Blanking the Slate

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #840 on:** November 19, 2018, 10:01:04 PM

"Sounds good to me!" Flora continued filming as they moved from room to room, getting plenty of shots of the extremely photogenic house. When they had enough transitionary footage, Flora handed Marie the phone. "It's all set to record, just tell me when to come in."

Flora stayed out of sight until she got the signal, then walked into the room, looking around shyly as if for a date.

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Emilena woke up with a jolt once she realized she’d fallen asleep. Looking around, her brain oriented and she remembered she was in a completely safe location, surrounded by people who weren’t going to shank her. I don’t normally fall asleep like that...need to get ahold of myself.

She noticed Tony was talking with Awe and wondered if he was learning any useful info about Awe's possible allegiances. “Tony, you mentioned something about a swim, is there a pool?” she yawned, stretching on the couch. “Nothing like cold water and a few laps to wake yourself up…”

Pterano · **Reply #841 on:** November 20, 2018, 07:16:33 PM

"He was... one of the most prolific of all time for English speaking authors." Tony commented, smiling as Emilena jolted awake, the ferret smirking over to her. "Heh... welcome back." He greeted her. "And yes... so... basically... you go through this room." he pointed to his left. "Which is like... part of the library, and then make a right into the kitchen, and straight ahead if you keep going is the sliding glass doors to the back balcony... pool is out there. Just don't fall over the edge. I have a railing but the balcony itself is extended out over the cliff on stilts." he informed the vulpine. "I may join you now that I think about it." he commented, stroking his chin.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #842 on:** November 20, 2018, 08:10:47 PM

“Sounds great. You’re welcome to join as well, Awe,” Emilena offered, dragging herself to her feet and away from the warm spot on the couch. She left the room was halfway to the balcony when she spotted something more important than the pool; Axel was standing in the conservatory, smoking and looking at the exotic plants.

Emilena doubled back to the garage, fished Marita’s laptop out of the backseat of the Model J, and joined him. “Axel, you’re good with computers, right? Marita’s focused on some stupid thing involving a music video, so I think it falls to you to sift through this safehouse data. She mentioned it contained the location of Brennan’s HQ, where we were hoping to head next.”

Axel scoffed. “Yeah? Whatever, sure. It’s not like I had anything better to do anyway.”

Emilena didn’t hand the laptop over right away. “Hey. We’ve been through a lot, and I hope you know that if you ever need to talk, I’m here.”

Axel took a long drag of his cigarette and blew it in her face. “Don’t you worry, only thing bothering me is that Tony’s got the zinnias right between two racks of succulents.”

“Well, that might be more true than you think,” Emilena replied, wrinkling her nose. “I just visited Lily today. Now she’s dead.”

Axel inhaled his next puff too quickly and coughed for several seconds. “What, really?” he gasped.

“Yup. Less than twenty minutes ago. Tony drove me to our old safehouse for a meeting, and she was all chained up and drugged out. By a woman who looked just like her.” Emilena studied him, looking for a reaction. “She used me for some voodoo magic, stripped Lily’s powers and stopped her heart. Lily never even felt it.”

Axel flicked his cigarette stub into a bird-of-paradise. “Well, thank god. Didn’t think anyone could do it, but if she’s really dead, I owe you one.”

“Axel, have you met this doppelganger of Lily?” Emilena pressed.

Axel rolled his eyes. “She told you something, didn’t she? Look, when I followed Flora into that alleyway, nobody told me what was going on. I just did what I had to do to leave in one piece. To be done with Lily and all the bullshit around her." He threw his hands in the air. "Which is how I’d like things to be, even right now. Just consider me removed from that whole little sordid affair. Case closed.”

Emilena sighed. “OK, Axel. If you don’t want to get involved, I won’t tell you anything else.” She allowed him to take the laptop from her hands and stride out of the room.

f-22 "raptor" ace · **Reply #843 on:** November 20, 2018, 11:11:35 PM

Awe finished his drink and closed the book. "Think I'll take you up on the offer. Just let me take to book back to the library." Awe took the book back to the library and walked in the direction of the pool.

Pterano · **Reply #844 on:** November 21, 2018, 03:43:28 PM

Tony pushed himself up off the couch, and headed for a changing room to slip out of his clothes and into his swimming trunks. Having accomplished this whilst Emilena was talking to Axel, he emerged out onto the back balcony, gazing out over the city, the sun framing everything as his house faced west out the back. Padding over to the pool's edge, he smiled, gazing down at the fluid surface, before placing his paws above his head and launching himself off to dive in. As the water encased his body, surrounding all aspects of him, he paddled briefly under the surface, then swam for the top, breaking the water and inhaling as he looked about him, filling his lungs with a hearty and audible gulp.

Running his paw over the top of his head fur to smooth it back, the ferret smiled, then kicked his body sideways to start enacting the sidestroke.

Serris · **Reply #845 on:** November 21, 2018, 05:12:27 PM

Anne had found her way out to the pool. She lay on one of the chairs and inhaled the cool dusk air as she took a pull from her bottle of beer. She rather enjoyed the dark, malty flavor of the beer. Framed by the sun were the featureless towers of Seryet City. A faint oceanic scent hinted at the algae farms in the outskirts of the city.

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Soren was busy poring over his notes in the study which looked and smelled like a library from a monastery. A glass of seltzer spiked with some lemon juice served as his refreshment. He rubbed his forehead. The music video that Marita and the others were doing did not interest him at all. That and he really didn't want to appear in a music video that would certainly be seen by thousands if not millions.

He got up to walk around to try and clear his head. He decided to head to the outside for some fresh air...which was easier said than done, given the sprawling layout of the house. But the Human managed, finding his way to the conservatory and taking a seat next to the open window that let in a fresh breeze.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #846 on:** November 22, 2018, 12:17:32 AM

Emilena finally reached the balcony. "Turning into quite the party out here," she remarked, stripping down to her knickers and diving into the pool.

After holding her breath as long as she could, she came up on the other end gasping for air. "You know, Tony," she panted, "I expected this to be more hot tub-sized when you said it was on the balcony, but you actually managed to fit a whole pool out here. This property continues to amaze."

She started swimming underwater laps, only taking breaths when she tagged the other side of the pool. Thirty minutes of this and she'd have met her daily exercise regimen for the first time since this ordeal started.

f-22 "raptor" ace · **Reply #847 on:** November 22, 2018, 01:04:15 AM

Awe arrived and stripped to his shorts before diving into the pool. "Nice pool Tiny." Awe remarked after he surfaced.

Pterano · **Reply #848 on:** November 22, 2018, 01:22:00 AM

As Emilena and Awe joined him, the ferret blinked, not quite expecting Emilena to have nothing to wear save for her undergarments, and as she dove in, he found himself slightly admiring her form a bit more than he wanted to before she dove in. But as she broke the surface, he smirked. "Heh... yeah well... that comes from having a shitload of money and not knowing what to fully do with it. I think some actors have similar setups or... something." he rolled his eyes. "But thank you." he smiled, nodding to them both. "I'm glad you approve." He then pushed off from the wall and began doing some laps as well, doing the front crawl as he began heading back and forth, kicking off one end and moving to the other fluidly, being well versed in the different forms of swimming.

f-22 "raptor" ace · **Reply #849 on:** November 22, 2018, 01:39:47 AM

Awe lay floating on his back on the surface of the pool. "I'm also a student of history as well as a fan of Shakespeare." Awe's athletic physic was a bit of a pride symbol for him. But his missions for Werner Industries had left him his fair share of scars mainly internally.
"I mainly study the second world war."

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #850 on:** November 23, 2018, 05:07:33 AM

Axel reached the study and, noticing Soren’s notes were already occupying the desk, selected a plushy armchair and opened his laptop. Sorting by recent, he found the info dump and began decompressing it.

He sighed as he scrolled through seemingly infinite files, all with unintelligible numbers and letters for file names. There was a lot to sift through...

——————-

After thoroughly waking herself up, Emilena dragged herself out of the pool and joined Anne on the reclining deck chairs. She noted that Awe had almost as many scars as herself. “Awe, if you don’t mind me asking, did you ever serve in the military or law enforcement?” she asked. “That’s an impressive scar collection for a corporate hitman.”

Pterano · **Reply #851 on:** November 24, 2018, 03:18:51 AM

Nodding, Tony smiled slightly. "Heh... same here... my library is mostly non-fiction as it's a lot of books on history. Used to be big into the Second World War myself... still kind of am, but then I took a greater interest in the conflicts around the late 19th and early 20th centuries... technology was really exploding at the time, so yeah... Sino-Japanese, Spanish-American, and Russo-Japanese are some of my favorites... but I really do like history in general." He pulled himself up out of the pool now, his fur matted and water dripping off him as he moved to a deck chair.

Settling back in it, he placed his paws behind his head, and gazed up at the sky. As Emilena asked a question of Awe, Tony's ears pricked up a bit and listened, as he was curious about the answer.

f-22 "raptor" ace · **Reply #852 on:** November 24, 2018, 04:02:58 AM

Awe showed off the scar of a rather nasty gash on his right thigh after swimming to the edge getting out of the pool. "I got this from the mission that gave me the name Awe. A piece of pipe from the refinery came flying at me after it exploded." He showed a cut across his left arm. "This was from a training accident with my trainer. Though I will say I haven't served in the military or police... at least officially..."

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #853 on:** November 24, 2018, 06:22:53 AM

As Awe recounted his battle scars, a mischievous smile played across Emilena’s face. “Hey, Awe, you up for a friendly spar?” she asked. “I bet I can take you. First to knock the other in the pool wins!”

She leaped out of the chair in case he was open to the idea.

————————

Axel lit another cigarette and sighed as he clicked through yet another file. Most of these contained records of encrypted messages, messages he couldn’t read but he could tell where they were being sent. If he could just reverse-engineer the actual location from the numerical coordinates the computer used to connect to the other computer...

And then suddenly divine providence offered him an opportunity. For a single message, the safe house sent somebody else a picture. Pictures were loaded with alt data, and far easier to track than text. He’d be able to extract the reciever’s MAC address at absolute minimum.

Axel didn’t expect to care about the photo itself, but nevertheless his jaw dropped open when he reverse-encrypted it. Oof. The others are gonna want to see this...

f-22 "raptor" ace · **Reply #854 on:** November 25, 2018, 02:49:32 AM

"What'd you have in mind?" Awe asked scratching his chin as his tail twitched.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #855 on:** November 25, 2018, 06:38:25 AM

Emilena assumed a defensive stance and the tested the wooden balcony floor with her paw pads; it was sturdy and provided more than enough traction. “Simple and straightforward. No weapons, no using augments, no permanent damage. If you can get me in that pool, I’ll owe you a beer.”

f-22 "raptor" ace · **Reply #856 on:** November 26, 2018, 03:48:24 AM

Awe assumed a similar defensive stance. "You're on." Awe rolled his tail up so he wouldn't be able to use it.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #857 on:** November 26, 2018, 05:51:55 AM

“Gonna make me make the first move, huh?” Emilena murmured. She dropped to one knee and attempted to sweep Awe’s leg out from under him, angling so a fall would send him into the pool.

——————

Axel stood up, having found the data they were looking for. Finishing his glass of scotch, he began the slow walk up to find the others and report on the location of the Purifier base.

f-22 "raptor" ace · **Reply #858 on:** November 27, 2018, 12:54:25 AM

Awe did a side flip dodging Emilena attack placing her between himself and the pool. "You'd be surprised. I am quite the gentleman."

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #859 on:** November 27, 2018, 02:46:51 AM

Emilena narrowed her eyes and darted sideways, realizing the dangerous position he'd put her in. "You'd better not just dodge the whole time," she growled, keeping her center of balance low and going for an open-hand strike into his shoulder. "This is a spar, not a ballet!"