MERC XIX: Toss a Coin to your Goblin

[Gullara]

[Demands of Snakes]

"Then we understand one another, great." Helios muses in a mirthful tone. However, his voice then takes a more serious disposition. "However, I would also like to take this opportunity to give you some advice. Might want to write this down as it's quite important." He pauses for a moment as if giving Kirk time to focus on what he's about to say next.
"First of all, I believe it should go without saying that you don't mention my name either. Indeed, the less information you give them the better. While I'm sure you would like the satisfaction of handing me a huge bill I think you already know that fey are seldom interested in material goods. They will want favors and most of all control of the child and I don't think either of us would want that. My suggestion is that you try to offer up information of the Nexus to them. It's make-up, the kinds of beings and technology that exist here, ecetera. You don't have to give them all this information, just claim that you have it and I will provide them with it.
Which brings me to my next point. You still listening? Good!" Without pause, Helios continues. "Make sure to let them know that you represent MERC in this and aren't dealing with them as individuals. That way they can't tie you personally to accomplish whatever favor they want and gives me enough leeway to provide whatever they ask for. This includes not giving them your real names as that's how they pin you down. They are beucurats at heart and knows how to manipulate their laws in their favor so if you accept any of them they can tie you or your organization into all sorts of things." Finally, he stops. "You got all that? Or should I repeat it?"

[Demands of Snakes]

"Making deals and arranging contracts is just another day on the job around here. This is very basic procedure." Kirk replies quite casually. "If that's all you wanted to tell us, it's quite covered already."

[Morty]

[Astrana's Office]

"Yes, that's a good ideaaaaaagh!" Being bitten is another thing Olvisin did not sign up for today. Goblin skin is pretty tough and leathery, but Siana's fangs are sharp. The goblin instinctively jerks her arm back just enough for Siana to wrestle free. She immediately tries to reassert control and pull her back, but the worst will have already happened.

[Shadowcaller]

[Demands of Snakes]

"Well then, here I was working myself up for nothing then. It's just hard not to when deals are a part of your portfolio. Not to mention that this is about my grandson, however strange a thought that might be." Helios chuckles. "But since you're such professionals I'm going to give you some free information. A tip if you will. Do this correctly and I foresee a steady increase in MERC's market value. Otherwise, well, there are others to turn to. So good luck!" There's a click as the phone hangs up.

"Did you get anything out of that?" Dena inquires as Kirk presumably puts down the phone.

[Astrana's Office]

To Siana the world seems to shake once she leaves the circle and she can feel her mind starting to swirl with images which are devoured by the void inside of her faster than she can comprehend them. There is the deep feeling of satisfaction even if the no matter how much it devours its hunger is never truly satisfied. In fact, it will likely only grow as more and more spirits are drawn to her like moths to flame or prey to an angler fish.

Meanwhile, Astrana has positioned herself in front of the door and aims the black rod towards the circle.

[Ironsmith]

[Ạ̴̀s̸̱̅t̵͔͂r̷͎̊a̶͉͐ǹ̶̘a̶͎̿'̷̼͆s̶̄ͅ ̵͙̓O̷̝̐f̸̙̊f̸̛͜ì̸̜c̸̥̏e̴͉̔]

It's all just too much for Siana. She already couldn't think straight with how terrified out of her mind she was, but now she couldn't even put a coherent thought together. This would be the ideal time for a mischievous or malevolent spirit to try to possess her...

If that wasn't certain death, of course.

With Siana's mind so thoroughly occupied, and no spirit able gain a hold on her, all that had a sway on her was pure, undiluted instinct:

FEED.

And worse still, she was feeding. She was feeding abundantly. There was life all around her, pouring into her open mind like a river of pure energy. She was strong and getting stronger.

Siana stands up, on both feet, her infirmity momentarily forgotten. She raises her hollow gaze at Olvisin and drops her slackened jaw, which extends quite a bit further than humanly possible. Not only that, but Siana was getting taller, too; her head was already scraping the ceiling, and her arms dangled down to the floor, ending in long, clawed hands.

Astrana might not know much about her particular variety of vampire, but hopefully she knows a demon when she sees one.

[Gullara]

[Demands of Snakes]

"Well then, here I was working myself up for nothing then. It's just hard not to when deals are a part of your portfolio. Not to mention that this is about my grandson, however strange a thought that might be." Helios chuckles. "But since you're such professionals I'm going to give you some free information. A tip if you will. Do this correctly and I foresee a steady increase in MERC's market value. Otherwise, well, there are others to turn to. So good luck!" There's a click as the phone hangs up.

"Did you get anything out of that?" Dena inquires as Kirk presumably puts down the phone.

[Demands of Snakes]

"I learned that I don't like Helios very much." Kirk replies as he slips his phone away. "He had 'advice', condescendingly delivered." he rifles off a few points that were brought up. "I assume that we had most of that under wraps." Kirk glances at Astrana.

"But the one notable point was that he wants to pay whatever price these beings will demand, and to entice them by saying we have information about the Nexus. I want to hear what they're asking for before we commit to anything like that, naturally."

[Shadowcaller]

[Demands of Snakes]

The tiefling let's out a small groan as Kirk glances at her and rubs her templates tiredly. "Well, as I've pointed out to you before, fey are not my expertise. In fact, the line between what's a fey and a yokai haven't been thoroughly explored as far as I know. There's still a lot we don't know about spirits and since I've cut myself off from the fourth tower I don't even know if new discoveries have been made in that regard." She shrugs. "I don't mean to discourage you now that you're here but I feel I need to make myself clear. If you had come to the fourth tower with this request you would not have been recommended to seek my advice. I majored in the field of zodiac yokai, or in other words, prominent animal spirits. While it's certainly related to other occult fields I'm afraid I can't offer you the same kind of service that a dedicated feyologist would." She lets out a small sigh. "So to give you a shorter answer to your question, Kirk, I'm grateful for any advice I can get here. Not that what Helios told you is completely new to me."

Dena can't help but to give Astrana a concerned look as she's saying all of this. "Well..." Her gaze wanders off to Kirk, not that he'd be able to tell. "Our people have a lot of knowledge about the fey, right Kirk? However weak that might sound..." Dena's knowledge about the fey could be condensed down into a single word though, 'DON'T'. That and how to tell them to **** off of course.

[Deathkeeper]

Astrana's Office

There's a booming voice muffled by the door, "I'M COMING ASTRANA!" followed by the clop of hard feet on stone. Immediately the door is kicked open and MERC's distinctive chef steps in, brandishing a sawed-off shotgun and an oversized key-shaped object made of sleek blue and rough grey metal. The room somehow seems brighter with him in it, or perhaps that's just having the door open?
"The hells is going on here?" he asks in confusion, looking at the display. He's pretty sure he can pick out the problem, though. It's probably the only person in the room that isn't his coworker.

[Morty]

[Astrana's Office]

Olvisin backs away, eyes widening in terror, as she draws her gun and points it at Siana. She doubts it'll do anything, though. Besides, if she misses, she'll hit something expensive and/or dangerous. Then again, it's not like that will be the worst of her problems...

Then the cavalry arrives, but in fewer numbers than Olvisin would have hoped. But hey, at least it's someone much bigger than she is, so maybe whatever Siana became will focus on him first.

"I wish I knew! But I think we need to get it back into the circle somehow!"

[Shadowcaller]

Astrana's Office

Sam!?

The chef will nearly run into Astrana as she was standing not far away from the door when he slammed it open. The tiefling quickly moves to the side as to not be in the way though.

Of all the people to rush through that door, she hadn't expected the loveable MERC chef to be a part of the security team. Who had taken a day off and given him that job? Whoever they were had just thrown him into a situation that had gone disasterously wrong. "She was possessed and the entity is now feeding off the spirits in the room." Astrana quickly attempts to explain as she aims the rod towards Siena and thinks the command phrase which will unleash a basic spell on the vampire.

It's channeling the energy of a snake spirit, attempting to inject her with a spiritual poison which should slow her down considerably as well as making her weaker overall. However, the tougher Siana is the slower it will take for it to take full effect if it manages to infect her.

Regardless if it actually has an effect or not however, Astrana is planning to retreat out the door at this point. She had done her part now.

[Ironsmith]

[Astrana's Office]

That was probably the worst move Astrana could have made, for a number of reasons.

Chief among them being that her spell only managed to do something Astrana really didn't want to do if she wanted to get away safely; it caught the hungry monster's attention.

The creature brings down a now-massive splayed hand over Astrana, reaching clear across the room to do so. "FEEEAAASSST" it hisses and shrieks, slackened jaw opening wider to let out that horrid vocalization.

Distressingly, the orifice in question is now large enough that it could probably fit Astrana inside, which is probably what the creature was planning to do. With its mouth hanging open, Astrana (and anyone else who would care to look) will be able to see rows of tiny, barb-like teeth ringed around the inside of the demon's esophagus, pulsating invitingly.

In short, if it actually succeeds in what it's attempting to do, recovering Astrana's body won't be entirely feasible.

[Deathkeeper]

Astrana's Office

"Okay none of that!" Sam steps between the monster and Astrana, offering the warlock his shotgun.
"Feast? Don't mind if we do!" He steps forward, holding up his comical weapon in both his upper hands. It bursts into an intense white light as he swings it in a wide arc. Somehow the brilliant weapon not only function better than it has any right to from its appearance, this particular attack siphons magical energy from its victims. Sam figures this hungry monster probably doesn't like being fed on itself.
But Sam has a lot more than one weapon, and more than two arms. His lower right hand produces a short sword from his belt with a gold hilt set with a brilliant red eye.
"FINALLY! IT'S BEEN A YEAR! GLORY!" screams Steve the Enhanced Aberration-Bane Shapeshifting Sword as Sam brings it around to scissor with his other blade, its blade morphing into a much longer one as he flicks it up.

[Morty]

[Astrana's Office]

Olvisin raises her gun and fires. But as these are normal lead bullets, they're not likely to accomplish a lot. Still, it's the only thing she can do besides running. And doing that before Astrana gets away really wouldn't be a good look on her.

[Shadowcaller]

[Astrana's Office]

Astrana have had quite enough of this, she's just going to grab the shotgun with one hand and then run out of the office until she could find more people to call in to help the others. Or at least make everyone else stay away from the office.

[Ironsmith]

[Astrana's Office]

In a bout of serendipity, the creature seems to have failed to account for its own growing size, and its fingers come down on either side of Astrana, leaving her unharmed. By the time it realizes it hasn't snagged a meal, the warlock is safely out of reach, and therefore harm's way, for the moment.

Olvisin's bullets are precisely as effective as predicted. Which is to say, they leave punctures, but said holes quickly heal up and succeed at nothing but momentarily distracting the demon.

The abominable creature turns its hungry gaze on Olvisin, and reaches out a hand for her...

Only to stop short, unable to cross into the circle.

The demon howls in impotent rage, unable to grab the morsel, banging against the barrier ineffectually. Food was right there, why couldn't it eat?!

And then Sam.

Being three items of interest in such a small area, the demon was bound to notice him and his arsenal sooner or later.

First, there was the pig-man himself. Edible. Vivacious enough to be a good meal. And, of course, probably tasting like bacon.

Then was his aberration-bane sword. An intelligent item. Close enough to a spirit for the monster to feed on.

But what would really get its attention is the radiant keyblade, and the fact that it just cleanly severed one of its hands off, leaving a boiling stump of flesh in its place.

The monster howls in rage and fear, skittering backwards as it throws up its arms to shield its eyes from the glow. "SSSUUUNNN!" it screams.

[Deathkeeper]

Astrana's Office

As a proud member of the Bacon family, everything about him is like bacon.
"Don't like that, do ya? Light!" Sam's weapon continues to shine. Grabbing both ends with his hands he charges, using the blade as a lever to push the demon towards the circle, since Olvisin's statement about it is the only thing he has to go on. Luckily it was reaching for her and is already pretty close. A two-meter, several-hundred-kilogram spigre doesn't have trouble pushing things, and Sam doesn't have to push this thing very far.
Hopefully Olvisin gets clear.

[Morty]

[Astrana's Office]

Olvisin runs out of the circle in the opposite direction as the demon is coming from. As she does so, she waves injured arm in the air.

"Hey, you ugly creep! Here's some more!"

She really doesn't want to be drawing this thing's attention to herself again, but this looks like the best way to get it back into the circle. And she'll need to get that armed looked at later; could be infected.

[Ironsmith]

Astrana's Office

As a proud member of the Bacon family, everything about him is like bacon.
"Don't like that, do ya? Light!" Sam's weapon continues to shine. Grabbing both ends with his hands he charges, using the blade as a lever to push the demon towards the circle, since Olvisin's statement about it is the only thing he has to go on. Luckily it was reaching for her and is already pretty close. A two-meter, several-hundred-kilogram spigre doesn't have trouble pushing things, and Sam doesn't have to push this thing very far.
Hopefully Olvisin gets clear.

[Astrana's Office]

Olvisin runs out of the circle in the opposite direction as the demon is coming from. As she does so, she waves injured arm in the air.

"Hey, you ugly creep! Here's some more!"

She really doesn't want to be drawing this thing's attention to herself again, but this looks like the best way to get it back into the circle. And she'll need to get that armed looked at later; could be infected.

[Astrana's Office]

The demon's head snaps in Olvisin's direction at the sound of her voice, noticing that she'd left the barrier and... smelled delicious. It starts walking around the circle;

For about two feet, before Sam collides with it.

The creature lets out a pained hiss as the keyblade yet again makes contact with it. It won't flee into the circle; the magic of it prevents such things. This means that in order to knock it down, Sam has to supply all the necessary force. He might not have succeeded if the demon braced itself.

The creature lands in the circle with a resounding thud, clawing at the barrier and trying to crawl back out.

Then she stops.

Siana blinks back to lucidity, that nightmarish mishmash of sights, sounds and sensations now gone from her head. She could see what was happening again, and what she saw was... tiny Olvisin.

"SSMALL?" Siana inquires, her hand going to her throat when she hears her own voice. That wasn't right. That wasn't right at all.

She slowly turns her gaze down at her body and finds it horrifically stretched and twisted. Despite the mild euphoria working its way through her, she still can't help but get a sense of dread from her unexpected metamorphosis. Was there a way to reverse it?

Well, she had an obvious solution to attempt. It wasn't going to be pretty.

Siana pulls her remaining body into the circle and convulses, slowly at first, but with growing urgency, a horrid retching sound tearing its way out of her throat.

What follows is an unpleasant sensory experience for everyone.

But when she's done, Siana's back in her normal teenage girl body, left leg its usual degree of crippled, sitting in a pool of blood that extends out to the walls of the office and smells horribly acrid. The transformation had torn her clothes to shreds, so she's hugging herself, partly in response to the cold and partly to preserve her modesty.

This whole situation is absolutely mortifying. But she's only got one thing on her mind at the moment.

"Is everybody okay?"

[Deathkeeper]

Astrana's Office

Sam's key disappears in a flash.
"Well, I could've gone my whole life without seeing that." he says flatly.
"Astrana, on standby, I think we're good! But we're gonna need a cleaning crew later." he calls. He can't imagine Astrana will want to come back for a while, though.
There's a soft grumbling as Sam sticks his other sword back into its sheathe.

[Morty]

[Astrana's Office]

"That might just have been the worst thing I've ever seen in my life." Olvisin is glad that her ruse worked, but still. Then she looks down at Siana. "Everyone is fine. Except that you bit me. Should I get it looked at?"

[Ironsmith]

[Astrana's Office]

Siana's hand flies to her mouth. "I did? Oh, Lords, I'm so sorry!" She moves toward the edge of the circle Olvisin is on, but wisely stops a few feet away. "Oh, that looks... really bad... I should get you a bandage or something."

She looks around interior of the circle for something to offer. With her clothes destroyed, there were plenty of rags to choose from... all of them covered in gross. There was no way bandaging Olvisin with them wasn't going to make the problem worse.

"Um... um..." She keeps looking, frantic, but finds nothing. "Uh... keep pressure on that! You don't want to bleed out!" She calls. Then she realizes another concern that might be going through Olvisin's head and moves to address it. "Don't worry! I'm not contagious!"

She paces around the circle irritably, looking for some solution to the bandage problem. So far, no luck... she just keeps retreading old ground, figuratively and literally. "So sorry, so sorry!" She keeps yelling.

[Deathkeeper]

Astrana's Office

Sam frowns and re-summons his blade. He points it at Olvisin's injury and declares, "Heal!"
The injury will probably stop bleeding quite as much but will not miraculously close.
"I've never been that good at this magic stuff."

[Lord Magtok]

This Feels Like A Really Bad Idea

Magtok really hates coming here. He always needs to wear the thick winter robe, even when it's a balmy summer evening like this one. That's why you never see him visit, even with his amicable business deal with MERC supposedly burying the hatchet between himself and Razortooth. Plus, Dipsnig's nieces and nephews are tolerable and reliable enough (for goblins), so there's usually no reason to come all the way out here when they can pass along a message for him. He floats about an inch off the ground, muttering and grumbling to himself, and occasionally shooting a nervous look over his shoulder. Is this really his best option? Would it have been easier to involve Vigil instead, maybe? Or ask Zee for some assistance? She still owes us for helping her with her step-daughter's Thanksmas shopping, you know. That save with Prime wasn't enough; we already paid her back for that by fixing a toaster. Or we could talk to Felandria and ask her to talk to the cat about-wow, no, absolutely not. Definitely not involving the cat in this one. Death would be preferable to turning to that filthy animal for aid. That's why we're here, trudging up to the MERC HQ, where we don't have to worry about any cats whatsoever.

"Ding dong," the cyborg mutters to himself, pretending to press a doorbell that very clearly doesn't actually exist, before shaking his head and pushing the door open himself instead of waiting for an answer. It's fine, this place is open to the public, right? Plus, someone's surely seen him coming already. There's gotta be surveillance cameras set up somewhere, he was just too busy grumbling to himself to notice. Yeah, there had to be cameras watching, it's what he would do if this was his lair, after all.

[Reinholdt]

[A Really Bad Idea]

Morosely sitting at the front desk is a catgirl with blue hair, pink eyes, and a Schrodinger's body. Its proportions and facial features change daily, much to her own chagrin, but for the most part she is definitively female, possessing of blue hair, has cat ears and a cat tail. Today she's a little more lithe than she's used to, skinny with only her curves holding any hints of actual flesh while drawing attention away from her eyes.

None of this is why Reina is sitting at the desk with a gloomy expression. No, she's being sullen because she has to do extra desk duty for the time she missed. It turns out going away for a fifteen minute break only works if it's actually fifteen minutes and you don't end up in the spirit hospital.

She looks up from her phone scrolling as Magtok makes his entrance and approaches the desk. And she just... Freezes. For a moment she glances around him and to the side as if looking for some camera crew, hidden assassins, or an escape route. But there was just... Magtok. She always knew he was still around in some limited capacity, but she never expected to actually run into him. They last left with a lot of unresolved tension and- Who is she kidding? She had a good thing and she ran from him because she was afraid of what it meant. What they meant.

She swallows hard and opens her mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.

[Lord Magtok]

An Incredibly Awful Idea

This is your own fault, Magtok. You had to go and think about the cat. If you'd just kept it out of your head, just focused on what was important, fate wouldn't have conspired against you like this. All you had to do was not think about him, or her, or they, and everything would've been fine, but you just can't help but tempt fate at every single opportunity, can you? Maybe Prime (ours, not the cat's) was right to throw you through a tavern window and try to publicly execute you. I mean, if you can't even walk up to MERC without finding some new and exciting way to turn the narrative tide against you, maybe it's for your own good. Maybe you're just too much trouble for everyone to be left alive.

"I...didn't know you were working here. I didn't...I mean, I can just go, if-" he glances over his shoulder at the door, and frowns. No, screw that, we're not leaving just yet. He only just got here, and it's a long and miserable trek back down. He's going to stay at least five minutes to warm up first, no matter how awkward and uncomfortable it might get. We're not such a worthless, gutless worm that a little bit of past drama can stop us in the fight for our lives.

"Actually, I need to talk to someone about warding a place against ghosts. And some sort of psionic defense system," he says in one tired exhale, as if he'd never find the willpower to say it if he didn't rush before his cowardice ruined everything. Strange. Rather than waiting for an answer, he distractedly peers over Reina's shoulder and to the left and right, as if expecting to see someone watching or listening in. One of them is going to say or do something compromising just as someone turns that corner, he just knows it. That's how this sort of thing always goes when the Nexus is in full shenanigans mode; he's been on the receiving end of such wacky clown nonsense far too often to not know how this plays out.

[Morty]

[Astrana's Office]

If was going through Olvisin's head and now thankfully it no longer is. Even less so when Sam does... some magic and the bleeding slows. She hurries to a first aid kit on a wall and starts applying a bandage. It's not the first time she had to apply first aid to herself, so she does it confidently.

"Thanks, Sam. I'm going to get someone else treat it properly later, but at least I won't pass out from blood loss. And... I guess now we need to call someone to deep-clean this whole place. And we still need to help Reina. And find some clothes for Siana, too."

[Ironsmith]

[Astrana's Office]

Siana covers her chest with her arm as she surveys the room, now taking in the full extent of the damage. Thankfully, it appeared to mostly be blood/vomit, with minimal physical damage done to the room itself or its contents, but Olvisin was right; cleaning this up wasn't going to be a trivial job.

It seemed as though the longer she stayed in the building, the more of a mess she made. First the training room, then Reina, then this office. There was no way the higher-ups weren't already very ticked off at her; and the same sort of logic that applied to her being here in the first place made her responsible for all of this damage, too.

It felt like for every problem that rose here, she was taking one step forward and two back. No, not even that... she didn't have a license, Reina wasn't fixed yet and neither was the training room. This was all steps back.

Siana tries to force on a smile, some outward sign of confidence that this was all going to be okay, but the fresh streaks down her cheeks told a different story entirely.

[Deathkeeper]

Astrana's Office

Sam disappears for a moment out the door and returns with a wide towel for Siana.
"Um. So can we let her out of the circle now? 'Cause if we can I'm gonna suggest hitting the showers, Miss." he says, one hand drifting to flick one of his tusks.

[Shadowcaller]

[Astrana's Office]

"Well, ****." The words are uttered by the trio of redskinned humanoids entering the room. A species of hobgoblin, all heavily armored and covered in metal masks. "Looks like we missed all the action as usual." Jaedrick puts his hands on his hips while scanning the office.

His two female companions stare daggers at him. "Told you we should have gone right away." Eir shakes her head.

The other one, Vitesha, stomps her feet in frustration. "Yeah, you shouldn't complain when you were the one that wanted us to wait."

"We didn't even have our armors on. Geez." The apparent leader let's out a sigh and turns to Sam. "Sorry I'm being ill-mannered. Is everything alright in here? Miss T painted quite the picture of what was going on. Though the whole room would have been bathed in blood by now." The hobgoblins eyes fall on Siana, being the only non-memeber in the room. Not to mention the only person lacking clothes. "'s that her? The posessed one?"

[Morty]

[Astrana's Office]

"That's her. Or... she was possessed. Mrs. Tyamer gave her something to make her open to seeing spirits, but also vulnerable to them. So she had to stay in the circle. She didn't and it was pretty gruesome until we managed to get her back in. I don't know if she can safely step out now." This also answers Sam's question. Olvisin tilts her head uncertainly. She feels surprisingly bad for Siana, given that she bit her and threatened Astrana with a sword. "We should probably call Mrs. Tyamer and ask how to tell if the potion wore off."

[Ironsmith]

[Astrana's Office]

Siana accepts the towel with a grateful smile, pulling it tightly around herself, as much for the warmth as anything. She sort of retreats into herself a little when the hobgoblins step in; now she's gone from being indecently dressed in front of two people (which was already bad) to five, and if the hobgoblins' excuse for arriving late was any indication, there were probably still more coming. The humiliation just added further insult to injury.

But... at least the fiendling wasn't here to see this. Astrana brought out just the worst sorts of feelings in her, and part of her wanted to tell Olvisin no, she would prefer to wait, but she wasn't really in any position to be making that kind of request.

Also, "missus"? That didn't sound right. Didn't fiendlings generally abhor marriage?

Now that she thought on it, Astrana seemed rather... odd, for a fiendling. Non-human skin tone. A tail. A laboratory indoors. These weren't common traits among them.

A feeling of dread slowly creeps over Siana as she put two and two together. Astrana wasn't the sort of creature she'd heard about. She just bore an unfortunate resemblance. Which meant Siana had treated her with suspicion for no good reason.

She pulls the towel tighter and fidgets nervously. The one thing she knew all these people had in common, other than working for MERC, was that they came to Astrana's aid when things got bad. Which meant if she told them about how Siana had behaved, they were unlikely to give her the benefit of the doubt.

She wasn't even doing things and the situation was still getting worse.

Siana sits cross-legged on the blood-soaked floor and closes her eyes, taking a shaky breath. She needed to calm down and focus. There was a lot to deal with now, most of it her fault. If she really wanted to avoid making the situation any worse, she was going to need a much cooler head.

"...That shower does sound nice." She finally says, in response to Sam's recommendation.