4th Floor Common Room [Saturday, Late Morning]

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Angela was up, once again comparatively early for a weekend. She'd got an good long night of sleep, so it was only after she listened to the radio podcast she realised she'd missed an all out corridor make out session last night. That was just sad.

So sad, that she was microwaving popcorn and half-watching a Gelmoore Gals rerun. Yes, popcorn for breakfast. Sort of. Whatever, it smelt great, and with any luck it would taste that too.

It was a weekend, popcorn brunch was entirely acceptable.

And, yeah okay, she wasn't that sad, really. It was a weekend.

[[Open common room is all open. I don't want to have to do work today.]]

Comments

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"It's not like I do it like this all the time," Angela allowed. "Variation is a good thing."

"What would you normally be doing?" she asked.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Well, back home weekends tend to be pretty busy. We do a lot of work when everyone else has time off."

That was, after all, when most subversive groups met.

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Angela paused, her mind going back over a conversation with Amber over what exactly Triela did... She decided, probably wisely, not to go there.

"Where's home for you, anyway?" she asked.

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"Rome." Triela's tone was a bit weird. Torn between a sort of fondness and deep-seated aggravation.

Home was complicated.

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The tone was noted, with a little nod. "I think I went there once," she offered. "But that was when I was really young. I honestly don't remember much."

Angela's theory, was always that if you offer a little yourself, you were more likely to get something back. Subtlety sometimes went a long way.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"It's a pretty place," Triela nodded. "The girls are there, and if I leave them alone for too long they tend to get into trouble. Especially 'Etta."

Her slight smile sank a bit. "And then there's Hilshire." Who she hated. Or loved. Family was hard.

[flashesforinfo.livejournal.com]

And her subtle psychological approach paid off. Angela had to quirk a little bit of a smile at that.

"Hilshire?" she asked after a moment. Unusual name, that one.

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Normally Triela would pick up on that quirk, but she was too busy thinking about Hilshire. "He's my handler." She said it in a tone that suggested that should explain everything.

Even if it didn't, really.

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Knowing what she knew from Amber, that made a sort of sense. Not a lot. But some.

"Right," she said after a moment. "And that really means, what?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"It's complicated," Triela decided after a moment of silence. "He's... in charge. And stuff..."

Triela didn't really know how to explain the complexities of their relationship. Part big brother, part father figure, part partner, part teacher, part mentor... There were a lot of parts.

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That explanation helped clarify things... well, not at all really.

"So, like... a boss?" Angela tried. "But, I guess there's a bit more to it than that." It wasn't the sort of relationship she really knew a whole lot about.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes. I mean," Triela frowned, it wasn't something that was easy to think about. For a lot of reasons. "When we're on missions he's in charge. And the Agency doesn't like sending us out without our handlers."

"In theory he's also supposed to teach me how to do my job, but," she scowled, "I don't need help with that." Triela didn't have much in the way of doubt when it came to her ability to do her job well.

[flashesforinfo.livejournal.com]

Missions and agencies and handlers weren't honestly something Angela was used to thinking about on a day to day basis. Even knowing that for people around here, it was, didn't stop it seeming very strange to her.

"And I thought normal relationships were complicated," she said after a moment.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"They are," Triela snorted, shaking off her odd mood. "The conditioning only makes them more so."

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"Co--" Angela paused mid-word. "Do I want to ask?"

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"Most people regret doing it," Triela admitted with a shrug. It wasn't a topic she had problems with, but a lot of people clearly did.

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Angela considered a moment, if she wanted to stick with her blissful ignorance.

"Even people around here?" she asked. "Because they're normally pretty accepting of everything.

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"Even people around here," Triela confirmed. "I think it's more... disconcerting than weird."

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"Try me," Angela decided after a moment. She'd heard 'trained killer', and you didn't really get a whole lot more disconcerting than that... Right?

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Triela shrugged. Fair enough.

"The Agency, pretty rationally if you think about it, isn't too excited about the idea of cybernetically enhanced teenagers with combat training just wandering around. So they came up with a pretty complex cocktail of drugs and social conditioning in order to keep us in line."

"We literally have to obey orders. And even suggestions are hard to resist."

[flashesforinfo.livejournal.com]

"And taking away your free will is how they deal with that--" Angela said carefully. There was a little frown, even if she tried not to show that.

That was definitely... yeah, 'disconcerting' about covered it. "That doesn't seem ethical to me." Trying to keep her response mild, here.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"It's not..." Triela frowned, trying to figure out how to put it. "It's not that bad? I mean... sometimes it's annoying, sure, but we all get along fine. Most of us are... happy. I guess." It was even true. And some of the girls were far more than happy.

Part of the whole package was not being able to get upset over it.

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"I guess it depends what you're used to," Angela allowed. "But... I can understand how people find the idea, well, a little creepy. I wouldn't want to not be able to refuse to do something if it came to it."

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"But there are plenty of things you can't refuse to do," Triela said. "Like, you can't really refuse to help your friends or whatever."

As if that were the same thing.

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"But there are also a whole of a lot of things you can, and would want to be able to say 'no thanks, not a chance in hell' to."