video;

[brotimaeus]

This slime is becomin' a fuckin' inconvenience.

[As if illustrating his point - by not really doing so at all - Richard flicks a shuriken over one shoulder and sends it to the other side of the room where it embeds itself into the wall, quivering. A few marks on the paint nearby might show, to the well-trained eye, that a few of the same have already been stuck there and subsequently melted down the wall the following day.

Richard doesn't look particularly impressed.]

And people are getting echoes from it, yeah? I can't be that unlucky.

[He slips a thumb and forefinger up along the bridge of his nose to pinch it, lifting his shades up slightly.]

Tony, check your goddamn pockets when you're comin' back in here, there's enough of this stuff hanging around the house already.

[A beat.]

And bring a box.

Comments

Voice

[brotimaeus]

Great, great... Funny how that's not comforting.

Same goes for you too, kid. If you're comin' here, don't bring any of that shit in with you.

Voice

[solvethepuzzle]

No, it isn't. Anything that acts as a trigger for all of us is a concern.

I'll do my best to ensure I don't have any with me. [He's not even keeping any of the slime-turned-toys in his house. Which says something given his fixation on those kinds of objects.]

Voice

[brotimaeus]

True that. Don't think anyone's gonna see it any differently.

[Then he nods, letting out a soft, huffing exhale that sounds like it's trying to be a laugh.]

Thanks, kid. Don't let me put you off.

Voice

[solvethepuzzle]

There hasn't been any such thing like that since the war, to my recollection. [It makes him worry that something new is brewing. Then again, Nathan does have a tendency to worry too much.]

I am not put off. I try to keep as much of it as I can out of my own house, as well. I've separated everything I know to have been slime.

Voice

[brotimaeus]

Yeah, that's what has me on edge.

[Normally, people wouldn't get a confession like that out of him but Nate was practically family. Richard had become more guarded in recent months, to the point where even he noticed it.]

Haven't had that kind of luxury. Didn't catch on quick enough. Now I'm just diggin' pointy shit out of it before it turns back into more pointy shit.

Voice

[solvethepuzzle]

We need to find out more about it. [Nathan can't really fault anyone for being guarded. Goodness knows that's how he has survived basically his entire life, the only way he knows how to protect himself.]

So all of it that you have touched has turned into weapons?

Voice

[brotimaeus]

No kidding. You know any good scientists?

[Because Richard doesn't, and they lost a lot of their best off the network before the invasion even started. God knows where any of them might be now.]

Ehh.. most of it. Rather not talk about what else it turned into.