_Essex_

Essex continued forward with Curtis and the Maltans, chattering excitedly. As much as Dr. West worried about her relationship with the group, she thought of them fondly as a child thinks of her uncles. Curtis was special, though. Essex respected Reikoff and looked upon Marcus with a sort of awe, and Alpha was a lot of fun, but Curtis, she could be a child around.

"Do you like my dress? AJ picked it out because she says orange looks nice, even though I really don't think so because I usually wear pink and my busters and my audioreceptors are pink so I thought it would clash..." she chirped, looking up at him happily. "You guys all look nice, too! How is everyone back at the base? Dr. West had some tech to pass on to Marcus but we didn't know if anyone was here so he didn't send it along..."

The android's voice quieted as they moved forward and farther in, looking around in wide-eyed wonderment.

Penny sighed as the department heads filed out of the room ahead of her. So many suits. A sudden lyric flittered through her mind.

All the lonely people...Where do they all come from? All the lonely people...Where do they all belong?

...[censored], now I'm going to have that song stuck in my head all damn day.

Briskly making her way out of the conference room, she hurried towards the elevator just as the door started closing. "Hold the door, please!" she cried, picking up her steps.

It closed smartly in her face. Penny scowled. She could practically read the faces of the executives inside. "[censored] you, kid, that's what stairs are for." their smirks seemed to say.

"Damn executives, damn meetings, damn wasted vacation, damn Fridays, damn customers, damn, damn, damn." she growled, shoving open the door of stairwell and beginning down. She knew her boss would be waiting for her with baited breath in her office and eight new calls to take care of.

A quick slip of the shoe.

"[censored]!"

The suddenly surprised sales assistant spent a half-second teetering for balance before she fell, tumbling loudly down the cement stairwell with a cry of surprise. She barely had the prescience to curl in on herself to protect her laptop as she slammed down three flights of stairs, colliding with the three floor down doorway with a loud slam that reverberated through the stairwell.

Dazedly, Penny clung to her computer, which was surprisingly unharmed. Her lost shoe toppled down the steps cheerfully after. The assistant's vision swam and darkened...

I heartily agree with you, Ian. Because sitting in front of the piccolos has convinced me that even one piccolo in a highschool band is one too many.

Essex was still looking around wide-eyed when she was startled by a familiar voice from behind her. Turning around, she blinked.

"Hallucinogen?" she murmured, tilting her head to the side a little. "I didn't expect to see you here either. How are you?"

Skimming along with him into the driveway, she admired the landscape. "Ian's family is really well-to-do, aren't they?" she commented in admiration. "This place is really beautiful."

Then, she paused.

Curtis found himself promptly collided into by a skimming streak of orange chiffon.

"Sir Curtis!!"

Essex looked on approvingly as the children seemed to cease hostilities almost immediately. Turning to Virelai, she smiled, reaching down to pat the little naiad on the head.

"If you want to, sweetheart, but let's get everyone a towel first, just in case."

Calling out, she beckoned the children inside. "Come on in, now!"

Rosie gave a quick nod of approval to Danica before waiting until Essex's back was turned. The little dog-girl promptly took that opportunity to dump another bucket of water over herself with a mischevous grin.

Innocently, she began inside.

Yeah. Which I'm currently working on a flash animation to, with Rosalind vs. Burning's character, the Ruby Blade. XP

210, Burning. XP

Red Hot by Vanessa Mae. I know it's a little trite, but it reminds me of Burning fighting with a bunch of Blightlord's undead. @_@

"Owwwwww...."

"Well, I'm no good at this sort of thing. I'm a man, and a scientist at that."

Dr. West sighed, shaking his head at the little android sitting in front of him petulantly with a hairbrush quite firmly tangled in her blonde locks.

"Honestly, I don't know what you want me to do." he said with a sigh. "Your hair isn't really long enough to do anything with, and...to be truthful, I'm the last person who'd be able to even show you how to do a pigtail or whatever you call it."

"Jeez..." Essex said, stubbornly yanking the brush through again. "Well, I'll just get it myself. Don't worry."

"If you say so, sweetheart." Daniel said with an apologetic grin. "I have some work to do anyway. Just let me know if you need anything."

"Boys." Essex muttered as she went back to brushing.

--------------------------------

Skimming to Ian's, Essex took a moment to admire the boy's house. "Wow..." she murmured. "I didn't know Ian's family was rich." She took a moment to dust off her dress - a cheery little orange chiffon child's formal dress, with a matching hair ribbon. She'd managed to pull most of her hair back, and the orange matched the pink of her audioreceptors and buster arms quite nicely.

Wearing little black patent shoes, she alighted on the ground and quickly ran over with a soft tapping to the sign at the gate. A bit intimidated, Essex looked around at all the large, adult people wearing tuxedoes...

"Oh dear..." she said, reading the sign with her signature tone of worry.

SH101 is going to have the best orchestra ever.

Essex plays violin, Prikker has drums, I can see Pstorm playing the clarinet or something, Rob playing keyboard...

..and then I can see Billyboy, Ian, and Shinji getting in a fistfight over who gets to play guitar, with Shane trying to tell them that they can ALL play guitar, because there are different kinds of guitars, and...bah.

Penny sighed as she finished her transcription with a resounding click. Under her watchful eye, the file was backed up, reinforced, and firewalled immediately. A hard copy would be sent to Tharomar and the department heads and then the file would be deleted by her own hand.

Shutting down the laptop, she took off her glasses, taking a corner of her suitjacket and cleaning them absently as she scanned the occupants of the room with her surprisingly sharp brown-green eyes.

Every one of these people could buy or sell me in a matter of weeks. she mentally lamented as she waited for the important people to leave.

A couple more for forum friends...

Maybe I'm A Lion by the Black Mages - This song reminds me so strongly of a rebellious, SH101 Ian. XP And to match it...

Foray into the Eastern Horizons - Another OCremix of the Wutai theme from FF7 mixed with Schala's theme from Chrono Trigger. This one makes me think of Hyun-ki, all serene and stuff, training up at the monastery. XP ...And by the way. QUACK.

Setting Sun by the Chemical Brothers - Techno, so it's repetetive, but it reminds me of Schizophrenias. @_@ All crazylike.

((It's just slow 'cause of the holiday weekend. :P Give it a little bit into this week. I'm certainly planning on joining.))

It didn't. You gotta time it a moment later. =/ It was kind funny though. It was like,

*Vanish!*

*Reappear, slump, vanish again*

Really Devious?

*Strokes chin*

Because I had this cockamamie scheme in Final Fight, once upon a time, to form a band.

Just sayin'. :P

Essex is very musical, and she enjoys singing and playing violin and piano. She has the capability to replicate other instruments, but she hasn't learned most of them beyond simplicity yet.

Rosalind sings, too. But she secretly wants to be a rock star. XP

"Hey Ghoul! Check this [censored] out!" *Smashes guitar*

And I could see Cobalt being a techno MASTER.

((*L* It's taken me so long to subdue the hose.))

Essex spluttered and struggled with the broken hose for what seemed like a good long time. Nessie had cranked it up to full blast and was now just watching idley as the caretaker frantically attempted to regain control as it whipped around everywhere. Finally, she managed to turn the water off, with a sigh.

"Okay, everyone!" she called out over the playground. "The war is over for today. Let's everyone shake hands and come inside to dry off. I have a couple projects for you!"

"Okay!" Rosalind said as she obligingly got down from the fort. She figured there wasn't any point to making Essex upset - Archlich would have her hide for sure - but it was entertaining enough to see the caretaker utterly soaked. Then again, Rosalind was utterly soaked as well.

Idea.

...She trotted over to Ghoul, lifting a hand in truce. Her voice was low.

"You guys are soaked too, right? Try to get the boys to hug Archlich's left side and I'll get the girls to hug his right side. Pass it on."

Hehehe. Come on now, I couldn't be a self-respecting drama wh0re without a soundtrack, could I? Most of my songs come from classical, foreign music, media or video game soundtracks. For example, that Blue Blast - Winning the Rainbow song comes from the second CD by the Black Mages, which is a rock band that plays songs from the Final Fantasy series. XP I picked 'em up in Japan when I was teaching and have never regretted it. @_@

Anyone for more?

Unequaled Boisterous Dance - The Sky is Too Small - This is the song that reminded me of Experiment 2.0. XP Like, John Ballard working at first...and then going all Batcave on us and slipping away to his secret hideout. XD XD Hee.

I'm Sensitive by Jewel - Here's the song that I thought of as a theme for Essex in the SH101 setting. I have the whole thing played out like a movie in my mind, it's surreal. @_@ Try to guess which parts are for who. XP Billyboy, Ian, Prikker, and Pstorm all have their appearances.

The Bird Chirps, I Sing from Tales of Legendia - This was always my 'World Theme' for Greatest Tale. <3 The stuff of fairytales.

Aka To Kuro from Noir - This song SO reminds me of Circle of Thorns. I have to issue two warnings, though: (1) It's VERY dischordant, so look out. (2) It's in Japanese, so don't be surprised. My Japanese is pretty good, so I can understand some of the lyrics, but not all of them. The line that really made it for me is part of the melodic part near 2:00. Aah, inochi ni kaitai made, mamoritai mono hito wa, mada motteru no? This translates to "Ah, even if changed by life, do people still posess that which they want to protect?" <3

*L* Oh, poor big M. I feel so bad now...

*MASSIVE PUNISHMENT COURTESY OF BURNING*

Wei-li: *poke* XD

Mnemonyev: "HAX! X_x"

Oh well. That's the one thing I'm confident in about my own roleplaying. Marginally underpowered/average characters FTW!!

Hey Burning?

In ITunes.

Under the Advanced menu.

Highlight the song in your playlist and choose "Convert Selection to MP3."

<.<

Okay, how about this...

Tears For a Moonlit Knight - an Overclocked Remix of Lisa's Sonnet from SoulBlazer.

This song reminds me of two things:

1. Terminus' character, Sir Morgant.
2. An RP concept I had before Bright Star that consisted of all of our characters being whisked back into medieval times and equivalencies. I don't have an exact story to it, just mental images. But the song definitely has a story-timeline. I'd be interested to hear what you guys think of when you listen to it. :P

Awwwwwwwwh. D: Don't you fret! I'll put up some less depressing songs, how about that?

D:

*Tablecloths the thread*

Well, as for Essex, I think of her 'relationship potential' on the same level as a 4th-grade crush. She's much more mature than the form she's in, even if she is really naive.

If she decides to actually be 'in love', she might try to convince Dr. West to build her an older body. Which means Angry-Dad interrogations for Hal. >:3

My own personal What The HELL? is the fact that Essex keeps making friends with every villain she meets. D:

As far as others...Um... I can't think of anything right now. To be honest, Ian's teacher-crush isn't that weird to me, because I've seen the same thing happen lots of times. <.<

Actually, what I was thinking of during that part was -

Melodie - Salva Nos

*love love love this song* It's just...so....angsty.

The spike struck true.

Water sprayed -everywhere-, soaking both sides with a veritable shower of water. Rosalind shrieked and covered her head, and Nessie just glanced around, puzzled, as her glasses were soon covered with water. She took them off to dry them on her shirt, exposing a harsh ultraviolet glow from the exposed metal diode of her left eye.

"Goodness!" Essex cried, sprinting out back and trying not to laugh. She scooped up the hose as it sprayed everywhere, making her splutter and wetting her hair down to soggy blonde pigtails.

"Okay, I think the war's over...!" she said between splutters.

"They did it!" Rosie yelled, pointing to Experiment and Nessie and quietly edging over to the boys' side.

Hey, when trouble struck, it was best to stick together.