** Taki Wars, Episode 12. Nick been stuck in the Zen Room at DISC HQ for ... several days. He thinks? It's hard to tell exactly. Nina's been keeping him company on and off, but he hasn't been allowed out. At least not yet. Speaking of Nina... the door opens, and she comes through, in the actual DISC uniform- complete, no revealing tears, burns, lack of buttons... It's Febuary 19th, 2005. ** Start. * Nina looks serious. And annoyed. * Nick is sprawled out on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. "Yeah?" Oh, just the same ole' same ole paperwork bullshit on my side. * Nina shuts the door. "How are you? Gone crazy yet?" I'm not sleeping anymore. * Nina snorts. "It'd be nice to see SOMEONE crack for once." * Nick doesn't look over, and his face doesn't change expression. "I fall asleep for an hour, maybe two. And then I'm totally fine when I wake up." * Nina sits down on the sprawled out Nick, and wiggles her but a little. Just a little. She winks at him. But, ya'know. They're finally gonna decide what to do with you. * Nick grins slightly. "'They'?" * Nina shifts back to her annoyed expression. "Of course, you're still not allowed out at all to have a say in it." * Nina swats at the air. "They. The Chief, and the heads of the various departments." * Nick nods, resting his head on his hands. "Alright. Got a good guess?" Well, let's see. You're ... you. One of many yous. That makes you potentially very dangerous. Hah! That's a good one. You also know about the whole dimension thing. That also makes you dangerous. There's no telling if and how you'll abuse that knowledge if he just plain cut you loose. * Nick taps his chin. "Yeah, I could tell everyone. It'd take them maybe five seconds to put me in a nice restrictive jacket in a room with 360-degree padding." * Nina shrugs vaguely. "Not that most people would beleive you..." But there's ways to use that kind of knowledge, and to make our jobs a living hell. Anything else? * Nina turns to face Nick, and poinks him on the nose with a finger. "I didn't tell you this, but in most dimensions, if NASA was convinced just enough that this was possible, they've got most of the research and information and technology to utilize it." There's some guy who's pretty consistently a genius in North Korea who could do it, too. *she slides the finger down from his nose, and lets it sit on his lips fo a second, making a 'shhh' sound.* * Nick nods, raising his eyebrows suggestively just a little when she touches his mouth. "What about my insomnia? Got anything for that?" * Nina slides her finger into his mouth- and then pulls it out, grinning mischeviously. "Ideas for some really good dreams, maybe?" Oh, that's too cruel. * Nina stands up. She mock-pouts. "Oh, that's just too bad." But, you know, there's a reason for all this. They want me docile? I'd really love to *her gaze wanders downwards from his face* ... put you to the test, but I've got a meeting to attend. Your future is going to be decided there, and I really should be there. * Nick snorts, returning his eyes to the ceiling. "Better get to it, then." * Nina raises her eyebrows. "Perhaps I will. But... maybe you should too." She winks, and turns to the door. She struts, slowly, all the way there, opens it up, and then almost closes it- leaving it open a crack. * Nick takes a moment to silently thank whatever omnipotent powers are out there and actually leaps into a standing position, carefully heading towards the door. The door doesn't shut. It stays right where it is, just begging to be clicked fully shut. * Nick callously ignores the door's pleas and pulls the damn thing open. Beyond the door... is a hallway! ... a long hallway. There's lot of doors and splits visible just from where you are. * Nina is still in view- she turns a corner a few moments after the door is opened. * Nick ogles for a split second before glancing around and walking down the corridor, attempting to be inconspicuous but not conspicuous in his inconspicuousness. The hallways are dim and empty, at least here. * Nick grins to himself and checks the doorways and splits as he goes down, looking for a promising escape route or anything interesting at all. There's other similarly adorned rooms to the Zen Room. There's different flavors of ethnicity around. A few won't open, though- they're locked. * Nick doesn't waste time on the locked doors, continuing on his way down the hall. He won't turn the corner after Nina until every option is exhausted, though. There's lot of corners besides the one Nina took. After a little bit, Nick realizes it's so far a plain, unoriginal grid layout, with each block seeming to consist of 5 doors on each side. * Nick takes a moment to mentally flip off the designers of this place. * Nick takes a right turn where Nina turned left, attempting to head in the opposite direction. Nick sees more hallways! The hallway is better lit- still empty, mind you- and the door pattern is a little different- there's 5 doors on one side, and only 2 on the other. On the more prolific side, one of the doors is wide open. * Nick does the absolute smartest thing and heads right for the open door. Nick finds... an office! A messy one- he nearly slips on a coffee stain right at the entrance. The desk is cluttered- 3 seperate piles of papers, each at least 3 feet high. There's a lava lamp accompanying them. Of notable interest, though, is the discarded bra hanging off on of the chairs. It's satin, and it's black. Gosh, I wonder who works he-- oooh. * Nick looks around for some kind of brightly-colored marker or highlighter. (Or however that word is spelled.) There's a closet door that's not-quite-closed against the wall, too. There's a mess of markers, pens, highlighters, and pencils on the desk- most of them have lost their caps and dried out, but he does get lucky with the purple highlighter. * Nick takes the purple marker, idly peeking inside the closet. Inside the closet is just as much of a mess as the office proper. Rather than store anything useful, though, it's got clothes. Lots of them. Womens clothes. In fact... ... he's dead sure he recognizes the most recent outfit strewn on top- Nina was wearing the time before she stopped by to visit. * Nick grins very slowly and uncaps the purple marker before scribbling something on the discarded bra. * Nick steps back at a moment, looking proudly at the large and surprisingly-clean smiley faces, one on each cup. * Nick then tosses the marker aside and goes back out into the hallway. ... just in time to bump into somone. He's bigger, brawnier, and he's got really messy hair. The black hair matches the high-tech looking body armor great. * Nina is now known as Guy * Nick goes stumbling backwards, hits the coffee puddle, and actually manages to backflip entirely before landing on his face. "..Goddammit." * Guy has a thick southern accent. "Ya know... it's rude to barge into someone's home uninvited." * Guy purses his lips for a moment, and looks up. "... not that she's too picky about her company." His gaze settled back to Nick. You tha kid she's babying? Nick? * Nick stands up, wiping the coffee off his face. "Babying. *Nice*. Her words?" * Guy shrugs. "Her an' me don't share much vocabulary 'side the common ground every'un does." * Guy scratches his head. "I'm sure she meant for ya to follah her. She's stubb'rn 'bout stuff like that." Uh.. huh. * Guy waits for Nick to get up, and quiets down. His gaze glances to the happy bra. * Nick tries to keep a straight face and doesn't fail entirely. Ah reckon that's yer work. I thought I'd brighten her day a little. * Guy cracks a grin, and extends a helping hand. "Guy. Nina's partner." * Nick takes his hand and gets up fully. "Nick Anderson. Nina's prisoner." * Guy shakes his head. "Naw. Not prisoner. Pet." My self-esteem just went through the roof, man. * Guy chuckles. "Ah suspect that's not the only thing that goes through the roof. So, what're ya doin' 'round here? Nina letcha out fer a reason, but yer not actin' 'cordin to her plans." * Nick scratches his chin. "Well, as much as I know she'd like me to stick around and do whatever it is she's seducing me for, I want out. Like, out out." * Guy closes his eyes for a moment, thinking. "Ah. There's one way fer that to happen. Well, one good way. C'mon." * Guy starts walking, heading west, making sure Nick is following. * Nick follows, occasionally looking down at the coffee splash on his shirt with a frown. * Guy leads. He cuts north once, then west, south.... after about 10 minutes of walking, he stops at a door like any other door, and stands in front of it. Well, here's yer way out. *he waves a hand over the door* * Nick walks forward and opens the door. "This is going to be embarrassing or painful or both, I know it." As the door opens... * Guy helps Nick through, with a nice, gentle shove. The door closes behind him. The room looks like a meeting room- coffee machine, donuts, and people! Gathered around a table! One of which is Nina. There's some others gathered around, and they all look rather serious- and then they all collectively look at Nic as he enters, aside from Nina. * Nina doesn't face Nick, but she's obviously addressing him. "Well, it's about TIME." I took a detour. You'll see later. * Nick tries not to flush too much. * Nina waves Nick off and turns to the others, now. "So, what about it? Ask him. Give him a fucking CHOICE! He's right here." * Chief is probably the Chief- he's got an Aura of Importance. He's also black, and is chewing on a cornpipe. "... you've forced our hands, Nina. You know what it'll cost you. We'll discuss it later, though." He pauses, and looks at Nick with an even gaze. "Let's deal with the issue you've forced, perhaps." So. It's been decided you were going to have your memory wiped, and inserted into a dimension with no current capability to develop dimeniosnal travel capability, under close observation. Nina, however, has decided tt force our hands and ask you as question. I'm liking this option more. You are dangerous. You have knowledge of dimensions, and you are dangerous for reasons not of your own. These plots indicate that you are a pawn of some sort, that will quickly become out of control. *he pauses* Considering who's supposedly behind them. We can do two things with you. Imprison you in some form or another, or recruit you. * Nina hmphs and crosses her arms. * Nick clenches his fists at the mention of the word 'imprison'. Understand that if you do join DISC, you will be placed under strict care, and have to follow all our rules to the letter. If you mess up even once... *he slides a finger across his throat* Choose. ..Fine. I'll join you. * Chief looks less than pleased. * Nina barks out a laugh. * Chief snaps his fingers, and shortly, Nick's escorted out. Before he goes out of earshot, though... Nina, your conduct has been unbecoming of a DISC Officer for some time now. I beleive the time has come to do something about that... End.