Sighing, Derrik grabbed another water bottle, and walked back to the group.
"Well... this is akward... Howabout we talk about something less dreadful?"

"Not a bad piece. Kinda reminds me of Mr. Davis's designs." She sighed. "I was really looking forward to that blacksmith apprenticeship too."
"If there was a half decent smithy in this facility, I'd likely give you a few pointers on it, but sadly, that isn't the case." He turned back to the large man as he rumbled, "And I do hope you trust me here,that I will try to make sure with my life, so be it, that as many people as possible make it out."
"I completely expect you to. It isn't as if I want to kill you. I happen to be almost enjoying our conversation here. But it isn't as if I have any choice in the matter."
"I understand, as long as you understand that it's nothing personal that when the time comes, myself and others will happily rip your throat out to escape."
"I fully understand. It's human nature to do whatever we can to survive. Why do you think I do this, even when I would prefer not to?"

(indeed)

"Well, I don't know this for sure, but I think i remember one of the doctors...Helen, I think it was, trying to convince the boss to let her keep the kid over there as a lab assistant. But everyone else is a dead man walking. But surely you had realized that much by now? Why would we release you all into the rest of the world again, now that you can change shape? Now that you have your powers? No, you're far too dangerous. What if, for instance, you knew where this was? With you testimony, the Government would likely nuke this place before we knew anything about it. We can't risk that. It's nothing personal, you understand."

Ethan, had picked up his coffee again and was taking a large gulp when Alix finished his sentence, and had to throw his face into his shoulder as he came close to bursting out laughing. When he regained control of himself he swallowed, and wiped the coffee that had come out of his nose off of his lip, and said, "Ha! The government wouldn't believe us if we changed right in front of 'em. All they are is a bunch of monkeys in suits. They can't halfway tell a telephone from a banana!"

Heather smiled at Alix, somewhere between understanding and predatory. "It really is a lovely piece of steel. I'd like to get a good quality sword of my own someday. I've always been fond of broadswords, though longswords aren't too bad. Claymores are just a bit too unwieldy at my size."

Whistling Jethro Tull's Broadsword, she went to the fridge to get a glass of juice.

Damien was debating whether or not to throw his root beer into the swordsman's face, bottle and all, but those words made him stay his hand.

"You don't want to do this?" he asked. "Then why do you? What are they holding over you?"

(But its best when you get ninjad!)
"I completely expect you to. It isn't as if I want to kill you. I happen to be almost enjoying our conversation here. But it isn't as if I have any choice in the matter." The sword man said.
To which Derrik replied,
"And thats what makes me feel worse. Thats why I couldn't lead."
"Well, I don't know this for sure, but I think i remember one of the doctors...Helen, I think it was, trying to convince the boss to let her keep the kid over there as a lab assistant. But everyone else is a dead man walking. But surely you had realized that much by now? Why would we release you all into the rest of the world again, now that you can change shape? Now that you have your powers? No, you're far too dangerous. What if, for instance, you knew where this was? With you testimony, the Government would likely nuke this place before we knew anything about it. We can't risk that. It's nothing personal, you understand." The sword man spouted out, which relieved Derrik slightly.
*I'll have to find this Helen, and try to help her.*
"Ha! The government wouldn't believe us if we changed right in front of 'em. All they are is a bunch of monkeys in suits. They can't halfway tell a telephone from a banana!" The anime man laughed out.
All Derrik could do was laugh and say,
"Speaking of which, who knows what they can change into? I've only seen a few."

"You're not just a swordie... Your a bloody merc aren't you!"

Noticing everyone was abuzz with this, Derrik said to the sword man,
"Look, either you have no morals, which is next to unlikly, or that whoever is running this, has you in between a rock and a hard place, cause it seems like you would not allow yourself to be in this position to easily. Now if you guys and girls will excuse me, I gotta go do something."
Derrik got up and walked away.

((I was hoping someone was going to spot that! Thank you))

"You don't want to do this?" the guy with the root beer bottle asked. "Then why do you? What are they holding over you?"

"My life. Simply put, I am dangerous. Too dangerous, for McFarland's liking. While I was out under a modified version of the same serum you all were given, he decided to play with my brain a little bit. Decided that he wanted to make sure I did as I was told. There's a little chip in my brain now, ready to kill me at the push of a button. McFarland's button, to be exact." He finished bitterly, tearing the rest of the Snickers out of his hand and gnawing on it. "Now, I have no choice but to obey. Obey, or die. As for your question, Lee. I am neither. I was raised in a military compound in the Nevada Desert. From birth I was trained to be a soldier. I was recently...evicted by some of the other soldiers I had grown up with."

((This is my last one for the night guys. It's 3:30 in the morning and I can't stay awake much longer.))

Ethan watched Derrik walk out the door, and without another look at Alix, he went over to the fridge, got out a coke and a bit of raw steak from the freezer and walked to the door, saying, "I'm going to find the wolf-girl. Catch ya'll later."

Heather raised an eyebrow. "I'm guessing then that should the kill chip be nullified, McFarland isn't high on your list of loyalties?

((Didn't realize the time, I'm gonna pack it in too, night everyone))

"I'm guessing then that should the kill chip be nullified, McFarland isn't high on your list of loyalties?"
"Oh, he'd be high on a list alright. But not one he would particularly like to be on." As Alix watched two of the men dart out the door, he turned back towards the shorty. "At any rate, you heard me out. It's more than what some others have done."

((It's getting time for sleep for me too. But the fact that we had so many people say 'I hadn't realized the time...' Is always good, right??))

((PS - Thanks for putting up with my super moodkiller there. It was one of those IC posts that you don't want to post, but is utterly true to your character.))

(Sure, when it only happens ONCE. But being ninja'd while editing a post to compensate for being ninja'd, just gets really old really fast. Particularly when you can't organize your thoughts that quickly in the first place.)

"My life. Simply put, I am dangerous. Too dangerous, for McFarland's liking. While I was out under a modified version of the same serum you all were given, he decided to play with my brain a little bit. Decided that he wanted to make sure I did as I was told. There's a little chip in my brain now, ready to kill me at the push of a button. McFarland's button, to be exact." He finished bitterly, tearing the rest of the Snickers out of his hand and gnawing on it. "Now, I have no choice but to obey. Obey, or die."

"Good lord and butter." Of all the things Damien might have heard, he'd never expected that. An instinctive hand went to his own skull as he recalled the headaches he'd suffered, and wondered if a chip like that was the cause of them. "Do you know if any others have those chips in them?"

Reain, out exploring the complex stumbles upon the rec room, seeing several people already relaxing he decided to go and grab a quick snack. Opening the fridge with his paw was a pain but the bounty of mountain dew inside was well worth it. curling up on one of the blankets on the floor Reain realizes he can't open the soda. He meows "can someone open this for me, lack of opposable thumbs is a real pain."

PS. yes I know no one should be able to understand me but I figured for this kind of light hearted thing it might be okay.
PSS. I'm going to bed for now, so I won't respond till morning.

((Okay, guys, seriously. I know this is fun. But when people are posting once every ten or fifteen minutes, and there's ninja'ing all over the place, it's WAY out of hand. I started the thread, I'm imposing a new rule, for now: limit yourselves to one post per hour, please. For everyone else's sanity ^.^''))

(re Raukk: Everyone is IC for the thread still, so no, Reain can't be understood, literally at least. Though a puma chattering longingly with a can of soda in its paws probably will get its point across.)

Before the coke guy could answer his question, the girl from the cage next to his called out brightly
"Hey! It's cheetah-guy!" She took a seat nearby and began peeling the orange she had picked up.
"Well, hello to you, too," Caden said with a bit of a chuckle.
Listening with just half an ear, Caden heard other conversation(s) touch on swords, wolves, Alphas, and superheros. The eclectic mix intrigued him a bit, but not enough to draw him away from the quiet(er) crowd around him at the moment.
Some yowling caught his attention, and Caden turned around to see a mountain lion lounging on a blanket on the floor with an unopened can of Mountain Dew between its paws. How did it...? Well, I guess a refrigerator isn't that hard to open, but still, that's quite impressive if it got the soda all by itself. It sounded a bit frustrated at the moment, though, yowling and apparently trying to make eye contact with people.
"Having trouble with the can, there?" Caden asked. Wait, am I talking straight to a mountain lion? Eh, oh well, weird stuff happens here. "Why don't you poke a hole in the top, then you can hold it in your mouth and tip it back to drink."

((Wow, this… exploded o_o))

“Oh? Is it a bad thing to be one of us?” Caleb raised an eyebrow and would have responded if the guy hadn’t simply walked away at that point. Apparently he wasn’t TOO upset with the comment. Hah.

“Yeah,” Caleb said to the guy on the couch, drinking his cola, “I can transform.”

Caleb watched the other people, and in some cases, enter the room and start chatting. The little girl from next to him in the cell room tried her best to sneak some coffee, but the big guy from the couch went to help her. Cool. He took a drink of his soda, happy not to have to get up right away. Even though…

He glanced at the clock on the opposite wall and cringed, tilting his head back to drain the can.

“Sorry, man,” Caleb said to the guy he had been trying to talk to, “I gotta get going.” He crushed the can in his hand and stood up.

“See you out there!”

Tossing the empty, dented can in the garbage, Caleb waved as he hurried from the room.

((See you all in a week~!))

She seemed to creep through the hallway as she approached the room eminating voices. She knew it was the rec room, though her anxieties tugged at her, she hopped there wasn't too big a crowd since it still unnerved her, she'd never been good with people and thoughts of embarrasing herself usually accompanied her fears. She drew a breath and walked calmly and quietly towards the fridge, sure nobody would notice her or be too bothered if she didn't announce herself immediately, they sounded like they were deep into conversation anyway.

Ramaging through the fridge she settled on a can of lemonade, not particularly her favourite but she settled for some simple zingy fizz. Spotting a space on a free couch she strode over, slowly sinking into it, enjoying the sensation of her stresses easing away.

((Late to the party, but ah well.))

Joanne tiptoed into the room as quietly as she could. Leave it to her to get spectacularly lost trying to get to the coffee room. She used to joke with her mother a long time ago that she had the navigational talent of a dead pidgeon.
Well. It was true. Even if she had a map and people to ask for directions, she could end up miles away from where she was supposed to go. Today had just marked a new low, ending up in the exact opposite part of the building from the coffee room.

Sighing to herself at her own klutziness, Joanne got a mug from a cupboard, walked to the electric kettle and poured herself some water, looking for some teabags somewhere. A brief search through the cupboards earned her a few bags of forest fruit-tea and she put one of them into the hot water. Satisfied with the results of her quest for tea, she walked to one of the couches and sat down next to a girl she instinctively recognised as the lynx that had been in one of the cages close to her, listening for the general gist of the conversation.

Sipping away at her lemonade in a daydream she was awoken by a woman sitting next to her, with a mug of tea in tow. Her blonde hair pooling around her shoulders and back Cass couldn't help but stare. Her face seemed perfect too, a gently curved chin, beautiful cheek bones and interesting looking eyes she vaguely recognised her. Turning her body to face this woman she began with "Hey, you're the woman next to the 'lion-girl' aren't you? How's it going?" she asked warmly. It was good to see someone she recognised, well even if vaguely it was still nice to see a friendly face.

“Yeah, I can transform,” coke guy responded, drinking some more and looking around. Something caught his attention, though, and he chugged the rest of his soda.
"Sorry man, I gotta get going," he said as he stood up suddenly, "See you out there!"
His quick departure caught Caden off guard; he was already basically out the door before Caden could manage a surprised "Oh, yeah, see you - ...out there?"
"Well, that was... different," he said to no-one in particular after a moment. He then shook his head and relaxed again, bringing himself back into awareness of the room. Two more women, a teen and someone roughly Caden's age, had entered and were sitting on another couch. The older woman was very pretty, he noticed. Not that he was interested; thoughts of Sandy popped into his head again. He closed his eyes with a bit of a frown; he tried telling himself that she was the type to keep her head on straight, but he couldn't help but worry. Or, wait - did she even know he hadn't made it to the conference, which was still supposed to be going on at the moment?