<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/1/11/FemVoorhees01.png)</div><strong>Location:</strong>Last Chance's Market<br/><strong>Characters Present:</strong>Mega (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=342380.msg16189650#msg16189650), Jessica (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=342380.msg16190505#msg16190505), Marshal (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=342380.msg16189733#msg16189733)<br/><strong>Notes:</strong>None.<br/><hr/><br/>Mega wasn't a fixture of the market any more than she was a fixture anywhere else in the 'hold.  She tended to come and go, and if most folks shivered as she passed, moved to give her a wide berth?  That was to be expected.  She'd seen the looks the Dogs'd been giving her - the stolen glances, the heat of their eyes when she thought she wasn't looking.  Those glances were obvious, along with the simmering resentment - or fear - that had festered since the last time they'd<em>really</em>crossed paths.<br/><br/>She didn't need to<em>see</em>them looking to feel it, any more than she needed to stare up at the burning sun to feel the radiant heat of it beating down on her.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=342517.msg16194491#msg16194491">Quote from: Jessi on 28-05-2022, 16:38:15</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">"You know, Mega,” she said softly, “I've got seriously mixed feelings about the Devil Dogs.  Their new leader?  I trust Marshal implicitly, but a lot of those guys have nothing but Marshal's heavy hand—and maybe people like us—stopping them from reverting to tyrannical marauders.”</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/><em>Doesn't matter,</em>Mega thought, her thoughts as pitiless and emotionless as the mask she wore.<em>They'll stare and bark like the dogs they name themselves for, maybe try and start shit.  Doesn't matter.  Shouldn't trust Marshal though - he was one of them before he was the Hardholder.  Was a time, once, he was one of them, and it'd be an easy slide for him to be as monstrous as any Devil Dog.  Doesn't matter.  There are other monsters here.</em><br/><br/>What she actually<em>said</em>though, was something else, something quiet and vaguely sing-songy.<br/><br/>"Blooddrops on axe blades and Devils on meathooks,<br/>Warm splashing innards and bright screaming death-crooks,<br/>Dead-muscle meat-sticks tied up with strings,<br/>These are a few of my favorite things."<br/><br/>The tune was unfamiliar of course, maybe a half-remembered relic of the Time Before that nobody remembered, but that was okay.  Mega didn't know the tune either, and that was okay too - she wasn't even<em>really</em>aware that she was speaking, or of what she was saying.  She didn't talk much - she'd heard others say as much, which made her think it was true.<br/><br/>That was probably for the best.  She'd heard<em>that</em>from others too, so she thought it was likely to be true as well.  She<em>often</em>took comfort in the words of others and the truths they told - when it confirmed her reality, it was like a warm blanket of surety.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=342517.msg16194491#msg16194491">Quote from: Jessi on 28-05-2022, 16:38:15</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">“Let's think about something happier.  I've got a commission from Scarlet today, and I think I want to make a bunch of them while I'm setting up for it.  I'm really just looking for thin sheets of stainless steel.  Scrap will work if there's a substantial bit of it that isn't corroded.  Rubber I can shape would help too.”</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/><em>Happier?</em>This was ... disjointed.  Uncomfortable.  She'd been quite happy to think about the destruction of the mortal shell of an errant Devil Dog, Waste-raider or chopper gang with more bullets and bravado than sense, and she didn't understand why she should think about this ... other things, less important or interesting things.  Moments like this<em>weren't</em>comfortable for Mega ... but that was okay.  That didn't matter either.<br/><br/>The jingle she'd get for watching Jessica's back here might be enough for a night with one of the Hodin girls, and that was always Jingle well-spent, and if she had to do things that were uncomfortable, like<em>look for steel bits</em>or<em>look for shapeable rubber</em>- whatever that was, Mega assumed she'd be able to tell if she saw it or else Jessica wouldn't have mentioned it - then she could do that, and her impassive, hard-edged<em>face,</em>wouldn't flinch doing this uncomfortable thing, any more than any other uncomfortable thing.<br/><br/>But she'd<em>still</em>look over at the Devil Dogs every few minutes, when that sun-hot tension between them got thick enough, so that she had the pleasure of them looking away, that alpha-dog satisfaction of making them back down ...