Metro 2034 Role Play.

[Yuno]

Aninka smiled as she walked forward, "Wow. And I thought I was good. Remind me not to play against you Mantis. No matter how drunk I get." Yuri grinned at him some respect showing in his eyes for Mantis. "Yeah, we're ready. Stick close with us." Aninka smiled and shrugged, "it was all excess money anyway." Aninka walked out the door grinning to herself over some sort of joke that spread mirth all over her face. Yuri held the door motioning for Mantis to walk out next.

She moved through the crowd clearly not a woman for strolling, "We're going to get to the gate. Just keep quiet your hopes up high and your head down low and we'll be fine." She turned while walking to look at Yuri, "You're sure you want to do this?" He nodded simply and she smiled, "Good." They watched her tugging at the ribbon in her hair and retying it into a perfect bow shape. By then, they reached the gates. She moved to walk and the guards moved forward, "Sorry Ma'am Spartans only." Aninka's eyes glistened for a moment as she held out her I.D "I am one."

The man looked surprised as he ran the I.D. under a check. "You aren't dressed like one." He said looking her up and down, "No. I'm not. But those reasons aren't your concern." He looked at Yuri and Mantis, "They can't pass through. Strict orders." She turned her face hardening into an edge, "What's your name?" He looked worried, "Alex, Ma'am." She nodded, "Alex. Are you questioning the orders of a Spartan. These two are with me. I have orders from the top and those orders require the aid of these two men. We are not allowed to keep in Stalkers you know this as well as I. They are not our citizens. They have diplomatic immunity." She turned to look at Yuri. " And this man is my partner. I have worked with him for 7 years. Do you think that I would not know if he were some sort of threat." Her voice was sharp and the guard looked more than frightened. "Ma'am I'm just following the orders of a Spartan like yourself."

She had grown closer to the man and she leaned into his face, " And what are those orders exactly?"
He was shaking and stuttering under her blue eyes. "Ma'am...my orders are to not allow anyone in or out unless they're of the Spartans." She grinned, "And I am a Spartan. And I am ordering you to open this gate right now for me and my guide and partner. And if you don't do it, I will have not only your job, but any chance you ever had of amounting to something. I'm not to delay my orders for your's." The guard slowly nodded stepping aside, "Yes...of course ma'am. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me." She kept her stern look, "Nothing to forgive, you were just doing your job of course." She waived Yuri and Mantis to follow her. Neither of them spoke as they climbed into the cart that would take them to the surface. It wasn't until they were well on their way out of the city Aninka leaned to Mantis, "Tell me when we should get off. I'm counting on you now to be our guide. I'll take all the bullets and give them so long as you take me there." Yuri nodded putting an arm around Aninka, "And that counts double for me."

[The ranger]

The dark ones influence reached into the minds of Dimitri and Nikki, this was a way for the dark ones to communicate in a way. It was painful for most at first. but Dimitri was already influenced. And in D6 on the day of the reds attack, most of the remaining defenders had there minds touched. The voice that entered the minds was female, it would seem odd since most beloved that the dark ones were all male.. This one spoke cryptic as many. "You bring, people to my home. People who would hurt me?" To voice spoke to Alex. And Alex only.

Dimitri held his head in pain the imaged he would see again playing over and over in his head, he stopped as the darkness seeped out of his mind, he cursed under his breath hearing the scurrying of spiders and the echoes of the nosalies, he placed his ear to the pipes to see if they rang or screamed, hearing nothing he sighs in relief. "What in gods name was that about back at Riga, who the (please do not swear) was she and what does she want with the kid... And Nikki, after you get this damn money the boy. Comes with me to polis the the council of the metro" he says sitting down taking the cigaret and lights it taking a puff

[Yuno]

ooc (How does he know these things. I mean I hardly bought him automatically pegging her as riech..I would think they'd make their spies not obvious...but the moment she disappears how is he knowing these things about them?"

[The ranger]

Ooc:(he is literally just guessing sence the redline spy that killed his,own and poisned a station they have been veary veary closed I'm actually surprised she's Hansent been caught by the rangers before this but ya I think I overstepped something. Let me fix and ill ya ill fix. But the dark one can read thoughts and see into your past. S you may start shouting at a random time when it enters your sins and things you have done)

[Yuno]

ooc (Yeah, but her character is more of a sleeper agent minus the lack of knowledge. She's been behaving as a citizen with them since the age of 16. I'm cool with the dark one's (please do not swear) with her, she's got a past that can be screwed with, she doesn't exactly have all her marbles there. The reich saw to that.)

[mantisstalker]

(OOC- Will post in a bit, I'm late to get to places of education :/

Also, didn't want to say anything but the Dark One will have no effects on Mantis and can't read his thoughts or he'll just get a confused mush of stuff. I'd explain why but that would be spoiling plot~)

*Post goes here*

[Yuno]

Aninka sat as the cart hummed along staring bleakly at the underground as it passed her by. *The most surprising thing* she thought, as the rock passed her by, *Is that I live and work in a place underground. Despite the fact that I hate being underground. I hate the dark. I hate all of this. I used to be a creature of the light in a dark time.* Slowly her thoughts wandered off to the day she'd come back, the day before she left for this godforsaken place.

*Flashback*

"Oh Miss. His Lordship will be delighted at your return. He's been in such a dreadful mood since well, pardon my speaking of the dead, since his father passed on," the butler's face ranged from delighted to sorrowful in an instant as he took her hand. He was sorry, she knew it now without having to question. She climbed down from the carriage and stood taking in the home she'd been from for two long years. It almost felt like a lifetime. "Where is Vlad?" She said in her most pleasant and girlish voice. The butler shot her a look at her lack of honorific, "Miss. I know I am nothing more than a servant. But his Lordship is no longer your playmate and master. He is your Lord and Master. It would be best if you referred to him as such."

As if to punctuate this, it began to pour. The butler led her in from the rain in a hurry. She found herself in the lavish estate she'd thought she may never see again. The maids quickly produced a towel, "Where is his Lordship, I should like to speak with him at once." The butler chuckled politely, "Why Miss. He's attending to his duties. But if you don't mind my suggesting, he shall be home for dinner. It would be lovely if we cleaned you up a bit from the Academy. Why I daresay, these clothes don't suit you in the least. I remember a very pretty child, and you have come back to me as if you'd been in the wilds all these years." Aninka laughed at this, "Yes. Well, I am lucky my hair has regrown anyway. I was so glad when I earned that back." The butler squinted at her and then nodded, "Yes. justly so I suppose. Come along then. When we learned of your arrival we had a little something prepared. Including a surprise party, it is his Lordship's birthday after all."

*Interlude*

Aninka briefly flicked her attention to the light that was coming ever closer. Yuri had decided to take a nap, and Mantis as always was quiet. Slowly, her thoughts sank back to that day. She could still see his face, and it made her angry to think how it had turned. It was in shock, awe, and adoration. His blue eyes had seem to take her then and there.

*End Interlude*

"Well...Do you still recognize me your Lordship? Or have you forgotten your old, little dolly?" She blushed slightly stealing a glance at the mirror. Within three hours the servants had taken a rumpled and dirty soldier and turned out a lady, a beautiful lady. Dressed in head to toe in a blue dress that hid as much as it revealed, with her long golden locks draped down her shoulders, the golden locket that the previous Lord had given her, and the barest touches of make-up on her face, even Aninka had to admit to the servants she'd argued with for her dress uniform, that she was a striking sight.

"Yes. I recognize you. Though you are no longer the little dolly who left me two years ago. You have grown into a woman. A beautiful one at that." Vladmir walked forward as she smiled bowing, "Thank you, Lordship." Vladmir was as striking as her, so much so that were it not common knowledge, the two could have been related. He had the same piercing blue eyed gaze as her, a darker blond head of hair, and was tall and well built. His dress uniform of a lord fit him perfectly down to the gold chain and medals he wore on his jacket. "Aninka." She looked up to find he had sprawled like a young man onto one of the rich sofas made for napping.

"Yes, Lordship."
He grinned at her. "Lordship. I seem to remember that you once compared me to the rear-end of a cow and then pointed out the cow would be smarter." She blushed and smiled at this, "Yes. I may have." He waived her forward, "I am not Lordship to such a person. You have shared my childhood, and you shared my home, and my life." She moved forward kneeling by the sofa, a somewhat common position for the two. He took her hand smiling, "And I wish that you share my bed." She looked stricken, "I...I cannot."

His temper was not like her's. It was fiery and in this case he looked rather angry, "And why not? I know you love me. I have loved you since before you left for that damn Academy. I don't know why you went. If you'd only stayed here for those years you could have come out as a lady, and we would have been wed by now." She, ever the cool one looked down, "You know why not. I'm a commoner. A filthy blood. My family's name is that of thieves and merchants. It does not lend itself to your noble name. I am no one except someone your father took pity on."

His voice was full of scorn, "So what. I am Lord now. I can give you all that you do not have in titles and awards. I can make you all that you are not. Those rules are foolish. I have decided upon you and that is all they need know." She met his gaze her tone still even, "That is the stupidest thing you have said. Of course it matters. Your subjects must believe I am worthy to be their lady. And the High One would not permit it. You would be thrown out of office. No. My answer is no. I went to the academy to reach the fastest route of winning my titles and awards. I was highest in my class, and I have already accepted a position. When the place I am going is in ashes I will talk of marriage."

"I am ordering you to withdraw and stay here as my intended." She continued to stare at him, "No. I'm going." His hand came across her face hard knocking her over as he screamed at her, "There is someone else isn't there. Someone you fell for at the academy. And now you are leaving to be with him." She sat up holding the side of her face angry tears beginning to form around her eyes, "No. I swear that is not true. I love you. But I won't let you do this to your father's name and house. And if that means you hate me then so be it, Vlad."

He moved towards her in a threatening manner and towered over her angrily his hands stiff at his sides. She stood up cooly and moved to leave. He blocked her way. "Promise me your hand." She looked startled, "What?" He continued to block her way, "Promise me your hand. That no one else might have you. Swear it before God and me. That when you leave me, you will marry no one else. That you will be mine. And promise that if that place isn't already in ashes in five years you will return and marry me." She tried to move around him, but he'd had the same training as her and he moved to block her, "Swear it, Aninka. And swear that you will write, and you will return to me each year to take your oath."

She finally broke under his stare, "I have no blade on which to swear it." He held out his family's dagger. She slowly dragged it across her own hand and then held it out to him. He took it doing the same as she knelt. The clasped hands, "I, Aninka Apollinaria Aleksandrov, swear before God The Father, That I give my hand to Vladimir Ioannovna Courland the 10th, that I do by this blood and that of the Son whose spilled his for us, that I will wed no other man unless it be him and that my heart, soul, and body is his from this day until the day of our wedding vows. I swear that I shall return in five years time no matter the case of my career to be his bride. And that each year of the five I shall return that he might love me and keep his promises as my Lord and Master. And I will write him letters of my continued life, that should I die he will not wait for me."

Vladmir pulled her up the fire still burning in his eyes, "Go wipe your eyes. We have guests." With that he turned grasping a hankie and cleaning his wounded hand. Aninka stood a moment watching him leave her, before she moved to clean her eyes and hand.

*end flashback*

Yuri was snoring when she returned to reality. It had been four years. She'd be visiting him soon enough. But her relationship to Yuri was going to ensure that this next visit was not a pleasant one.

[t⊗theark]

(ooc - dark ones sorta communicate by bending one's perceptions to get across the message they wish to get across, but they might accidently kill you by doing so.)

*post yet to come*

---

Nikki breathed heavily suddenly after she recovered, her anxiety was clear now.
"No, they're real! They can't be real!" She said, he trembling, fumbling hands to shaken to grab the Ashot she was feeling for. "Alex, what the (please do not swear)!" but he was preoccupied with yelling seamlessly aimlessly,

"I would never bring people to hurt you, you know that."
*They bring weapons.*
"We can leave them out side. They can go around. Don't hurt them. I am just here to get what I hid here for my father."
"He too came with people with weapons once. You draw him here again?* Alex needn't had said anything further, the thought of Boris' death was still raw in his mind, *Ah, I see. They may enter but must stay with you!* the next few words Dimitri and Nikki heard painfully clearly,
*draw your weapons within this domain an I will tear your psyche apart*

Nikki yelped when she heard this and her hand snapped away from her holster to her chest. Dark ones; those mutant have faded into legend and now here she was, coming in direct contact with them. The positions had seemingly been switched as Dimitri and Nikki were now the ones of their toed, their senses sharpened to paranoia, while Alex strode with fleet confidence knowing he was safe under the telepathic gaze of this...friend. Even as he strode by a Nosalis Rhino gorging itself on a tree that had fallen through the metro ceiling, Alex's cowardice had seemingly vanished, as the hulking creature was seemingly oblivious toe their presence. It, however, was torture for Nikki to have the withdrawal of her weapon and instant death sentence, she hated this place, it was probably crawling with mutants just as dangerous as that. She was to wait til after they were out before she discussed Dimitri's plan for the money and the boy.

They had come 100 metres from a large section of collapsed metro ceiling, the mutant roots of ravaging plants hanging in the dense, humid air that were drawn like the fingers of death itself. There was a container not far from it which Alex darted towards. From it he drew out some rad suits which were in come degrees in disrepair. As he slipped into his (obvious a couple of sizes to large) he threw two others at his companions. Nikki's already worried look shifted to distress,
"Oh my god, are you trying to get us to join the mutants around here?"
"Don't worry Nik, the surface radiation levels aren't too bad in this area," Alex jested with his voice distorted by the mask, "it's just a precaution. What we're going to get is only 5 million MGRs but the rest will be safe if I need come back to it. I don't think she liked either one of you." he warned, he waited for Nikki and Dimitri to suit up before they go up to the surface and get to the stash.

[mantisstalker]

(OOC- I know. The question is if his perception of reality isn't already twisted ;3)

Mantis spent most of the cart ride staring at the hands he was resting on his upturned knees, humming a slow tune as he watched a drop of luminescent blood run down his wrist. It must have been a drop me had missed after he ate his meal, but for now he made no move to wipe it away. Its almost alien blueness gave Mantis a sense of comfort in a world of dull whites and grays.

A particularly large jolt hit the carriage caused the crimson drop to hit the floor looking like a small explosion of light to Mantis. Shaking his masked head the boy pulled out his handkerchief and wiped the blood from his pale skin, looking out the window as his mental countdown started to come to a close. Suddenly standing up he moved over to the door, ignoring the strange look Ani gave him as he yanked open the door and stuck his head out.

Giving a satisfied nod he moved over to the now fully awake couple, wind spilling into the cart causing his trench coat to go into a frenzy around. "Its just about time to be leaving now." He said, his normal tone only just getting to the couple as he crouched down, reaching up to take off his hat and reveal his pale, stubble covered scalp. "You asked for the most discrete way, now I hope you're ready to get a little soggy."

Standing back up he beckoned them to the door, his hat now safely tucked in his coat as he held up a hand. The tunnels rotting walls started to give way to little more then rubble as he started to take down one finger at a time, until he reached zero and shoved a hesitant looking Yuri out the door, stepping out after him into the nothingness.

The fall wasn't long but neither was it sweet. After a few seconds of free fall they hit the water in spray of foam, Mantis surfacing quickly before reaching down and yanking Yuri to the surface as well. "Sorry about that." He said, sounding completely calm at the fact they had just jumped out a moving train. "But I didn't think you'd be very happy if I told you about it before. Anyway, we should move before the Shrimp smell us." Lazily turning onto his back Mantis started to paddle towards the shore.

"Just a bit of walking down here and some more on the surface and we'll be there in two ticks of a Watchers tail."

[The ranger]

Dimitri put his aks acros his chest and puts his hands up, "look, dark one. We of the rangers are sorry for the gardens, but we let you and your kind free after we found out you were sleeping g in D6, so I have no quarrel with you and will obey your rules" Dimitri says as he started to slip on the radiation suit on and coughs. "I need to quit smokeing" he says and pulls the top of the suit on zipping it up and shrugs. His night vision and head lamp went out and so did Nikki's. they had just entered the darkness, the darkness was something supernatural that killed electrify.

Dimitri thought back to the day he saved Diana, the day they met. And wondered if he be able to see her again after this. he remebed, the tram moving carrying slaves and wemon to the reich stations, dimitris men and him set up along the tunnels , two snipers and a rifleman, Dimitri and the other sniper daichi took aim firing at the two in front as the one with the rifle Kiro came from behind killing the rest of the guards. "Ha ha ha, that was easy eh comrades." Kiro said as Daichi searched the bodies for good loot, while Dimitri cut the prisoners free. "Ladies and gentlemen you were just rescued by your friendly polis rangers." Dimitri says. At that moment a girl no older then 25 gripped him into a hug, Dimitri hugged her back as she thanked him. Now this was normal people being this happy, but this girl, long brown hair. Nice curves and body,. "I'm Dimitri." He says as she replys. "Diana." The girl spoke, she wore what looked to be a expensive dress. Behind them daichi acted like he was playing a violen as Kiro laughed and threw the tram car back in revers taking the people to a friendly station .

That was 3 years ago. And they were still together she waited on the bed till he walked threw the door and she would hear the cheering of the men, then she would run out into his arms. He missed her.

[Yuno]

Yuri came up sputtering, but Aninka who had followed them moments later surfaced perfectly and began to move after them. The packs on their backs were laiden down, and the two struggled to stay afloat while carrying them. But both somehow managed following Mantis at a decent pace. Yuri grumbled every chance he got about the water, and Aninka seemed to keep him going by insults to his manhood, "A child complains less than you. Did I not know meself I'd say you had no balls." Yuri's growled reply of "I'll show you no balls," echoed down the cavern.

When they finally reached land Aninka and Yuri both popped their masks to let the water out the whole time being careful not to take in any of the air. When finally they stood soaking wet and masked Aninka nodded for Mantis to lead on, "Worth every penny, Yuri. And don't you keep grumbling about water. You needed a bath." She slunk off after Mantis grinning as Yuri snorted. "You're just keeping a stiff upper lip. We both know you're the one who stays out on hunts for days without a bath." She shrugged at this not bothering to let her mind wander to what she'd really been doing on those week long hunts or the fact that she had another week long hunt with a few months.

As they strode after Mantis it wasn't so long before their lights flicked off. Aninka had heard of this before. She'd been trained for it as well. Fighting in absolute darkness. She couldn't say it had been her favorite class. But it earned her hair. She moved after Mantis using her hearing as best she could to keep track of him. Yuri felt it first, the dark one near him. Whispering. Whatever he heard caused him to scream out. Aninka was to him in a second reaching down for him, "Yuri what is wrong?" Then she heard it.

"Poor little Aninka...so alone in the world. Why...poor little Aninka has been alone since she was five." Aninka turned from Yuri, "Who are you?"

"Poor little Aninka isn't worth anything but her face. Poor little Aninka would be dead without her pretty pretty face." Aninka turned drawing a blade from her belt.

"Poor little Aninka is so alone. She reaches out to people, but no one ever reaches back. She's alone in the world." Aninka's blade clattered off the wall, she'd detected two different voices now, swirling around her and laughing. "So poor little Aninka uses people. The way they used her for her pretty face. Didn't they. The academy masters couldn't help themselves could they. Poor little Aninka has to be able to withstand all kinds of torture. The one thing in the world she can't take, they tried to teach her to take it. Because a good spy isn't afraid of anything. A good spy can't be broken." She listened to the laughs and suddenly she stiffened reaching down to clasp the still roiling Yuri's hand.

"Shut up. I'm not poor little Aninka. I'm Aninka. I do whatever I want. I'm totally self reliant. I don't need anyone anymore."
The voices laughed again, "What of Vlad? Or Yuri. Don't you love them?"

Aninka took a step forward feeling her head pound, "No. No. I don't. I don't. I don't."
"Aren't you supposed to be the good liar poor little Aninka. You were such a good liar when the masters were around. Aninka, what was it you were afraid of. What was it you never got past?"
Aninka took another step the darkness beginning to recede as she dragged Yuri who had calmed long since.

"Other people." She said quietly, "Affection." The voices burst into peals of laughter as she moved from the darkness to see Mantis again. She was lucky she had the mask on, because tears were pouring down her cheeks. Her hands shook as she continued to drag Yuri.

[t⊗theark]

Nikkie clambered into the suit. Not being much shorter than Alex, the suit was, too, obviously not her size. By the time she had her mask on straight and her night vision lamp mysteriously dies, Alex was already halfway to the hole that lead to the surface. He wa outlined and hugged by needles of the smoke chocked light which pierced into the eerie congestion that lay below. The section of ceiling forms something of a decaying ramp up to the surface. Nikki was nearly blinded by the sight of the sun, the sight almost blinded her as she was adept of the cold catacombs and too few times had she ventured to the surface. Once she had grown accustomed to not being in perpetual, subterrainian night, the sight would near amaze her as she approached the surface.

Looking around, Nikki saw beauty in the recovering botanical gardens around her. The alien architecture of the mutant plants surrounded them and hugged the ground like a malign infection, so gracefully did the arches which were their branched loom and the green foliage droop down in decaying curtains like the death shawls of the stoic skeletons of once proud trees, their ghostly visage looming over their next generation. Surrounding that further was the empty shell of Moscow, hollow remains a backdrop to this dystopian garden.
"Wow, it's beautiful up here" she commented. Dimitri seemed less phased, he had been to the surface far more than she ever had and probably had the opportunity to see truely beautiful plants. She finally got over herself as she looked for Alex. The boy was already 20 metres away by a burnt out car. The two other's ran over to catch up with him.


He had tried his best to reef the rusted back door open before clambering inside. Nikki's concentration was split between watching him and keeping guard there up on the surface. Alex was in the process of popping the back seat up to reveal a hollow within. In this hollow was a large safe with no dial, keyhole or finger print scanner to speak of. There was only a thin slit in the centre of the door. Alex, showing how much he didn't worry about the radiation in this area, unzipped his suit slightly to let his hand up behind is mask and grab one of the hairs that was loose from where Nikki has cut it short. Once he had some hairs he withdrew his hand quickly and resealed himself in. With some feat of precision he droppe his hair into the slot followed by a minuscule amount of smoke rising from the slit.

The lid popped open and it revealed 3 small suitcases. he took them our, one by one handing the first to Nikki, Dimitri following suit with the second and he clambered back out with the third.
"Okay, so each of these carries around 1,666,667 GMRs each. There are way more stashes like these, this is just the closest and the smallest that my dad hid around here. He can get to the Polis now." Nikki asked for the code to unlock the cases, just to make sure. She popped it open and saw what was inside, her eyes gcleam with wonder and greed before locking the case up again. She knew the area where they were hidden. She knew how to access these stashes. She wouldn't need to work another day in her life.
"So. I'm guessing we're taking the Red Line? That's the quickest way there." She asked Dimitri.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked out of no where, as if a madman talking to himself. "I'm sorry I brought them here, can I ask for a favour and have you hold them off?" He looked over to the confused pair,
"People are after me, they've been looking this way. I can find another way to the Red Line."
"No one was following us where they?" Nikki said, perplexed.
"I don't know but he have to keep off the main tunnel of the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line, they're probably having it locked down."

They looked to hurry back down to the hole. Nikki stopped only to see a tall, slender, black figure in the corner of her eye. She discareded it when she looked twice and nothing was there, continuing on.

[The ranger]

Dimitri shook his head. "No no tunnels won't work to crowded and whoever is fallowing is will be looking. If we can get to the old library there."he pointed with his hand to a large building with a tower. "We will be home free, these suits will alow us to breath easy for a while, and there are stations for rangers in a few places," he says turning to see something vanish from his vision, he would lead the way there as he loaded 3 clips with MGRs and started to walk tworeds the library's general direction he actually had to start pulling Alex and Nikki with him this time, now the library wasn't a ranger outpost oh far from it. But it was near polis, just the things that were in there, far worse then demons. As Dimitri thought to himself, he could finally take Diana to theater, buy her a nice dress, maybe a new guitar for him.

"First thing I'm gonna do is buy my wife a nice new dress. Then I'm gonna spend some time with her, finally to relax. What do you think, sound good?" He asked out loud loading a normal magazine into his aks and watched the mutated crows fly. He really wanted to get home

[t⊗theark]

Nikki shrugged off Dimitri's grip as she took a check on all her weaponry. She held her Abzats in both hands where it felt comfortable. She had quite enough of being harmless and now she was out of that demon's domain she could finaly feel safe. The ever submissive Alex simply complied with his direction, walking in pace with him with his grip still firmly on his shoulder.

"Me? Oh, I don't know," Nikki said in response to Dimitri's ideas, "I've been living hard an fast for a while. The family and friends back at the Commonwealth are a bunch of kunts. I have family and friends from my child hood back in the Emerald City. I should have followed them, perhaps I can make it back now. I might buy some mushroom tea. Oh, I could buy pork with this, spinach, tomato, whisky! Finally, eating something other that vitamin supps, potatoes, mushrooms and rats. Get a drink better that shroom vodka! Yeah, that's the stuff. Maybe teach little Al here how to shoot, fight, stand up for himself." She switched her focus from Dimitri to Alex, "Cowards may stay alive mate but you have the funds to do something with that life, you just need the balls and the cause. Help others, help yourself - I don't care. But a life of running to live another day sounds boring to me and I hope to show you how boring it is. Maybe you can look after that daughter of yours even."

That's where Alex was headed after he went from the polis. He wanted to meet his uncle - he was more of a father to him anyways. Josph Timiryazevskaya was a teacher of the old world. He shared Alex's passion for music, science, history, politics. Reading old books about the world before The War was the best little escape ever. He had to move back with his father when he was 8 but back at his home he still had the books to learn about the world. Wow, he knew the history of Indochina to the kinetic particle theory. It was a shame that he had to leave those books behind in Riga but his Uncle's library awaited him in Kaluzhskaya. Dimitri's grip was pretty consistent. Maybe he's just forgetting to let him go? However, that grip shifted when he heard about his daughter. Promiscuity and bisexuality was far from unheard of in the filth of Riga and were almost synonyms with adolescence. About a yeah ago, a girl game to the Timiryazevskaya's house hold claiming that Alexander has fathered a child (whether this was confirmed was irrelevant and forever a mystery). She was sent off to Boris' brother Joseph to save political face. Alex just remembered the beating he got that night. She would be 3 months old now, and of the mother he got no further news. The shift in Dimitri's grip seemed to reminded Alex to be ashamed for some reason and those few glances up at him seemed to disappear. The tension remained behind the window of silence, as if he wanted to talk to him.

White trekking across the desolate landscape, now devoid of he apparent beauty of Botanicheskiy Sad, Nikki's eyes shot up to the wide open skies, the dust-red clouds gliding upon hot-irradiated winds. Gracefully, heralded by a cacophony of bat-like screeches, a flock of mutants known as 'deamons' graced the sky. Nikki in her infinite boredom decided to take a pot shot at the flock. She managed to get the shell into one of them as it plummeted to the ground before them. The flock scattered and fled from the murder.
"So, ranger, did you have alternative ideas for dinner tonight?"

[Yuno]

"I have a few ideas what's for dinner tonight." A female voice came from just behind them. There had been a pile of ruins, perfect for hiding in, and creeping up on them while they'd argued had been an easy task, although it had required Aninka to convince Mantis to stop humming. Now she stood a few feet behind them both her guns held high, one pointed at Nikki and the other at Dimitri. Yuri stood to the other side a shotgun pointed at Dimitri.

Aninka moved forward slowly, "Now let's not have anybody make any rash decisions. I'm not planning to shoot anyone unless I have to. And I'm especially not planning for anyone to get hurt." Her head turned to make it clear she was addressing Nikki and Alex, "I'm especially not interested in shooting a kid or someone who takes care of a kid. We need more of those. And I'm not really interested in the money you have there. Although I admit it has crossed my mind to walk away with one of those cases. I'm here to talk."

She moved forward another step and as a show of good faith she turned her gun that had been pointed at Nikki to rest on Dimitri, "And I'm not even planning to shoot this one here. Because despite how rude he is, I suspect that some of his ire for me is related to past with the reich." She was in feet of the both of them, "To be really honest, I'm here to talk to the kid. I had plenty of time to think while I was evading the police and swimming through underground lakes." She didn't mention the dark ones. That still had her on edge. Especially the way things were appearing at the edge of her vision.

"See, I've had a better plan for what he should do with his ill gotten gains and life." She grinned, "And while I'd like to pretend he has a choice in listening to me, the truth is he really hasn't. I like to be heard." She turned making the chuckle in her voice obvious to Dimitri, "I told you I'd be on top next time. Too bad you had to be so rash...we could have had fun."

Yuri had moved forward to Dimitri and held out a hand, "Your weapons please. Just listen to her. She isn't the kind of reich you're used to."