywhere else, it probably is."
<raumkins> "Or it isn't, and you're simply a terrible person." Once she'd shut the lid, Dale hopped back up onto the washer. "Your team isn't going to miss you?"
<Fish> "You mean tonight? I doubt it. That Soldier might do bed checks, but giving him an ulcer would simply make me smile."
<Fish> "I suppose I am something of a terrible person."
<raumkins> "Bed checks? Really? Is he that terrible?" The threat of being woken up by a crazy man with a trumpt every morning had come to naught, so Dale hadn't worried about him much. "And so long as you keep from shooting me in the leg, you're not so bad."
<Fish> "He is terrible; the bed checks I don't actually know about." She chuckled, arching a brow. "Thank you. It's nice to know I've gotten to 'not so bad'."
<raumkins> "I don't recall passing judgment on you before," Dale said with a grin. "'Not so bad' is your current baseline."
<Fish> "Well, you seemed to hate most everything," she replied, grinning back. "I simply thought I was included."
<raumkins> "Compared to, say, our Spy, you don't irritate me." Ariadne had even gotten her to laugh a few times over the journals.
<Fish> "You mean the Scout pretending to be a Spy?" she asked, lifting a brow and still grinning.
<raumkins> "The same. I'd still like to know who he stole his license from, so I can get it revoked; two less failures of Spies in the ranks."
<Fish> "I can only hope that when we finally get another Spy, he'll be significantly more competent. I don't imagine you're going to make it easy on us."
<raumkins> "Certainly not. You have the advantages of numbers right now, though."
<Fish> "Not that it's doing us a lot of good," she pointed out. "And the Spy doesn't count."
<raumkins> "True," Dale said, smiling, "But all that time we have to waste killing him, we can't use killing anyone else."
<Fish> > "You might be overestimating his survival skills," she argued. "In any case, it doesn't matter yet."
<raumkins> "True enough... they have to have their reasons for keeping us hanging like this, the train can't /still/ be broken."
<Fish> "I'm not complaining. Respawn or not, there is something unnerving about killing people all the time," Ariadne replied. "I like avoiding it."
<raumkins> "That's what happens when you're Classed for a living," Dale pointed out. "You could always quit once your contract is up."
<Fish> "As I said," she replied, waving a hand. "I have been getting the urge. I might."
<raumkins> "It'd be better for you. Go back to being a detective somewhere."
<Fish> She shrugged a little, smiling and picking at an invisible piece of lint on her jeans. "Maybe." She looked up at the other woman. "How long do you expect to be here?"
<raumkins> "A while." There was a book in the bottom of her basket - she'd planned to read while her clothes dried. "At least an hour, maybe two if these dryers aren't good."
<Fish> She laughed at that. "Cute. I meant on base."
<raumkins> "Oh. Ah -" Dale shrugged. "My contract is for six months, but... I don't know. I don't know when I'll be able to go back to my real job."
<Fish> She lifted a brow. "Apparently you upset someone quite a bit."
<raumkins> "Just someone who isn't likely to forget very quickly."
<Fish> Ariadne whistled a little, and looked over at Dale again. "Sorry."
<raumkins> Dale shrugged and craned her neck to look back at the dial. "It'll blow over, and then I can get back to work."
<Fish> She nodded. "Good luck?"
<raumkins> A nod was Ariadne's only response for a moment. "...so what was that game you were trying to get everyone to play?"
<Fish> "Hmm?" She lifted a brow. "Oh, what I wanted to do instead of trying to find the intel? The best multiplayer FPSs I could think of."
<raumkins> "How hard is it? I've never been big on video games, but I don't have anything else to do."
<Fish> "Not very. I imagine it might take a bit to get into, but these things usually are, and we're professionals trained to kill people. It's not that hard to pick up the skills necessary to kill whiny teenagers in a video game."
<raumkins> "I don't know, I figured it'd be something like Guitar Hero doesn't make you good at actually playing the guitar?"
<Fish> "Oh, it's a completely different set of skills, yes." She smirked a little. "But the reflexes help."
<raumkins> "Ah, well. True." Dale leaned back against the wall again.
<Fish> "In addition it's good stress relief," Ariadne continued. "And, yes, fun."
<raumkins> Dale smiled. "You'd think after a long day of shooting people, you'd be sick of it."
<Fish> "Ah, but it gains a certain appeal when you're shooting people to save the universe, as opposed to get paid."
<raumkins> "A very good point! If only we were really doing that, and not just play-acting wars."
<Fish> She smiled a little, herself. "Not that being under threat of extinction is necessarily a /good/ thing... but, yes."
<raumkins> "Oh, I don't know. Keeps a species on its toes," Dale said, grinning. "Promotes a sense of unity."
<Fish> "You'd /think/ that. Not always the case, in these games." She grinned in return.
<raumkins> "It /should,/ at least. A common enemy does wonders."
<Fish> "As does fear in the face of the unknown," she replied, and boosted herself off the dryer. "As nice as this has been, I probably should get back. I doubt anyone will notice I'm gone, but..." She shrugged. "Best to avoid the problem altogether, yes?"
<raumkins> Dale, still seated on her washer, nodded. "Thank you again for pointing me to the laundry room. See you on the field, if they ever let us get started?"
<Fish> "Oh, I don't know, I might drop by before then," Ariadne responded, starting for the door. "But if not, yes. And for drinks afterward." She flashed the Spy a grin.
<raumkins> The Spy grinned back, and lifted a hand in a little wave. "Of course. See you soon."
<Fish> She waved back, and slipped out the door, tucking her hands in her pockets and starting back to the BLU base. Not a bad day at all.
OOC: I leave the names in because it's easier for me, personally, to read later on. <:V