_Essex_

Essex laughed.

"I didn't say no sugar, I said too much sugar. I'm not ruling out dessert, but soda is downright bad for you."

With that, she began pouring sippy cups of juice and setting the table.

"Now, now, now." Essex said, turning from her sandwich-making to separate Hallucinogen and Schizophrenias. "Hallucinogen, you mustn't bite. And I'm sorry, Schizophrenias, but I don't keep soda in the house...there's too much sugar, you know. Now then..."

Deftly plucking the flying ingredients out of the air, she smiled down at little Moonscribe and Sienna. "In this house, we all sit and eat together like friends." Turning towards the sprite, she nodded. "Thank you for your help, Sienna. You get a gold star as well today. Now let's all go to the dining room..."

Taking a moment to separate Anna and Kathode (with the help of two little half-slices of turkey) she brought the tray of sandwiches into the dining room, setting them in the middle of a low table.

"Lunch is ready!" the android's voice sang out for all to hear.

XP Oh come off it, it's okay. That's what the thread is for, right? Just something to keep in mind -

There could be other reasons why RP interactions have slowed to a crawl. I know I, personally, have been a lot busier at work, and have unfortunately spread myself a little too thin between too many friends. I haven't been nearly as attentive to my RPs as I'd like to be, as multiple people have noticed and commented. For that, I'm sorry. It's my own fault for taking on way more than I can possibly keep up with.

((Hence my terror and frustration at GToA being revived. I'm really, really not ready to go back to GMing that yet. But the show must go on, I suppose.))

As for the love interest issue, it may also be beneficial to consider the characters you're talking about. I'm going to take Hal and Essex, because if they're not the example, they're definitely an example.

Hallucinogen has shown himself to be insecure and protective. I have seen him care for very few things aside from his own life, and even then not much for that. The fact that he actually cares for Essex makes it no wonder, to me, that he clings to her so badly. ((That's not to say he's not a great character. XP That's just what I see.))

As for Essex, well...Essex loves everybody. XD; She has quite a bit of knowledge, but essentially her lack of experiences in the outside world and with the complicated emotional processes she's trying to figure out gives her the mentality of a timid child. Children frighten easily and gravitate toward what they know will protect them - in Essex's case, it may be Hal, it may be Toy, it may be Acid, it may be Reikoff, it may be Pstorm. In fact, she really doesn't know where she stands with Hal - She knows she feels very strongly towards him, but is unable to identify and isolate the feeling.

Yet another thing to consider is the timelines. We have so many RPs going with the same timelines that it's really difficult to gague what we should know in which thread. Who we should be friends or enemies with, who we should be meeting for the first time, etc, etc.

I'anno. Just my ranty two cents. :P

Essex's eyes dimmed, her wires hooked into the magitech droid. It was surreal looking, the cute little girl in the orange chiffon dress with the ribbons and lace, hooked into a sleek magitechnological device by dozens of wires that came from her neck, back, and arms.

Her lips moved nearly silently as she interfaced with the robot, her dim eyes distant in concentration. Every once in a while, a few words made themselves audible.

"(Direct Guests to Banquet Hall. *Cancelled*)
(Serve refreshments to guests in the Banquet Hall. *Rescheduled*)
(Aid Guests’ needs. *In Progress*)
([Program: Wife’s Away.] *In Progress*
~OVERRIDE~ 01000001011001000110110101101001011011100110100101 1
10011011101000111001001100001011101000110100101101 1
11011011100010000001000011011011110110010001100101 0
01110100010000001000111011011110110110001100100011 0
01010110111000100000010001000111001001100001011001 1
10110111101101110011001100110110001111001. *Process Locked*)"




"(Steam smoke odor from drapes and carpet in library. *Incomplete*)"




"[Banquet Hall]
(Current status: Incomplete. Guests detected in vicinity in the last 10 min.)"




"[Guest House]
(Current status: Incomplete. Guest detected in vicinity in the last 10 min.)"

"[Laboratory]
(Current status: Error. No available data )"



"(Bullet casing found in Sitting room. Repairs may be required.)"




"({[Error! Unregistered data template. All other data is protected by encryption enchantment.]})"

Essex shook her head slightly, her eyes still dimmed.

"...Detail runtime parameters of program: Wife's Away."

"Oh, hi, sir." Penny said, a little red, to Dr. Natas. "Good to see you again. Thanks for your help in the stairwell."

Irma gave Penny an incredulous glance. Mystery man was a doctor?

"The paperwork you're looking for is in the third file in Cabinet A-249." the assistant said, glancing to her associate. "Irma, could you help this fellow out? I've got to get moving. It's already after 5 - I'm likely late already."

"Sure, Pen." Irma said, gesturing to the line of cabinets.

With that, Penny hurried out of the office. Now that it was after 5, the mass exodus was over of most of the middle management from their towering mecca of commerce. She enjoyed the elevator ride by herself, and tried to make herself look presentable. There was no hiding the black eye and the crack in her glasses, though, which she sorely regretted.

Her heels made a loud clacking on the polished floors as she approached Tharomar's office herself. Blinking, she noticed Milly's mail cart not far away.

Milly's in to see Mr. Tharomar, too?

Penny liked Milly. She was a nice girl, and reminded her of one of her college friends. The assistant didn't really speak to the mail clerk often, but gave her the same friendly courtesy and respect that she did the other service workers in the building, and as such always had a grin and a wave for the girl.

She coughed a little outside the door to let Mr. Tharomar know she had arrived to deliver the transcript, and waited respectfully in a chair outside the office.

Did someone say angst? <_<

Yes. CoH has a nice RP community. Virtue is the unofficial RP server, as has been stated, but there are small enclaves of us in hiding on other servers as well. :P

"Now now." Essex said, raising her voice above the conflict. "Let's not fight. I don't care what you call me as long as you get along." she joked, resting a hand on Experiment's head and ruffling his blonde hair. Turning back to Sienna, she smiled. "Okay...Now let's make sandwiches."

She set up a little assembly line to make sandwich after sandwich, assigning Sienna the task of putting the sandwich contents in their places under her watchful and instructive eye. To properly accomodate everyone, she made PBJs, turkey sandwiches, and just plain sandwiches, in addition to making some turkey and cheese rollups for Rosalind, Kathode, and Naga. Carnivores were always easy.

Rosie, on the other hand, was gripping the mallet with her teeth, tugging gleefully in opposition to Danica with all the gusto of a puppy playing tug war.

I don't know, that's pretty much canon Hellion. <_<

But Essex had paused, looking up the stairs sadly to Ian. Linn had made her feel rather bad...

"...okay, let's get going." she said with a sigh, following after Curtis and Hal.

Her eyes scanned the area for any cleaning droid that seemed to be unoccupied. She had to find out if they operated on a shared databse...

"Well, we'll all have to decide together, won't we?" Essex said with a smile. "Now then. We're going to be getting pizza for dinner, so if you are all hungry I'm going to make a light lunch. I'll try to make sure there's something for everybody, but you may have to remind me."

With that, she set down Naga, patting her head affectionately, and moving to the kitchen, where she promptly began to put together some sandwiches for the kids.

As Sienna flitted around, Essex laughed a little. "Why, hello, sweetheart!" she said in surprise, watching the sprite circle around. "Do you want to help me make lunch for everyone?"

((EDIT: I have no idea how I missed the pixie looking right in my face. XD;)

Penny sighed miserably at her desk. Keeping a low profile was so difficult with a rapidly darkening raccoon eye. Purchase orders stacked up on her desk, requests for quotes, post-its of every color and size, shipping labels...

"What's wrong, Pen?"

Penny looked up, sighing. Her co-worker Irma stood there, dangling her arms over the cube wall. Penny couldn't help but smile. Irma was the closest thing she had to a friend in this godforsaken town. Only ten days younger than her, she'd been hired in as an inside sales rep. Irma was far more motivated than Penny, and indeed seemed almost obsessive-compulsive, but she was a nice girl and always had Penny's back.

"Just a crappy day." Penny said, taking a moment to smile at her sheepishly. "I was supposed to have the day off, got yanked into a hush-hush with the top brass, got outranked for elevator priveleges, fell down the stairs, and then when some guy picked me up, my glasses fell off so I didn't even really see his face that well. AND I didn't get his name. Or tell him mine, for that matter."

"Ooh, harsh..." Irma said sympathetically. "A mystery man, huh?"

"Shut up." Penny grumbled. "With my luck, he'll be another one of those damn engineers. I swear, you so much as look at some of those guys and they're ready to propose on the spot."

The girls laughed together for a moment before Irma began picking up some of the paperwork. "You need a hand, Pen?" she offered.

"Actually, if you could man the phone, that'd be great." Penny said gratefully. "I've got to deliver the hard copy of the meeting transcript to Mr. Tharomar myself within the next 15 minutes. For his eyes only, ya know."

"Mr. Tharomar? Looking like that?" Irma gasped.

"It's a hard knock life, I guess." Penny said wryly as she gathered the transcript and dusted off her jacket.

Essex held Naga comfortingly, bouncing the little lizardgirl. She very nearly jumped at Virelai's scream, but saw Experiment taking care of it. Still holding Naga, she crouched down.

"Are you okay, Virelai?" she asked, smiling upon seeing the girl's thumb back in her mouth. "Thank you for helping me. I really appreciate it."

With that, she moved over to a posterboard. A few names were already written on it like a chart - Rosalind, Brutish Ghoul, Toy Dispenser, Feliks, Lili, and a handful of others. Deftly wielding a permanent marker in one hand, Essex crouched down and began writing more names in. When she was finished, she put down the marker, and got a gold star sticker out of her pocket, putting it next to Virelai's name under that day.

"...When you do something especially helpful, you get a gold star. When everybody gets twenty-five gold stars, then we all go on a field trip."

Rosie, in the meantime, was still laughing at the unfortunate Archlich....when her dog-ears perked at Ghoul's words.

Cobalt soon saw a flash of black-and-white as the border collie puppy launched herself after the mallet that Ghoul had thrown, barking gleefully.

Looking up at Hal, Essex hesitated.

"Thank you, sir." she said to Linn, ducking her head, before turning back to her friend.

"...I think...Ian may need a little time. Personally, I am curious about the cleaning droids. Perhaps I could interface with a few of them and glean some more information..."

OOC: Preach it. <_<

"Yes sir." Essex said with a sharp salute to Curtis. "Let's do what we can to help."

Her hand unconsciously reached to find Hallucinogen's. The android was frightened...but she felt quite safe around two of her dearest friends.

"I...think it would be best to ask Linn. He seems to have a good grasp on mostly everything that happens here."

"What the hell happened to you?"

Penny glumly took the Walk of Shame through the lines of cubicles, her co-workers peering out in curious morbid fascination at the battered, bruised, and bleeding girl as she stalked, red-faced, to her desk.

"...uhfellunnasters..." she mumbled, barely audibly.

"Didn't catch that last part." Ryan said with a smirk, leaning on her desk with his cup of coffee.

"I FELL DOWN THE STAIRS." Penny yelled, clearly enunciating every syllable and placing her laptop down before she crushed it in anger.

"That's why I always take the elevator." her manager commented as he walked by.

Penny glared at the spot he had disappeared with nothing less than utter loathing for a split second before reaching up to her hair, which was now messed up out of its loose bun, and removing the ponytail holder. She shook the chestnut waves loose upon her shoulders and middle back, and began putting it back up with a sigh.

Penny turned away from her co-workers. "Listen, don't you guys have work to do? Or at least to accumulate and stack on my desk?"

"Ooooooh...." Tina murmured and retreated to her cubicle. "Someone's going to get dinged on attitude in her next performance review."

"Whatever."

If there was one thing Penny was confident of, it was her job security. If she were fired, her division would collapse in on itself. That was something she was certain of. The amount of information she processed and handled, the number of customers she had relationships with, well...Though the assistant was the lowest rung on the ladder, she was an essential one.

She hesitated, and reached up to carefully touch the now-swollen welt on her cheek.

"[censored], I'm gonna have a hell of a black eye for the next two days." she remarked glumly, booting up the laptop to work with the transcription.

Essex shook her head with a sigh, scooping up Naga.

"There, there, sweetie..." she said soothingly, holding her in one arm while straightening out her tail in the opposite hand. "Are you okay?"

Looking down to Experiment, she nodded. "Mister Archlich is a little stricter than I am, but he won't blow you up." Turning around, she sighed at the wet hallway.

"Virelai, would you help me clean up this water, if you're still interested?"

In the meantime, Rosalind nudged Ghoul.

"Looks like someone got caged." she smirked.

She herself had spent extensive time in that cage. It was good to see someone besides herself in it.

In the meantime, Vanessa was still outside. She was staring at a group of toys she had pulled out of the toy box.

D:

*tablecloth*

"Oh yeah..." Penny said, taking her glasses from the doctor thankfully, looking after where Vasquez had gone.

I didn't see his face very well. she thought. Stupid glasses. I didn't even thank him properly. I'm a moron.

"Anyway...sorry to worry you." the assistant said, hurriedly scooping up her left shoe. "I appreciate the help."

With that, Penny scurried off downstairs to her office, her face red with embarassment.

Worst.

Vacation.

Ever.

"I gotta get down there." she muttered to Vasquez absently. "Tina and Samuel's customers need babysitting...I gotta take a credit card for one of Ryan's...I know Mary's got messages for a billion expedites, most of them for Peter's aerospace market boys.... Samples for Don, fielding calls for the big man while he's at a golf outing in Hawaii with a big account..."

She didn't seem to see the needle, instead focusing on the floor. "Where's my shoe?" Penny said with a squint. Turning her head towards the merc with a sheepish grin, she was startled by the large syringe in her face.

"[censored]!" she cursed before she could help herself. "What's in there, elephant tranquilizers?"

She paused at the thought.

"Ya know, maybe I better have some of that..."

A white blur approached at that moment. He seemed to be asking after her well being. Penny waved a hand dismissively at the man with something of a loopy grin.

"I'll be okay, just got into a navigational disagreement with my feet."

Penny dazedly felt herself being pulled to her feet. It was strange, she couldn't support her own weight.

"Sorry...for the trouble..." she managed to gasp out at the fuzzy face of her rescuer. "Guess ...I need to lose s'more weight."

Penny wasn't heavy, but she had a bit more meat on her than the rest of the "Anorexic bimbos" (as she jealously called them) in her office. She was rather small of stature, and had rather pronounced curves that made it quite easy to fill suit jackets.

She still clung to her laptop tenaciously, not seeming to notice that she was missing a shoe, had runs in her stockings, and was quite without her glasses. As Vasquez supported Penny, she shook her head dazedly, a thin trickle of blood travelling down her face and neatly framing a large bruise on her cheekbone from striking her face on the rail.

"Sorry..." she repeated, trying to shake the birds from her vision. "...Slipped. My boss is gonna kill me."

Essex's eyes widened.

Ian's father had been murdered, and his mother had vanished. Instantly her heart went out to her classmate, and her face turned sympathetic.

She released Curtis' hand and quietly skimmed over to the boy, hovering at the bottom of the stairs as he climbed them.

"I know there's nothing I can say that'll make it better." she said, just barely loud enough for him to hear. "...but...if there's anything I can do to make life easier for you right now, let me know. I'll do whatever I can."

OH!

I remember Hammerspace.

XD That takes me back. Sweet!!

[ QUOTE ]
He wasn't the biggest fan of toast because when you bite it, crumbs get all over your shirt and...

[/ QUOTE ]

HERESY.

Anyway.

I'd just like to pipe up and say that, sometimes it's very difficult to respond to everything you want to respond to in one post. So if you've felt ignored by me, please take this as my apology. I tend to take on a lot and make my head explode. D:

*Ess-plode*

*toast flies everywhere*

"Of course, sweetheart." Essex said, bending down and tapping Shiro on the nose. "But please, just call me Essex. Let me know what other sort of foods you can and can't eat and I'll do my best to accomodate."

Rosalind gestured the rest of the sopping wet and/or muddy children forward...until they encountered Archlich.

Her eyes flicked to Ghoul.

"Yay for Mister Archlich!" she suddenly cried, barrelling into the lich's legs gleefully, tail wagging as she adhered herself to his leg and promptly began shaking the water from herself.