Mercenary 2030 Quest 34

glad you are back

Just a heads up, Guide. The tags in the archive are a bit different from previous threads. "2030" and "quest" are flipped on a few of them.

I know, it's my bad. I keep messing up.

Glad to have you. Good luck with the job thing.

Glancing up at everything, most of which appears to do nothing at all and what does do something seems to have way too much on it for what it does. Like the lights, which are giant dangly things that look like they could fall on you at any moment. Especially if somebody shot them.

That’s another thing, nobody around here seems to be carrying guns of any kind. The door guys might’ve had some underneath their big coats of course, but of all the people wandering the entrance you don’t see a single rifle, SMG or LMG around. There might be some pistols hidden in pockets of course, but you can’t tell that if they’re hidden properly.

Koko leads you deeper inside, to where two people are standing behind a fancy looking counter. They seem upset about something, but after Koko starts talking to them they quickly put smiles on their faces.

Glancing up at the lights once more you realize that they aren’t actually candles. They’re… well they look like candles but they aren’t using flames to make light. Nor are they smoking.

“Those are lightbulbs,” says Mary, catching your glance, “They run on electricity.”

You nod, having read about electricity in books before but never actually having seen it.

After a few minutes Koko comes over to your group, handing out three keys.

“You’ll have to share,” she says, “We’re all together so once you get settled in come back down here, there’s some things I need you to do.” The smile on her face seems to be natural, even if it is a bit… crooked.

“Alright,” says Morrigan, taking the keys before leading you to a set of golden doors in the middle of the building.

Morrigan presses a button on the wall, causing one of the doors to open up. Blinking you watch as Cath and Nem follow her inside.

“Will you come with us,” she says, gesturing into the small box that they’re standing in, “Everyone else can take another one.”

You nod, following them into the box. Feeling a little bit silly, you stand there and watch as Morrigan presses another button on the wall, this one with a number on it. Suddenly the door shuts, sealing you all inside the box before there’s a noise and the floor moves beneath you.

Shocked, you almost begin to panic before you feel Caths hand on your shoulder.

“Safe,” she says.

You nod, taking a breath and calming yourself down as the box goes up and up. Finally you reach the number that Morrigan pressed and the door opens. You’re the first out, feeling slightly strange after the ride.

You all wait for the next box to come up, which it does shortly, letting Mary, Bellona and Sarah out.

Morrigan finally passes out the keys as you look at the numbers on them.

“Alright, three rooms, two to a room and then Will… you get to pick a room I guess.”

Looking up you see your choices; Morrigan and Nem, Bellona and Cath or Mary and Sarah.
>Go with Morrigan and Nem.
>Go with Bellona and Cath.
>Go with Mary and Sarah.
>Other?

Sorry for the delay.

Open question:
>Do you envision Williams speech to be quiet and brief, or do you imagine him with a masculine tone and simplistic, childish sentences?

Personally, I see him as being slightly nonchalant about everything, dry, and kinda quiet. He probably has some of his longest conversations silently in his mind.

>>Go with Mary and Sarah.

>>Go with Morrigan and Nem.

>>Go with Mary and Sarah.

>Go with Morrigan and Nem.

Hooray operator guide has returned with blanket quest and child soldiering!

>Go with Morrigan and Nem.

>Go with Bellona and Cath.

>Go with Morrigan and Nem.

Looks like you're going with Morrigan and Nem!

Writing.

Woo!

>tfw no one wanted more time with Bell and CAth

Don't think any user in here is that stupid.

>>Go with Bellona and Cath.

I'm that stupid

Why is that stupid?

Bellona hasn't done anything rapey in... forever now and we haven't gotten Cath time in ages either.

Sorta surprising.

>Bellona and Cath
We need to ask Cath about that small room

>Go with Morrigan and Nem.

I wonder if the the British empire was reconstructed for one last good fight, or if Canadian apathy survived in the apocalypse.

>Go with Bellona and Cath.

>>Go with Bellona and Cath.

>Go with Morrigan and Nem.

...

>Go with Morrigan and Nem.

The votes been called already, you know.

>Voting after votes are called

>Canadian apathy

We aren't apathetic, we're just typically calmer than the Yanks.

We tend to have a "Stiff upper lip" minus the superiority complex.

We have an immense superiority complex it's just regional. I figure we would sort out any nasty business quick kill Quebec and rebuild the nation fast.

How about you guys put out that fire that's still going?

Meh it probably makes Alberta nicer the fire will go out when winter hits.

We cull Toronto and build a wall around the lower southeastern tenth of Quebec, that'll eliminate the problem entirely.

Tell that to the Fort Mac refugees, buddy.

You guys know about them South African "firefighters" your PM brought in?

Yeah they should have just accepted help from western nations
From the news it sounds like they contained the fire and fort Mac is already burned, pal.

The fire's still going man

I will be completely honest and say I live halfway between Edmonton and Fort Mac and those were the first black people I've ever seen in-person.

Yep, Fort Mac's burned. So where do you think all those people who lost their homes went?

You also hear they chimped out 4 days after they arrived?

“I’ll go with you,” you say, nodding to Morrigan.

“Alright, come on,” says Morrigan, gesturing towards where your room is.

You hear some mild grumbling from behind you, but you mostly disregard it as Nem and Morrigan make their way to another ornate door.

Morrigan unlocks the door, opening it so the three of you can walk in. Inside is… more extravagance. The bed, of which there is only one for some reason, is massive. Literally bigger than anything you’ve ever seen or imagined before. Off to the side is a nice long couch, which is one of the more functional things in the room though it still has quite a bit of extra stuff on it. There are even several chairs and other bits of furniture around.

Morrigan stops and stares at the bed, apparently stunned for a moment.

“Dibs on the couch!” calls Nem, already moving to the furniture and spreading herself out on it.

“Wait, what?!” says Morrigan, starting out of her fugue even as Nem strips off her extra gear and plops it next to the couch.

“Dibs!” says Nem again, “You and Will get to deal with who sleeps on that monstrosity while I get to sleep here.”

Morrigan makes a sort of choking sound, even though she doesn’t have a cigarette in her mouth.

You wait for a minute until she recovers, turning around to look at you.

“Will…” she says.

“I can sleep on the floor,” you say. There’s so much stuff on the floor it almost looks like a blanket anyway, nothing like the hard wood floors of most of the places you’ve stayed.

“No, no…” Morrigan says, looking at the bed, “We can both sleep on the bed, it’s big enough that it won’t matter.”

Looking at the bed you have to agree, it’s more than big enough for two or possibly even three people.

“Ok,” you say, following Nems example and taking off most of your gear.

Sitting down on the bed you find it almost sinfully soft, squishing down several inches into the plush covers.

Morrigan does the same after setting her gear down.

“Holy shit,” she says, “Talk about fancy.”

“Yeah the couch is pretty nice too,” says Nem.

You nod in agreement, wondering if you’ll even be able to sleep on it.

“Alright, come on,” says Morrigan, “Koko wants us for something downstairs.”

“Any idea what it is?” asks Nem.

“No more than you do,” says Morrigan as the three of you make your way back to the strange box sans weapons and your heavy gear.

You meet everyone else on the way down, all of you having finished at the same time. Everyone manages to fit in the box this time since nobody is carrying anything bulky.

On the ground floor you find Koko waiting for you all with a smile on her face, only one of her bodyguards with her at the moment.

“Great you’re all here!” she says, “follow me.”

“What’s this all about?” asks Morrigan.

“You’ll see in a second,” says Morrigan, “But it’s absolutely vital for the next part of your job.”

“The next part of our job?” asks Morrigan.

“Yes,” says Koko, “I’m sending everyone off on some errands so I’ll need you all to join me tomorrow evening.”

“What’s tomorrow evening?” asks Mary.

As Koko explains all of this you make your way through the hotel, towards the back. Eventually you make your way to a large set of double doors, which Koko pauses at.

“A party of course!” says Koko, opening the doors to reveal… a room filled with lots of clothes. Most of them are in a variety of bright colors and have lots of extra fluffy bits on them. Off to the side you see another bunch of clothes, most of them black or dark blue.

Morrigan makes another choking sound at the sight, her face turning red. Nem seems similarly stunned, while Bellona’s eyes go wide.

“Ohmygod!” she says, dashing inside and running her hands over the brightly colored things.

Cath and Sarah seem a bit surprised as well, but not nearly as much as Nem and Morrigan.

“This is a terrible idea you know,” says Mary to Koko, who simply grins at her. Mary shakes her head and follows Bellona inside, causing Sarah and Cath to do the same.

“Will you’re over there,” says Koko with a grin, pointing towards the darker clothes.

It’s at this point that Morrigan manages to recover enough to talk.

“No,” she says, “No no no no!”

You pause, looking over at her.

“I did not sign up for this!” says Morrigan.

You look at Koko, who simply grins.

>Go get some clothes like Koko wants you to.
>Ask Morrigan what’s wrong with getting some new clothes.
>Ask Koko why you need new clothes.
>Other.

>>Ask Morrigan what’s wrong with getting some new clothes.
>>Ask Koko why you need the new clothes.

>Ask Koko why you need new clothes.

>>Go get some clothes like Koko wants you to.
Listen to the nice lady, Will.

Seconded

>Ask Morrigan what’s wrong with getting some new clothes.
>Ask Koko why you need new clothes.
>Why is Bellona so excited? Did she run out of clothes?

>>Ask Koko why you need new clothes.

>Go get some clothes like Koko wants you to.
>Grab the frilliest dress we can find and try it on

>>Ask Koko why you need new clothes.

Supporting.

"Will, what are you doing?"
"...Aren't we supposed to put them on?"

She just pointed us away from them guys. Learn to read,

But the dresses are more like blankets.

Would you deny us the blankets, user?

>Go get some clothes like Koko wants you to.
>>Ask Morrigan what’s wrong with getting some new clothes.

>Morrigan in a dress.
Fuck. Yes.

Are we Billy the kid now? go for cowboy look it's the best way.

So uh...

Looks like Will is doing all the things.

Back to the Canada discussion between paragraphs, How well would we hold up? I figure the nation could be revived fast, Fort Mac will hopefully be rebuilt better than before.

In all honesty? If you weren't hit by the nuclear exchange you'd be flooded with migrants from across the border. You guys live right next to our border so it wouldn't even be a far trip for some.
Come to think of it, you could probably annex some territory for yourself.

We'll take Alberta. We're not touching Quebec and Toronto. Better off nuking them

We can deport them to Louisiana Toronto is on a good spot and Quebec has access to the Atlantic and st Lawrence.

Wait, there were nukes?

I thought it was just a worldwide EMP.

Deport them to Commiefornia, God knows they'll probably like it there.

No, what happened? Any links to relevant articles or just word of mouth?

Check /pol/ archives about 6 days ago we had a thread talking about it

Yeah, hopefully Guide will elaborate on what exactly happened at some point.

The worst are the ones calling for more gun control here because of Orlando, or the BLM protestors in Toronto they can't tell this isn't the USA.

You kidding? You fucks have +20 degree weather in fucking December. They'd boil alive.

Thing is Alberta has several high-value targets for nukes (like St. Albert and Fort MacMurray), while Quebec and Ontario only have population centres.

Buddy I live in Georgia, they'll be fine

Ontario has most of the manufacturing base, military bases, and the capital, also the financial heart of the nation it's a bigger target.

Which one contains Trudeau and deserves the nuke

Alberta hates Trudeau he is in Ontario but from Quebec, the only way to kill the weed is to get it's roots. Problem is that if we kill the weeds they win.

Actually found a link for an article
24news.ca/the-news/canada-news/229189-south-african-firefighters-in-alberta-demobilized-over-pay-dispute

I wonder if this is distracting Guide.

Eh, Junior's been mostly okay so far. His daddy was the fuckstick that tried to destroy the economy of everything east of Ontario so we'd all be dependent on those fucks.

Bump.

We are truly the best nation.

Now if only we could gave proper proportional representation so parties don't get elected to majorities with 39% of the vote.

Seriously the Tories and the Grits have both done this now, it's fucking stupid.

>Ask Morrigan what’s wrong with getting some new clothes.

>Tories and Grits

...what kind of magical political parties do you have that THOSE are their names?

Sorry for the delay guys, family stuff. Should be getting something out shortly.

No rush Guide. We're still here.

I want Will to wake up with morning wood and have Morrigan sputter out an explanation.

Better yet have Will start panicking and have Cath and Bell come run in.

I wonder how Bell or Mary would react to that.

"Ugg, Will get your knee out of my back, its really uncompfortab.... that's not your knee. Wow."

Looking at Koko’s grin, you then turn back to where Morrigan is starting to get very inventive with her denials.

“Why do we need new clothes?” you ask Koko, wondering what sort of thing requires you to have certain kinds of clothes

“We’re going to a special kind of party,” says Koko, “One where you need to look like a certain type of person for me.” Her grin goes scary for a second, “Of course you’ll still be armed.”

You sort of get what she’s saying, at least you think you do. She wants you to look like somebody else so you can surprise people. That’s not too hard.

Turning back to Morrigan she seems to have stopped swearing, at least for the moment.

“Why are new clothes so bad?” you ask Morrigan, who turns and looks at you in surprise.

“What?” she asks you.

“Why are clothes,” you say as you point at the racks full of clothes, “So bad?”

“I… uh…” she says, unable to immediately form a sentence.

You wait, letting her gather her wits about her.

“I don’t like dresses,” she finally says, “I don’t… look good in them.”

You tilt your head at her, wondering what she means by that.

“Why?” you ask, looking at the clothes, “They look like they’d fit”

Morrigan just stares at you, unable to say anything more. At least until Bellona comes dashing back and grabs Morrigan by the arm.

“Oh come on Morrigan!” she says, pulling her away, even as Morrigan squawks, “I’m sure there’s something here that’ll make even Wills jaw drop!”

“What?! No that’s…” says Morrigan as Bellona drags her away. You watch with a bit of puzzlement as Mary comes over and takes Morrigan’s other arm, helping Bellona drag Morrigan to the back while Sarah and Cath go through the dresses by themselves. Nem is nowhere to be seen, at least until you see her pop out of a rack somewhere with a small pile of funny colored things.

Seeing you looking at her, she just shrugs and heads towards the back, where you can still hear Morrigan complaining loudly.

“You should go try some stuff on too Will,” says Koko pointing at the other rack off to the side.

“Ok,” you say to her, heading towards the outfits, which clearly aren’t dresses. In fact you aren’t sure what they are, at least until Lem comes out of a room wearing one.

“Oy Will,” he says, adjusting the clothes, “Coming to get a tux too?”

“What?” you say, looking at the clothes, which seem to be a lot more complicated than anything you’ve worn before.

“Tuxedo,” he says, gesturing at his own outfit.

“Uh, yes?” you say, picking one more or less at random.

“Need some help?” he asks.

“…Please,” you say, utterly unsure as to what you need to do.

Lem then leads you through picking out the proper sized tuxedo, including showing you how to put on all the pieces and in what order.

Eventually you come out of the small room, a changing room, properly dressed. You even managed to get the “tie” on properly after Lem showed you how to do it.

“Looking good kid,” he says, “You’ll knock the ladies dead.”

You blink, concerned.

“Isn’t that…?” you start to ask.

“Not literally,” he says with a grin.

You nod, you don’t want to hurt anybody from MMS.

“Come on, let’s go see if the girls are done,” he says.

You nod, following him over to the other side of the room where everyone else went after finding dresses.

“Remember to tell them they look good,” he whispers too you as you approach, “It makes them happy.”

You nod to his advice.

You find everyone except Morrigan waiting outside one of the dressing rooms. Mary is wearing a black dress which has a string around her neck and nothing else as well as being ripped up her leg for some reason. Cath is wearing a red dress that shows off a lot of her chest for some reason. Sarah’s is similar to Cath’s but in blue, while Nem is wearing a white dress that is extra poofy around her legs. Bellona is wearing a white dress too, though hers only goes around one shoulder for some reason.

“Will!” says Bellona with a grin, “Just in time!”

Right then Morrigan comes out wearing another black dress, but this one has sleeves that go all the way down her arms unlike everybody else. It’s also… kinda see through in spots, which make swirly patterns. Especially where you can still see some of her tattoo’s. As she grumbles and twists about you manage to see that she’s also missing a big chunk of the back of the dress for some reason.

“I look ridiculous,” she says, “Nere in a million years will…” she stops when she sees you and Lem, her face turning red.

“What do you think Will?” asks Bellona cheerfully, “Doesn’t we all look great?”

>You all look different at least.
>You all look good.
>You all look great.
>Other.