xp_logs | Log: Angelo and Monet, Monday afternoon

Backdated to the 10th, shortly after this post.

Boredom brings about interesting results.

Monet knocked on Angelo's door, a can of red bull in one hand. "Yo. How are you, pumpkin?"

The suite was purposely dimmed when he opened the door and squinted at her - it was either that or wear sunglasses. "Hi, Monet. Uh... a little better, I think. After painkillers."

She waved the can at him. "Drink. Is fizzymakefeelgood. Makes you better."

"...You brought me Red Bull?" He stepped back to let her in, reaching to accept the can and managing not to trip over the labrador sprawled out on the floor behind him. "Caffeine cures everythin'. Thanks."

"It's nothing." She flopped on the couch. "So... was it a good night?"

That wasn't how he'd put it, but he didn't really want to talk about the whole unfortunate business, to anyone. He smiled crookedly, snapping the can open as he sat in the armchair. "Good enough in its way, I guess."

"Fair enough." Monet nodded. "So it was a shitty night out, eh?"

"...yeah. Wasn't so much a night out as... needin' to get away for a bit. Good thing I've got a boss doesn't mind fundin' that once in a while, really."

"Nathan sounds like a decent boss, then, when he's not either getting killed or injured?"

"Gettin' nearly killed or injured or insultin' bureaucrats on the phone", was the wry agreement. "To be fair, he hasn't managed to get himself really killed yet. An' he's a good boss, yeah."

"Yelling at bureaucrats? Do you all get to do that? Or is it just him, because he's awesome and can yell loudly?"

"Oh, we all get to do it when they deserve it, or we're trying to get a point across. Nathan, on the other hand, tells them they're incestuous goatfuckers an' then I get to spend the next hour apologisin'. In Hausa."

"Where the fuck do they even speak Hausa? I never heard of it." Monet grinned at him.

"Nigeria", he told her, grinning back crookedly. "I don't really speak it, I can just get by. Enough to say sorry a lot, make up excuses for Nate, an' try to talk the guy round. If I've got a dictionary next to me."

Monet shook her head. She knew enough snippits of enough languages to know how many words that would take. It was a kind of impressive number of words, given that five minutes ago, she hadn't known about the language. "Gosh. Yours is a life of excitement. I almost envy it. But not the talking bureaucrats around part of things. Now, if I got to yell at them, I'd really envy it."

"Well, like I said, sometimes we do." He gave her a speculative look. "Wouldn't be lookin' for a job, would you?"

Monet blinked. "I hadn't actually thought about that, to be honest. I know people who have jobs and it often seems like it's kind of boring, but then, I also have way too much time on my hands. What would I get to do?"

"What sort of thing would you want to do?" he countered. "I could probably get Nate to hire you for research. 'specially now Bobby's gone."

She laughed. "Mate, I barely even know what you lot do. Besides, if I'm being paid, doesn't that mean I have to stick it out even if I hate it?" She paused and ran the sentence over in her head. "Did I just say I'd work for free?"

"I didn't hear that", Angelo assured her solemnly. "But no, you don't have to stick it out if you don't want. No more than any other job - you can always quit."

"That's good to hear. Tell you what, I'll come down tomorrow arvo. Maybe I can help out or something. It'll be something to do, and I'm going stir crazy here."

"You'd always be welcome", he promised. "Try it out, see if you like it."

"Ta." Monet handed Angelo the container of berocca she'd also brought him. She'd had it in a pocket and had almost forgotten about it. "You might want this, too?" She dangled it just out of his reach.

"What...?" He squinted at the packet, then stretched for it. Dangling anything out of his reach took quite some doing. "Caffeine an' hangover cures. I owe you.”

"Nah." Monet (carefully) tossed the berocca over. "You've given me a potential cure for boredom. I owe you."