[It's the middle of the night. Our crew crash landed - they have no idea where they are, Alysha's missing, and worst of all, some strange, whispering dark force is spiriting people away. Being resourceful (and not needlessly brave), they hid in an abandoned pub. Well, pretty much the whole town is abandoned, but you take what you get.] [The doors have been barred and the windows covered, but watches are still being kept. And so there's Montana: awake and sitting at a table, with a glass of rakia nearby and playing solitaire.] [Mini Start!] * Montana flips another card in the dim light provided by Nigel's semi-magical fire. Fire and alcohol: there's two things that mix well. He places it on a column and pauses a moment to rub at his eyes. * Sonia is sleeping in a corner, sitting upright and resting against the wall, her other arm wrapped around her suitcase, sunglasses still on and hoodie up. And no snoring, either. * Montana glances at Sonia, then checks his watch against the light. He makes a soft 'heh' sound before cycling through a few more cards. * Sonia 's head suddenly starts, mouth parting and hand clenching against her suticase, nails trying to dig in. She stays frozen like that a moment, then closes her mouth and shakes her head, making a low groaning noise. * Montana looks at Sonia again. "Y'alright, darlin'?" * Sonia starts again, looking towards Montana, and then she growls lowly, "Awake," as she stands to her feet. "You havin' fun?" Naaaaw, wouldn't say that. Just tryin' to cut the boredom. * Montana checks the next card and places it on another stack. * Sonia shakes her head and walks over to Monty at the table, dragging over a chair and sitting down on it in reverse. "Boredom's just another day on this job, no?" Boredom and mind-numbing terror, y'mean? * Montana smiles slightly at Sonia. "Didn't sign up for that part so much." * Sonia half-smiles a moment, then it fades as she pushes her hood back. "Should get that part replaced. Mind-numbing terror ain't all that hot." Amen to that. * Montana leans back and reaches behind, grabbing the bottle of rakia and another glass. He places them in front of Sonia before sipping his own glass. I won't mention it to the girls if you don't. * Sonia looks down at the bottle and shakes her head. "Don't feel like it." * Montana shrugs. "Your call." But yeah... * Montana sighs. "I don't fucking know. I want Alysha safe, sure... be a shame if she dies to... whatever it is out there. But we don't even know if she's alive." * Sonia frowns and says, "Yeah, whatever. Monsters. Whatever your brother's into." * Montana snerks a little. "Nigel's into some strange stuff, ain't gonna lie." * Sonia grins a bit, adjusting her glasses. "How's a nice american boy like you get an english brother? And pale too." Ah... blame our mum. She ran out on my pa 'fore I can remember, and while she was gone? * Sonia exhales upwards, as if blowing smoke. "English love story." * Montana snorts. "Yeah. Or somethin'." Didn't even know he fucking existed until he got me out of a scrape in Cambrige. Still, he's decent... probably the most decent family I got, so I was thinkin', hey. I could afford to be a little sentimental. * Sonia chuckles weakly and says, "Worse things than family." Y'damn right. Like that thing we ran from. Or Trechcoat Guy and his Freak Brigade. * Sonia looks over her glasses at Montana a moment, then says, "Late enough your brain's not on, huh?" She tilts her neck slightly, then adds, "I didn't do near enough runnin' to call that runnin'." * Montana pinches the bridge of his nose. "Whatever, darlin'." He finishes off his glass and pours more rakia for himself. * Sonia takes her glasses off and points one of the prongs around the room. "If it weren't for the Sebastian boy cutting robots in half, they wouldn't be much freakier than this bunch of mercs." Well, and the guy who got all pumped full of whatever that was. * Sonia makes a 'guhing' noise and says, "I ain't even original parts and that was ugly." 's mostly what I was thinking about. * Sonia ruins Montana's card game by starting to scoop the cards up. "You weren't winning this one anyway." She sighs slightly, then says, "Don't even know what the directions are here." * Montana frowns, then starts helping Sonia clear the table. "Whadaya mean?" What do we do next? No phones, no contacts, couldn't even start a car. Yeah. No idea where Alysha is, neither. Bettin' our best bet is to hoof it if we don't have a better clue in the morning. Clear some distance and hopefully we'll at least get away from whatever's got the town. * Sonia glances over at her suitcase a moment, then nods slightly. "Guess so. This happens two times, though, we won't have a bar to stop in." Not much of a choice. * Sonia frowns and mutters, "I like it when being spontaneous is a little more fun." You and me, darlin'. You up for taking watch? * Sonia nods slightly and says. "Yeah, go catch 40 if you need it." * Montana nods, setting the stack of cards he gathered neatly piled for Sonia. "Holler if ya need me." And he heads off towards the back. * Sonia smashes the two piles together in front of her and says, "Yeah, I'll make sure you hear it, boy." * Montana doesn't respond to that. Too busy trying to make himself comfortable on the floor. * Sonia half-smiles to herself, then starts building a house of cards out of the deck. (End?) [End!]