3rd Attack . voice, spam

[inhell]

[ spam - kitchen/breakfast ]

[ She's on the breakfast shift now. Expect Vegemite, thick slabs of bacon, fried tomatoes, and muesli. Also a somewhat eerie blank expression - work like this is really good for letting her turn off her mind. ]

[ voice ]

It was me. Um. The kitchen.

I don't know if anyone was caught in the explosion. Or if the people around were OK.

..well. Most of you I wouldn't care much.

[ One of Ellie's main skills is not apologizing.

After a moment, she cuts the feed. ]

Comments

[myresponsibility]

Well, full points for honesty. Are you okay?

[inhell]

Why wouldn't I be OK?

[myresponsibility]

Because that was pretty rough.

[inhell]

I've had worse.

[ Why does she do that? Say things like she's a hero. Yes, it was awful. Just because solitary was worse, or running away from the boat was worse... ]

[myresponsibility]

That doesn't mean it didn't suck.

[inhell]

I hated it. I fought back. It's what I do.

[myresponsibility]

You're new, right?

[inhell]

Sort of.

[spam]

[routemistress]

[Without her bus and its little kitchen, Iris is turning up for meals in the mess hall; almost a first in her year on the Barge. She disdains to notice the existence of such a thing as muesli, debates the fried tomatoes briefly before moving past them, and alights with great enthusiasm on the bacon, which she assembles into thick-cut sandwiches with fried eggs, dripping with butter, yolk and bacon grease.]

Morning Ellie love. Got any brown sauce?

[spam]

[inhell]

[ She gives the sandwich a stare, and then looks up at Iris. ]

You put any more sauce on that and your sandwich'll be going for a swim.

[spam]

[routemistress]

[Iris grins.]

Got to keep me strength up. Is that a no or are you just editorialising me breakfast?

[She pulls a piece of bacon rind in half and hands a piece to each of the German Shepherds behind her; Elvis and Solace, unlike Iris, appear to be vaguely aware of the prejudice about pets in food serving areas, and are clinging close to her sides as though to make themselves less conspicuous.]

[spam]

[inhell]

You'll spoil 'em.

[ Regarding the dogs. She pulls out a bottle of brown sauce, and hands it to Iris. ]

Dogs need discipline.

[spam]

[routemistress]

[She covers the sandwich with a precarious quantity of sauce and sits at the breakfast bar to eat it. She adroitly avoids dripping anywhere except on her plate and fingers, and doesn't answer till she's chewed and swallowed the first bite with an expression of unrestrainedly joyful greed.]

I plan to, aye. They need a bit of spoiling, poor lads, and R- certain other people won't let me.

[The dogs are watching, with quietly confident hope.]

...I find they're pretty good as long as I tell 'em what I want. They want to do right. It's 'eartbreaking, in a way.

[spam]

[inhell]

[ She leans on her elbows. Half-willing to have some conversation, even if she's not sure she likes Iris even a little bit. ]

That's why I like sheep better. They live their own lives. Not so eager to please.

[spam]

[routemistress]

[This comment interests Iris, even though she's not sure what to make of it. She's really never considered sheep at all except in the conceptual or the roasted-with-mint-sauce sense, and she tilts her head as she does so now.]

Can't say they ever struck me as paragons of independent thinking. Don't they tend to just go with the majority?

[spam]

[inhell]

[ She shakes her head. ] No - if they were really like everyone thinks, you wouldn't need dogs to herd 'em, would you?

Nah, sheep have really good survival skills. People don't appreciate it.

[ She has strong feelings on the matter. ]

[themissingpiece]

You blew up the kitchen? But it's back now, right? [Kitchen: more important than apologies, even bad ones. ]

[inhell]

Yes. It was the other one. The other Barge.

[themissingpiece]

Oh. Good.

Kinda like having a place to eat.

[inhell]

Well. That was the point.

[ Take away the food. Make sure the people die. ]

[themissingpiece]

You orchestrate a take over or something?

[inhell]

No. Just tried to kill everyone.

[themissingpiece]

[sigh] Of course, you did.

That the other you or the you you?

[private]

[fridgetothefire]

It was kind of impressive, actually.

[private]

[inhell]

Nobody did much about it.

[ Seemed like hardly anyone even noticed. They put out the fire, went on with their business. Just with the slowly dropping supply of food. ]