Kings and Queens of Promise

[Lykaios of the Shadows]

[[I'd just like to point out something. Kleo and Dolo, you guys roleplay SOOO well together. It was like reading a freaking novel! OK, done.]]

Jess bit back a sharp curse, grumbling to herself as her finger began to sting from the electrical shock. She shook it off, carefully taking one of the red wires from her mouth and attaching it to another circuit. This thing was really starting to piss her off.

Really, everything was pissing her off at the moment. Some drunk morons had stumbled past the room where she slept a while ago, and she hadn't been able to shut her eyes since then. In fact, she still had her pajamas on. Well, if you could count a loose tank top and gym shorts as "pajamas". And here she was, in the freaking kitchen (she'd probably have to sneak past Aria to get to her workshop) working on a bomb.

Jess stood up, throwing the wires down and staring at the explosive device. "God, did these idiots even realize what the hell they stole?" she snapped, reaching for her cigarettes. Unfortunately, she then remembered she was supposed to try to quit smoking. One freaking midget had complained about it, and now she was on restriction. Aria smoked it all the time, right? What was the problem with her doing it?

Jess examined the military bombs they had rescued from the Tartarus place, scratching her head. It was some pretty powerful stuff. She'd have to find out where they had gotten it from later. But not now. She wasn't going to sleep until she figured out how to work the bomb.

Jess reached for another wire, forgetting that she had removed her gloves, and cussed loudly as she received another shock. This was going to be a long night.  

[x_-Mockingjay-_x]

(Kai, You NEED to post in Assassins!!!)

"Thanks Ari, and yes I will need a new Chore list...As for Meg, don't be surprized to find her in the floor." Rowan said before walzting off in the direction the room containing her cot. Meg was pushed into the floor where she awoke with a start, "Hey!" she exclaimed before realizeing it was Rowan, "Oh....sorry Rowen." She apologized before getting up and walking off to find an used bunk to sleep in. Rowan sighed as the girl walked off then laid down on the cot and fell asleep.  

[Kleopatra Selene]

((OH, Mockingjay...OH MY GOD. I cannot believe you misspelled your own character's name...my gosh.))

After being unable to sleep--listening carefully for further sounds of Jun's drunken singing, but fortunately finding none--Aria declared mentally in her head that she had insomnia and got up. She surveyed herself--wearing a t-shirt that reached her thighs and gym shorts--and wondered whether she'd left her cigarettes in the other pair. Damn. Gotta quit smoking those, she reminded herself. Oh, well. At least I don't do it publicly, in front of the kids.
She finally found her cigarettes in her other pair of pajamas--yes, each kid had only two pairs of dayclothes and two pairs of pajamas, and only one pair of shoes (two if they were lucky or still wealthy)--and pulled one out. She struck the match against the dark, dank wall, but it surprisingly lit, and she stuck in her mouth, blowing contentedly.
She heard loud cursing and followed it.
"Hey, Jess," she bit back a smile and a laugh as she watched the girl working in the kitchen on a bomb. "You do know curfew was a couple of hours ago, right?" For some reason, she was feeling slightly relaxed. Probably an aftereffect of the liquor--not that she had previous experience, of course. My first time getting drunk, and with the newbie. That'll put a good impression on him. Now I'll never be able to get him to do anything I say! "You know, you can go to your workshop, if you want." She went to the workshop, which was in the next hall over, and unlocked it with her set of keys. John and Rowan also had a pair of keys--John because he was second-in-command ((GOD that sounds military-ish!)) and Rowan because she often came stumbling in during the middle of the night and often didn't want to wake anyone--but hers was the primary set.
"Come on in," she gestured to Jess. "I'd like to watch you work for a while, if you don't mind. You won't even know I'm here." I'll probably fall asleep, anyway. For some reason, loud noise is the only thing that puts me to sleep. Like when Dad used to sing to me at night--very loudly and very off-key, she thought. She pushed all memories of her father away. The time for thinking of him was over now.  

[x_-Mockingjay-_x]

(Can we time skip???)  

[Lykaios of the Shadows]

[[Instead of a time skip, we could have somebody attack or something...dun dun dun!]]

Jess jumped as Aria's voice reached her ears and she turned her head towards her. She set down the circuits from the bomb and sighed, scratching her head. "Curfew, yeah. Couldn't sleep 'cause someone was too loud." she murmured thoughtfully, looking up at the clock hanging on the kitchen wall.

At the mention of her workshop, Jess perked up. She scooped the bomb up into her arms and followed the KQP's leader across the hall. Careful not to drop the device, she slipped on the lights and stumbled in over her tool kit. She inhaled sharply, resisting the urge to curse when she stubbed her toe, and placed the bomb on the table in the center of the workshop.

"One of the little kids has been in here. Everything's misplaced..." she growled, snapping up the toolbox and dropping it next to the table. Jess then began rummaging through it, careful not to make too much noise. When she found the tool she had been searching for, she looked back at the bomb, picking up where she had left off.

"Why do we even have little kids in the KQP, anyways? They don't fight, and they weigh us down." Jess asked Aria, tapping subconsciously on the table with her finger.  

[Kleopatra Selene]

((Can't we wait until everyone's asleep, THEN have an attack or a time skip? IDK...figure this out later...))

"Why?" Aria asked, and smiled. "I was only six when I joined the KQP. Why leave children to live a life of being misunderstood and neglected? No matter how young they are, if anyone ever comes to us, I'm not turning them down." She watched Jess tinker with the bomb. "Besides, it doesn't matter how old you are. It's your skills and your strength that count. Strength of body and mind. Meg--the little eight-year-old, remember her?--she could probably deactivate that time bomb if she only had ten, fifteen seconds to do it. She could probably be your apprentice in a few years, if you're willing to take her."
All of a sudden, she heard a loud crashing sound directly above her. Did someone set off a bomb in the city? she wondered, and she stood up. "Jess, can you wake up all the girls? I'm gonna go wake up the guys. Emergency retreat! Tell them we're going to the safehouse. The exit's in the lunch hall, with the crooked red EXIT sign above it. Go through it, single file, stay in the front, have Rowan in the back. Tell them all to get their weapons and anything personal. They have ten minutes. I'm gonna go get the guys." She sprinted out, heading for the guys' dorms, first gathering up her stuff in her backpack.
"EVERYONE WAKE UP!" she screamed, and several boys flinched and started muttering, wriggling out of their cots with impatience. "Emergency evacuation! Get your weapons, get any personal belongings! Immediate evacuation! John," she spotted him, "you lead the front, I'll take the back. We're going to the safehouse."
John led them all to the lunch hall, opening up the secret passageway and heading into it first. Aria made sure all of the boys went in there single file, her hand anxiously on the gun at her hip, her other hand messing around with her dagger. Oh, God, I hope no one gets killed. Just then, she spotted Jun, directly in front of her. She gestured for him to join her at the back, listening for more bombing sounds. All was quiet. The silence before the screams.
"This section of the city gets bombed every few months," she said, "but nobody knows when. That's why it's always such a shock--there's no forewarning. Everybody's always scared. Just wait. The screaming will come."
Just then, another crashing sound sounded above her. A scream echoed down two stories of sewage and pipelines and dirt and mud and rocks. "There you go," she said, shouldering her backpack of things.

((I know I said we'd figure it out later...but I didn't want to! So I took the advice of you all, and did not do a time skip, but an attack! Rearrange your responses, deal with my little unpremeditated changes!))  

[Lykaios of the Shadows]

Jess grinned. "Apprentice, huh? As long as she doesn't-" The mechanic paused for a moment, her eyes narrowing at the sounds of bombs exploding. "Ah, crap. Right now?" she seethed.

As Aria left, Jess took a quick look around. She threw on the military-style backpack she kept in the room and stuffed a few tools and small explosives in it, along with the bomb, just in case they had any "problems" on the way to the safehouse. Then, she left her workshop and ran down the hall. "Hey, everyone up! We're evacuating!" she shouted as she entered the girls dorm. The mechanic carefully made her way over the waking girls, reaching a certain cot. She grabbed the girl on it by the collar, lifting her up and dropping her on the floor.

"Get up, Rowan. We have to get out of here." she snapped, hoping the girl was in a somewhat agreeable mood. You could never tell with Rowan.  

[x_-Mockingjay-_x]

"What the hell?!?!?!" Rowan exclaimed as she hastily picked herself up off the floor after being rudely awakened, " What happened?" She asked noticing the panic of the room."Emergency evacuation." Jess said, " Get your things and bring up the back." She finished before turning to evacuate herself. Rowan quickly Gathered her backpack and weapons, although there wasn't much to get considering she'd only arrived about an hour ago. She clicked her belt baring two guns and an asrray of daggers to her waist and followed the last girl out of the room and though the winding hallways toward the exit.  

[Kleopatra Selene]

Aria walked quickly, climbing through the exit hole as soon as they reached the safehouse. It was a small underground bomb shelter--no doubt built hundreds of years ago, during one of the infamous world wars (what had there been, six, before the Government came along?)--and KQP had found it accidentally while exploring its primary home. You'd think we'd use it as our primary home, but that would just take longer to get to the surface, she thought.
"All right, everyone," she said as the last of the girls climbed out, checking everyone. "Anyone missing?"
John shook his head. "All two hundred and seventy-one accounted for. They're all here."
She nodded her head. "That's great. Perfect. All right, everyone, to our emergency bomb-shelter dorms!" she clapped her hands. "Let's get what little sleep we can before dawn. John, you and I will keep watch, make sure that no damage is done to the shelter while everyone sleeps. Anyone else who wants to stay up can if they wish, but be aware--we wake up early tomorrow to get back home. And we have three missions today. Anyone assigned to any of those three missions is ordered to get at least three more hours of sleep!" she declared. "All right, everyone, get to bed!"
She sat next to John on a bench as many sleepy children and teenagers went to their dorms and emergency always-stayed-at-the-bomb-shelter cots.  

[x_-Mockingjay-_x]

Rowan was the last one in, entering just as Aria was telling everyone to head towards their emergency dorms. "Mind if I sit here for a second?" She asked, sitting down beside Aria without waiting for an answer.  

[Kleopatra Selene]

Aria smiled. "I already said anyone--excluding those on missions tomorrow--can sit up with me if they want." She turned to John. "I know you're tired, John. Rowan and I can sit up. You go to sleep." John looked like he would protest, but he stood up and went off to his boy's dorm.
"You've been gone so long we haven't had the choice of putting you on a mission," Aria declared, and then asked curiously, "By the way, what have you been blowing up while you were gone? Did you do it alone?"  

[x_-Mockingjay-_x]

Rowan sat back before answering, " I haven't been blowing much up...lately. Mainly just killing the palace guards myself, even if I have to sneak into the castle to do so. The King and Queen know its me and yet they do nothing...cowards."She stopped herself to keep from ranting on and on about her parents, everyone here had a story similar to hers so it would be nothing new. " And yes, I do it all on my own."

(If you haven't realized, Killing palace guards is just a timekiller for Rowan)  

[Kleopatra Selene]

Aria knew that every KQP member sarcastically referred to their parents as their personal rulers, or "the King and Queen". "Yeah," she sighed. "I wish I could go with you. It'd be nice to have a little fun every once in a while. Running from our possibly-bombed home was the most exhilarating thing I've done in weeks. That, and getting tipsy with Jun," she admitted, rubbing her temples. "It's just...everyone's got a sob story. Everyone feels--'well, they know exactly how I feel, so why put them through it again right? Why bother them?' But it's so ((insert swear word of choice here)) annoying!" she said. "Feeling as though you can't talk to anyone." She smiled faintly. "I guess that's the downside of KQP. Good and bad sides and all that."
She sat rod-straight, as she always had, and stared at her hands as though they would give the answers. Palms up, flat, they showed calluses and scars that every KQP member wore proudly. "I dreamed about Daniel again," she confessed. "What do you dream of, when you sleep?"  

[Lykaios of the Shadows]

Jess entered the safehouse slowly, making her way to the corner as everyone went to bed. She dropped her bag and sat down, watching as Rowan and Aria talked to each other. It seemed pretty personal, so she decided to stay out of it.

Jess frowned, realizing she was shaking from the evacuation. She sighed. No matter how long she lived in that place, she'd never get used to the fear that she was going to die. She carefully slipped the lighter out of her pocket, wishing she had some cigarettes.

Jess stuck the lighter, her eyes reflecting the flame that came from it. She gave a soft laugh, immediately feeling relieved. Her trembling ceased and she doused the flame, leaning her head back and closing her eyes.  

[x_-Mockingjay-_x]

"I don't usually; sleep that is...and when I do I'm not sure that I dream that much. The only time I remember actually dreaming was when I was a littlie ( yes it is supposed to be spelled like so) but I can't remeber what about." Rowan answered after a second.