hadal-hideout

[hadal-hideout]

"How did you two meet? Do you have a general idea of where she could be? Or at least an estimation of how long ago it was that you saw her?"

His foot tapped impatiently against the floor as he waited for her to be done thinking, before he switched to tapping his finger on his leg to try to seem less obvious. If she had seen Claire recently, then that must mean that she was imprisoned down here very recently then, right? But then why was she already having trouble telling how many days had passed? Regardless, he needed the information she had, unfortunately he had a feeling he'd have to give up some information as well to ease her into talking more.

"You likely weren't aware of it because she didn't have one until recently."

That was all he was going to say on the topic without further pressing from her. His eyes narrowed slightly as she leaned against the wall, seeing it as a threat. He didn't comment on it, instead painting on a fake smile to try to seem more stable. He felt embarrassed for a brief moment– he wasn't usually this.. open about how he actually felt, but it seemed like the usual mask he maintained on a daily basis had cracked. So instead he slipped on a different mask– the one he wore when dealing with potential sponsors.

"Oh, of course. You can call me.. Silber, I'm Claire's father. I can understand your hesitation though, I'm sure there's plenty of people down here where it'd be best not to share information like that to them. Your name is..?"

He startled slightly at the machine's stutter, noticing how quickly she was able to make it stop. How often did it do things like that? His dad's had hardly made any noise besides what he typed, though occasionally it malfunctioned for a couple hours until Silber fixed it for him. Maybe if he offered to fix it, she'd be less hostile?

"You seem pretty used to it doing things like that. I have a degree in engineering, if you'd like I might be able to look around in it and see if I could fix it for you in exchange for some answers, if you'd like?"

624 was resting in her area of Sebastian's shop, when Silber crawled into the room, asking Sebastian about the information he needed before he was even fully out of the vent.

He didn't notice 624 once he was fully out, seemingly only focused on finding out whether Sebastian had the information about Claire yet or not.

- @hadal-hideout

[Lmao I don't know what I'm doing, hope this is good enough though]

624 lazily sat on the top of the area above the shops as she listened to the conversation. Sebastian couldn't even get a usual greeting out. At least this guy knew what he wanted, yeah?

However, as he exited the vent finally, she realized this wasn't any usual expendable. Between the otter features and the.. Silverfish? Maybe? She couldn't shake the feeling something was off. And she was correct.

Upon the mention of Claire, her gaze became fixated on him (more so than it already was), and she cut her eyes over to Sebastian every once in a while. (Could he take the hint? Probably not.)

She wasn't sure if Sebastian actually knew what she knew or even more.. Anything at all? Regardless, she decided early on that she would get involved.

[hadal-hideout]

He initially shrugs off what he hears from inside Sebastian's shop, even though he doesn't hear anyone responding, he's not really surprised at the thought of Sebastian talking to himself. After all, the idea of someone who's stuck down here talking to himself is so common that he's started expecting it.

He was not, however, expecting the women to crawl out behind him. Was she the person he felt watching him? How long has she been in that shop? Who even was she?

He looks back at her, wondering what she wants. She doesn't seem like the average expendable, but then again, neither was he. He looked down at her tts device, recognizing it immediately. His Dad used something like that– though somehow, hers looked older than his was.

He took a step towards her as he realized she was talking about Claire, his hand fidgeting with something in his pocket as he questioned her. He wondered momentarily if she was lying– but what reason did she have to lie? She could've stayed hidden in the shop, and if she needed something from outside she could've just walked past him. So if she wasn't lying, where did she get the information on Claire? Was Sebastian lying when he said he hadn't found her file?

"You know Claire? Where is she? How long has it been since you've seen her? How do you know how she's doing? Do you have her file? Where is she?"

He realized a bit too late just how frantic he sounded, silently scolding himself. He knew better than to show how desperate he was– but this was the first bit of information he got about Claire in a couple months. He assumed she was with her mother, but that didn't tell him anything about how she was doing or how she was adjusting to normal life again, and he needed to know.

624 was resting in her area of Sebastian's shop, when Silber crawled into the room, asking Sebastian about the information he needed before he was even fully out of the vent.

He didn't notice 624 once he was fully out, seemingly only focused on finding out whether Sebastian had the information about Claire yet or not.

- @hadal-hideout

[Lmao I don't know what I'm doing, hope this is good enough though]

624 lazily sat on the top of the area above the shops as she listened to the conversation. Sebastian couldn't even get a usual greeting out. At least this guy knew what he wanted, yeah?

However, as he exited the vent finally, she realized this wasn't any usual expendable. Between the otter features and the.. Silverfish? Maybe? She couldn't shake the feeling something was off. And she was correct.

Upon the mention of Claire, her gaze became fixated on him (more so than it already was), and she cut her eyes over to Sebastian every once in a while. (Could he take the hint? Probably not.)

She wasn't sure if Sebastian actually knew what she knew or even more.. Anything at all? Regardless, she decided early on that she would get involved.

[hadal-hideout]

She stays silent for a couple minutes, thinking about what she said. It was clear that she was far too trusting of other people, but.. Something didn't make sense. 624 was clearly older than her, and as of such shouldn't she be more distrustful than Claire is? Her Mom always said– Ah. There's the problem. Why did she even bother retaining anything that woman said? Though, just because she was a bitch doesn't mean she wasn't right about some things. Most people couldn't be trusted– she learned this first hand, after all. Her mother was more distrustful than she was because she was older and had experienced more of the world; that made sense– that was just how the world worked. But 624 was an outlier to that; Despite being old enough to have experienced the world, she was still able to trust people. Why? Was she just an outlier, or was that how things actually worked?

She shook her head slightly to get her thoughts in order. She couldn't afford to spiral about this right now– 624 was probably waiting for a response by now, and she had more questions to ask. She managed to contain her thoughts and feelings for the most part, but 624 could tell something changed. Her tone was much less energetic, and while her questions were still extremely paranoid, it seemed like she was asking them out of familiarity rather than genuine curiosity or to try to accuse that Sebastian was doing anything.

"What do you mean by 'behaving'? What happens if you don't behave? Your deal sounds good, sure, but a deal like that sounds too good to be true. You get protection, a place to stay, and I'd assume food in exchange for a couple savaged items and good behavior? What's the catch?"

Unfortunately for her, asking more questions did not distract her thoughts for nearly as long as she wanted it to. She really needed to find a better distraction, but maybe if she asked enough questions and learned enough information, her head wouldn't have enough room anymore to do this sort of unnecessary thing. Until then, she'd just have to deal with it. Sure, she didn't really know how, but she'd been living– ..She had been around long enough to at least have some ideas.

...She was never going to get used to that, would she? At least her body was still somewhat humanoid, most of the anomalies down here didn't have that. Granted, most of the other anomalies were still alive, but still. At least she had some sort of choice about whether she wanted to be physical or not each morning.

She pulled herself out of her thoughts as she heard 624's machine start talking again. She tensed up slightly as she heard the first sentence, her ear fins flicking downwards as she looked away from her.

"Oh– I'm sorry.. I didn't mean to... Um, anyways, why don't you know your exact age? And it's not that bad down here, I mean it's not great, but it's not a horrible place to end up."

Was that all she was gonna ask? She felt slightly embarrassed that 624 had to ask for something like that, seeing as she should've introduced herself when they first met.. But if she had done that then she might've been able to ask a more risky question, such as the second question she asked. She wasn't entirely sure what she meant by the question, but if she was asking what Claire thought she was, then she doubted she'd enjoy hearing about it. Maybe if she just acknowledged the question but didn't answer it, she wouldn't notice?

She automatically started to give out her full name, before her paranoia kicked back in and she realized that giving a stranger her full last name would be a horribly risky idea. Unfortunately she had already started saying her middle name.. Maybe she could just leave it like that? Most people didn't introduce themselves with all 3 of their names, so it shouldn't be too noticeable if she stops after that.

"Claire... Rose. My name is Claire Rose, you can call me Claire. And for the record, I was not running away from the expendable, I was just.. making a tactical retreat."

There was some rummaging that could be heard in one of the many rooms in the blacksite. An expendable sorted through the drawers as she had done numerous times before, however this time her motives were a bit different.

It had been slow in Sebastian's shop recently, and since she had taken up space there, she had decided to scrounge up some research for his sake.

Unfortunately, it seemed that almost every single room, drawer, locker, shelf, and desk had been looted. She let out an annoyed sigh.

She decided to take a break since she was getting tired after doing this for who knows how long. She leaned against a cold metal wall and slid down it to sit down.

- @exrp624-calisto

After several minutes of silence outside of the room, 624 could hear what sounded like shouting. It was accompanied by two pairs of footsteps quickly approaching the room 624 was in, along with what sounded like a child's laughter.

The noises quickly got closer, until a little girl ran into the room, crouching behind one of the desks while holding a small object close to her. She didn't seem to have noticed 624, as her attention was focused on the door.

The footsteps outside continued for a couple seconds before they slowly moved away, causing the girl to smile, tuck the object in her pocket, and look around the room. She quickly noticed 624, and her smile immediately dropped, her expression now filled with distrust, annoyance, and a small amount of fear.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?"

[hadal-hideout]

As he's talking to Sebastian, he can feel someone's eyes on him. He tries to ignore it at first, but a quick glance tells him that it's not Sebastian who's watching him. He looks back towards the vent, thinking that it might be another expendable, but there doesn't seem to be anyone there, or anywhere else in the room with him besides Sebastian.

He steps closer to the vent as Sebastian answers his questions, taking a final look around the room before waving goodbye to Sebastian and crawling into the vent. While he's slightly disappointed that Sebastian doesn't have the answer to the most important question of his, there's no reason to be impatient.

After all, there's always the chance that he finds her file down here before Sebastian does. That'd probably be the best circumstance, as he'd be able to get the information he needed without paying almost a thousand data. It's incredibly unlikely though, which is why it's important for him to stay on Sebastian's good side (along with the fact that in order to actually read the information, he needs to stay alive).

Once he's out of the vent and in the main room, he leans against the nearby wall to relax for a couple minutes before moving on.

624 was resting in her area of Sebastian's shop, when Silber crawled into the room, asking Sebastian about the information he needed before he was even fully out of the vent.

He didn't notice 624 once he was fully out, seemingly only focused on finding out whether Sebastian had the information about Claire yet or not.

- @hadal-hideout

[Lmao I don't know what I'm doing, hope this is good enough though]

624 lazily sat on the top of the area above the shops as she listened to the conversation. Sebastian couldn't even get a usual greeting out. At least this guy knew what he wanted, yeah?

However, as he exited the vent finally, she realized this wasn't any usual expendable. Between the otter features and the.. Silverfish? Maybe? She couldn't shake the feeling something was off. And she was correct.

Upon the mention of Claire, her gaze became fixated on him (more so than it already was), and she cut her eyes over to Sebastian every once in a while. (Could he take the hint? Probably not.)

She wasn't sure if Sebastian actually knew what she knew or even more.. Anything at all? Regardless, she decided early on that she would get involved.

[hadal-hideout]

She muttered to herself for a couple seconds, trying to remember what he referred to Urbanshade by, but she gave up pretty quickly, instead focusing on the new information. She was a little tempted to continue asking about the accident and for more information on Urbanshade, but 624 looked relieved that she wasn't pressing her on it, and she didn't really feel like ruining that right now.

"Oh, that's probably why I haven't seen it; I don't usually go past door 60. How far are we from Sebastian's shop? And how come you trust him so much? I mean, you've only been staying with him for a few months, right? Is that really enough time to trust someone? Especially someone who supposedly hasn't told you what he needs important documents for?"

There, maybe that'd be enough to see if she was lying or not. Of course, she could just ask her outright, but if she was lying, then there was no guarantee that she'd admit to it. Claire hated lying– regardless of whether she was doing it or whether she was the one being lied to. Though she didn't really believe that omitting information counted as lying (It was too vague, and therefore not reliable), 624 had explicitly not omitted information; she clearly said that she didn't know what he wanted for.

And sure, maybe she didn't actually know and Claire was just a bit more paranoid than the rational person, but she also claimed to trust him! Which was clearly impossible, because how could you trust someone who you don't know all the important things about? And why he collected research was clearly an important thing to know about, because she'd admitted that it was important to him.

So, clearly 624 was lying, the only question now was whether she would admit to it. Though there was a chance she was telling the truth, and Claire was just being paranoid.. But Claire had no reason to be paranoid! Sure, some of the expendables went a little mad after staying down here for too long (which, considering their life expectancies was usually a couple months), but that was just because they were at risk of dying all the time, and Claire didn't have to worry about that! There was no reason for this place to make her more paranoid, she was doing perfectly fine down here.

"Why do you hate it down here so much anyways? And how old are you now?"

She hesitated after hearing the deal, unsure of whether she wanted to agree or not. People didn't tend to ask as many questions as she did, so she wasn't used to having to answer questions about her, and she always said to tell people as little about herself as possible... But she was curious about what she was accused of, and her father always said that if she had nothing to hide, then she shouldn't mind answering any questions. And besides, if 624 was going through all this trouble to hide what she was accused of, then it's gotta be interesting, right?

"This is probably a bad idea but.. Fine. What's your question?"

There was some rummaging that could be heard in one of the many rooms in the blacksite. An expendable sorted through the drawers as she had done numerous times before, however this time her motives were a bit different.

It had been slow in Sebastian's shop recently, and since she had taken up space there, she had decided to scrounge up some research for his sake.

Unfortunately, it seemed that almost every single room, drawer, locker, shelf, and desk had been looted. She let out an annoyed sigh.

She decided to take a break since she was getting tired after doing this for who knows how long. She leaned against a cold metal wall and slid down it to sit down.

- @exrp624-calisto

After several minutes of silence outside of the room, 624 could hear what sounded like shouting. It was accompanied by two pairs of footsteps quickly approaching the room 624 was in, along with what sounded like a child's laughter.

The noises quickly got closer, until a little girl ran into the room, crouching behind one of the desks while holding a small object close to her. She didn't seem to have noticed 624, as her attention was focused on the door.

The footsteps outside continued for a couple seconds before they slowly moved away, causing the girl to smile, tuck the object in her pocket, and look around the room. She quickly noticed 624, and her smile immediately dropped, her expression now filled with distrust, annoyance, and a small amount of fear.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?"

[hadal-hideout]

Her tail flicked behind her in annoyance, noticing that 624 was holding back information. It made sense why, but it was still annoying being treated like she needed to be protected.

"Oh– Wait I think I do know them! My Dad talked about them a lot, but he never called it Urbanshade, so that's why I didn't recognize it."

She noticed fairly quickly this seemed to be a topic that 624 didn't seem to like talking about, but a couple more questions couldn't hurt, right?

"Vultus Limunaria..? I don't think I've seen it before. Where is it located? How long ago did it happen?"

She looked skeptical that there wasn't anything else going on regarding Sebastian, but she didn't really have reason or proof to not believe her, so she let it go. Then again, it's not like she ever needed proof to voice her suspicions.. Regardless, she had more interesting things to ask about.

"How come he's upset things are moving slowly? Wouldn't he like a break from dealing with whatever he deals with?"

Her curious demeanor changed the second she heard that the friend had died. Normally when in this situation she'd ask more questions about who died; what happened, how long ago, etcetera, but doing it now felt.. weird. She didn't know why– she's asked questions about this in the past, so why did it feel so wrong now?

Maybe it's because she wasn't.. like this when she asked questions about it before. She looked at 624 as she thought to herself, noticing her expression. She was obviously upset by his death, and it made her wonder how long ago it was. Did anyone back home miss her the way 624 clearly missed him? Did anyone even notice she was gone?

She looked away from 624, smoothing out her dress in a futile attempt to clear her head. She wished she had some sort of distraction that wasn't making conversation, but there wasn't much to do unless she wanted to leave, and that seemed rude. She still wasn't quite sure what to respond to the information she received, so instead she just dropped the subject entirely, focusing on whatever topic 624 brought up.

"What were you accused of? Which prison did you go to? Do you miss it?"

There was some rummaging that could be heard in one of the many rooms in the blacksite. An expendable sorted through the drawers as she had done numerous times before, however this time her motives were a bit different.

It had been slow in Sebastian's shop recently, and since she had taken up space there, she had decided to scrounge up some research for his sake.

Unfortunately, it seemed that almost every single room, drawer, locker, shelf, and desk had been looted. She let out an annoyed sigh.

She decided to take a break since she was getting tired after doing this for who knows how long. She leaned against a cold metal wall and slid down it to sit down.

- @exrp624-calisto

After several minutes of silence outside of the room, 624 could hear what sounded like shouting. It was accompanied by two pairs of footsteps quickly approaching the room 624 was in, along with what sounded like a child's laughter.

The noises quickly got closer, until a little girl ran into the room, crouching behind one of the desks while holding a small object close to her. She didn't seem to have noticed 624, as her attention was focused on the door.

The footsteps outside continued for a couple seconds before they slowly moved away, causing the girl to smile, tuck the object in her pocket, and look around the room. She quickly noticed 624, and her smile immediately dropped, her expression now filled with distrust, annoyance, and a small amount of fear.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?"

[hadal-hideout]

He nodded, looking like he was about to say something before he changed his mind, opting to ask more questions instead.

"How close are you to getting out? Any plans for when you finally escape?"

There's a scratching sound coming from the vents, getting closer to the shop until a humanoid face pops out, looking up at Sebastian. He looks like an expendable, but he has an eyepatch and a hoodie, both looking hand-made with various random scraps of expendable jumpsuits.

"Hello. You sell stuff, yes?"

- @hadal-hideout

Pulling on his esca and allowing it to flicker to life, casting a dim glow of which illuminated the small room, Sebastian glanced at the other who had just crawled through the vent.

“You’ve got that right,”

He said with a slight chuckle.

“As long as you have enough data, I’m willing to trade some of my stock.”

[hadal-hideout]

She shrugs as well, looking away from him as she walks closer to the wall to use it as a guide to know where to walk.

"I dunno, that depends on your questions. How come you don't know which room he's in exactly? And you mean the squiddles? They're not that bad as long as you don't get too close, and I can't really blame them for– Fuck–"

Her sentence got cut off by her tripping over an overturned desk, promptly causing her to run directly into one of the squiddles. She quickly straightened herself up, smoothing out her skirt and glaring at the squiddle that just jumpscared her as she muttered to herself.

"I changed my mind. The squiddles suck and I hate them."

As Dakota was exploring the blacksite for loose assets, he came across a small side room. These types of rooms were usually full of loose assets, but as he stepped inside he saw that he wasn't alone. Inside, sitting near the wall next to some item lockers, was a young girl who looked around 10 or so.

She didn't look like another expendable; the most obvious difference was her age, of course, but instead of the uniform jumpsuit the expendables wore, she was wearing what seemed to be a handmade purple dress that went to her ankles. She had pale skin, very light blue eyes, and her hair was blonde enough that it almost looked white.

She didn't seem to notice Dakota entering, seemingly focused on writing something on what looked like a notepad.

- @hadal-hideout

Dakota cocks his head to the side as he stands in the doorway. What's a child doing down here? This place, the Blacksite...it's no place for a kid, that's for sure. "...Heya. Uh...whatcha got there?" He's cautious. He has to be, in order to survive down in this watery hellscape. Sure, whoever (or whatever) this is looks like a human girl, but...for all Dakota knows, this could be some new entity he's never seen before- some kind of mimic, maybe- pretending to be human to lure him in. He wouldn't be surprised if that were the case...

[hadal-hideout]

"Fair. What do you need the data for anyways? Are you looking for anything in particular or are you just collecting for the sake of collecting?"

There's a scratching sound coming from the vents, getting closer to the shop until a humanoid face pops out, looking up at Sebastian. He looks like an expendable, but he has an eyepatch and a hoodie, both looking hand-made with various random scraps of expendable jumpsuits.

"Hello. You sell stuff, yes?"

- @hadal-hideout

Pulling on his esca and allowing it to flicker to life, casting a dim glow of which illuminated the small room, Sebastian glanced at the other who had just crawled through the vent.

“You’ve got that right,”

He said with a slight chuckle.

“As long as you have enough data, I’m willing to trade some of my stock.”

[hadal-hideout]

She recognized the objects 624 was talking about, obviously, they could be found all over the blacksite, including on the bodies of her meals. There was always one room that had an abundance of them, though for some reason that room always had a bunch of files in it, and.. Oh.

Oh no. Maybe she could quickly change the topic before it became obvious that she was guilty? Sure, she didn't take that much, but considering what little she knew about Sebastian, she doubted he'd be pleased with her. And 624 was friends with him, so she'd obviously tell him, and therefore she couldn't know about it, which meant she had to change the subject.

"..Ah. I think I've heard of him, but I haven't seen him yet. Anyways, who's Urbanshade?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly as 624 hesitated, clearly wondering what she was thinking about that was taking so long. Hesitation was never a good sign; it usually meant something bad had either happened or was about to happen, and as per usual, she was right. At least this time, it was just an injury.

"How'd you almost die? How bad's your injury? How come you haven't just healed your– Uh. Nevermind.."

She trailed off as she looked away, looking embarrassed as she remembered that most people weren't capable of healing themselves. Now that she thought about it, it's a bit odd how she was already forgetting what it was like before the experiments. She'd only been able to heal herself for a couple months (5? Maybe 6..? She didn't really bother to remember), and yet she was already forgetting what it was like to be human.

"Aaanyways, how come he's upset today if he's usually passive? Did something happen? Did you do something to annoy him so now you're trying to make it up to him by getting supplies?"

She fiddled with her dress as she spoke, always making sure to smooth it out after she was done. It seemed to be mostly out of boredom, unlike how she was nervously fidgeting earlier, as if she was just asking her questions to confirm things she already knew. Her demeanor changed, however, the second 624's friend was mentioned, even moreso when she learned he was an engineer.

"Who's your friend? Where are they now? Why were you in prison?? What'd you do? What was it like there? Oo are you actually more dangerous than you look?"

She seemed strangely.. excited? More than any normal person would be, but especially more interested in this than any child should be.

There was some rummaging that could be heard in one of the many rooms in the blacksite. An expendable sorted through the drawers as she had done numerous times before, however this time her motives were a bit different.

It had been slow in Sebastian's shop recently, and since she had taken up space there, she had decided to scrounge up some research for his sake.

Unfortunately, it seemed that almost every single room, drawer, locker, shelf, and desk had been looted. She let out an annoyed sigh.

She decided to take a break since she was getting tired after doing this for who knows how long. She leaned against a cold metal wall and slid down it to sit down.

- @exrp624-calisto

After several minutes of silence outside of the room, 624 could hear what sounded like shouting. It was accompanied by two pairs of footsteps quickly approaching the room 624 was in, along with what sounded like a child's laughter.

The noises quickly got closer, until a little girl ran into the room, crouching behind one of the desks while holding a small object close to her. She didn't seem to have noticed 624, as her attention was focused on the door.

The footsteps outside continued for a couple seconds before they slowly moved away, causing the girl to smile, tuck the object in her pocket, and look around the room. She quickly noticed 624, and her smile immediately dropped, her expression now filled with distrust, annoyance, and a small amount of fear.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?"

[hadal-hideout]

"If you like gathering information too, how come you don't ask as many questions as I do? And how far are we until we reach the Sebastian guy?"

She looked up at the Navi-path sign as well, watching it for a couple seconds before moving on to the next room, groaning quietly when the door opens to reveal a pitch-black room.

"Fuck, I hate these stupid rooms.. They're so annoying."

As Dakota was exploring the blacksite for loose assets, he came across a small side room. These types of rooms were usually full of loose assets, but as he stepped inside he saw that he wasn't alone. Inside, sitting near the wall next to some item lockers, was a young girl who looked around 10 or so.

She didn't look like another expendable; the most obvious difference was her age, of course, but instead of the uniform jumpsuit the expendables wore, she was wearing what seemed to be a handmade purple dress that went to her ankles. She had pale skin, very light blue eyes, and her hair was blonde enough that it almost looked white.

She didn't seem to notice Dakota entering, seemingly focused on writing something on what looked like a notepad.

- @hadal-hideout

Dakota cocks his head to the side as he stands in the doorway. What's a child doing down here? This place, the Blacksite...it's no place for a kid, that's for sure. "...Heya. Uh...whatcha got there?" He's cautious. He has to be, in order to survive down in this watery hellscape. Sure, whoever (or whatever) this is looks like a human girl, but...for all Dakota knows, this could be some new entity he's never seen before- some kind of mimic, maybe- pretending to be human to lure him in. He wouldn't be surprised if that were the case...

[hadal-hideout]

[ooc: I'm trying to decide whether to publish the notes for the characters or not (mainly Claire cuz she's the favorite lmao), cuz on one hand I wanna let people figure out stuff themselves, but on the other hand I wanna let people know the loreeee

I'm too impatient for this stuff lmao. Should I add a little note saying that non-rp based asks are allowed?? Should I just publish stuff and let everyone know everything? Should I write little snippets and let people piece together the info themselves? I dunno lmao, please leave advice or whatever in comments (or just send asks about my ocs so I can ramble lol (ooo or if people still wanna send rp based asks someone could make a little researcher oc?? I think that'd be cool. Maybe I'm just tired lol I dunno))]

[hadal-hideout]

She briefly considers pretending to be upset about the trespassing, but she doesn't really see the point in it, so she just shrugs and fiddles with her bracelet again. She already got what she needed from the expendable from earlier, so there was no need to use her tactics against some random trespasser, especially since she didn't actually own the place.

"Eh, it's fine. I'm not too attached to this place, I just didn't want anyone to mess with the stuff I left in here."

She fiddled with her dress the second the eye contact was broken, clearly unused to maintaining it for this long. She seemed interested in the mention of a shopkeeper, quickly shaking off her uneasiness to ask more about him.

"What's he like? What does he sell? How long have you known him? How come you're staying with him? Do you do runs like this often? Is he moody a lot of the time?"

She followed 624's gaze around the room, making sure that the spot where she hid her items remained hidden, not wanting to deal with any questions about what she was hiding.

"Who'd you learn it from? I learned it from my Father, who learned about it from my Grandfather. How come you didn't want to startle me earlier? Where'd you get the machine from? Did you make it yourself?"

She looked curiously at the machine, resisting the urge to reach out to it to get a better look. Instead, she distracts herself by focusing on 624's questions, shrugging before answering.

"Eh. Sometimes they follow me, most of the time they don't. The most recent one was a lot more determined than the other ones, which is probably why she followed me for so long."

There was some rummaging that could be heard in one of the many rooms in the blacksite. An expendable sorted through the drawers as she had done numerous times before, however this time her motives were a bit different.

It had been slow in Sebastian's shop recently, and since she had taken up space there, she had decided to scrounge up some research for his sake.

Unfortunately, it seemed that almost every single room, drawer, locker, shelf, and desk had been looted. She let out an annoyed sigh.

She decided to take a break since she was getting tired after doing this for who knows how long. She leaned against a cold metal wall and slid down it to sit down.

- @exrp624-calisto

After several minutes of silence outside of the room, 624 could hear what sounded like shouting. It was accompanied by two pairs of footsteps quickly approaching the room 624 was in, along with what sounded like a child's laughter.

The noises quickly got closer, until a little girl ran into the room, crouching behind one of the desks while holding a small object close to her. She didn't seem to have noticed 624, as her attention was focused on the door.

The footsteps outside continued for a couple seconds before they slowly moved away, causing the girl to smile, tuck the object in her pocket, and look around the room. She quickly noticed 624, and her smile immediately dropped, her expression now filled with distrust, annoyance, and a small amount of fear.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?"

[hadal-hideout]

"You don't seem to like dealing with the expendables, why bother working with them? Are they really useful enough to deal with them dying all the time?"

There's a scratching sound coming from the vents, getting closer to the shop until a humanoid face pops out, looking up at Sebastian. He looks like an expendable, but he has an eyepatch and a hoodie, both looking hand-made with various random scraps of expendable jumpsuits.

"Hello. You sell stuff, yes?"

- @hadal-hideout

Pulling on his esca and allowing it to flicker to life, casting a dim glow of which illuminated the small room, Sebastian glanced at the other who had just crawled through the vent.

“You’ve got that right,”

He said with a slight chuckle.

“As long as you have enough data, I’m willing to trade some of my stock.”

[hadal-hideout]

She looked surprised at the use of the TTS, but she seemed to be less hostile than she was earlier. She leaned against the nearest wall, watching 624 with a curious look as she listened to the TTS.

She seemed slightly uncomfortable by the constant eye contact, but she ignored it and continued asking her questions anyway, not wanting to show any weaknesses. She decided to follow 624's lead of not sharing their actual names, but instead of coming up with a fake name, she elected to just not mention one at all.

"Is '624' your file name or whatever they call it? Who's your friend? And I meant 'here' as in this room. Usually this room's empty, which is why I'm usually hiding in here."

She fiddled with her dress pockets as she talked,not really caring to maintain eye contact anymore, as 624 had already broken it by glancing at the door. She instead focused her attention on the TTS device, trying to figure out as much as she could about it just from looking at it, knowing she probably wouldn't be allowed to touch it.

"Do you know ASL? How come– You seem to dislike using the machine thingy, I dunno the actual name for it, so it'd probably be more effective or whatever if we used ASL. If you know it, that is."

She cut off her original question, seemingly changing her mind last second and deciding to not ask anymore questions. She smoothed out her dress, fiddling with her bracelet instead as she continued talking.

"I'm fine, I'm pretty sure the expendable gave up already. They never seem to stay around for long, and they're always in a hurry, so I doubt it's still out there. That one seemed more determined than the other ones though, I dunno why."

There was some rummaging that could be heard in one of the many rooms in the blacksite. An expendable sorted through the drawers as she had done numerous times before, however this time her motives were a bit different.

It had been slow in Sebastian's shop recently, and since she had taken up space there, she had decided to scrounge up some research for his sake.

Unfortunately, it seemed that almost every single room, drawer, locker, shelf, and desk had been looted. She let out an annoyed sigh.

She decided to take a break since she was getting tired after doing this for who knows how long. She leaned against a cold metal wall and slid down it to sit down.

- @exrp624-calisto

After several minutes of silence outside of the room, 624 could hear what sounded like shouting. It was accompanied by two pairs of footsteps quickly approaching the room 624 was in, along with what sounded like a child's laughter.

The noises quickly got closer, until a little girl ran into the room, crouching behind one of the desks while holding a small object close to her. She didn't seem to have noticed 624, as her attention was focused on the door.

The footsteps outside continued for a couple seconds before they slowly moved away, causing the girl to smile, tuck the object in her pocket, and look around the room. She quickly noticed 624, and her smile immediately dropped, her expression now filled with distrust, annoyance, and a small amount of fear.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?"

[hadal-hideout]

"Alrighty then. How long do you think it'd take to find the file?"

There's a scratching sound coming from the vents, getting closer to the shop until a humanoid face pops out, looking up at Sebastian. He looks like an expendable, but he has an eyepatch and a hoodie, both looking hand-made with various random scraps of expendable jumpsuits.

"Hello. You sell stuff, yes?"

- @hadal-hideout

Pulling on his esca and allowing it to flicker to life, casting a dim glow of which illuminated the small room, Sebastian glanced at the other who had just crawled through the vent.

“You’ve got that right,”

He said with a slight chuckle.

“As long as you have enough data, I’m willing to trade some of my stock.”

[hadal-hideout]

There was some rummaging that could be heard in one of the many rooms in the blacksite. An expendable sorted through the drawers as she had done numerous times before, however this time her motives were a bit different.

It had been slow in Sebastian's shop recently, and since she had taken up space there, she had decided to scrounge up some research for his sake.

Unfortunately, it seemed that almost every single room, drawer, locker, shelf, and desk had been looted. She let out an annoyed sigh.

She decided to take a break since she was getting tired after doing this for who knows how long. She leaned against a cold metal wall and slid down it to sit down.

- @exrp624-calisto

After several minutes of silence outside of the room, 624 could hear what sounded like shouting. It was accompanied by two pairs of footsteps quickly approaching the room 624 was in, along with what sounded like a child's laughter.

The noises quickly got closer, until a little girl ran into the room, crouching behind one of the desks while holding a small object close to her. She didn't seem to have noticed 624, as her attention was focused on the door.

The footsteps outside continued for a couple seconds before they slowly moved away, causing the girl to smile, tuck the object in her pocket, and look around the room. She quickly noticed 624, and her smile immediately dropped, her expression now filled with distrust, annoyance, and a small amount of fear.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?"