Welcome to Gaia! ::

Nora just stared at him as he talked about having met Death so casually. Just. Stared. Even that was starting to stretch her imagination. A small noise left her that dogs could hear better, and then she just nodded in disbelief. Alright. Sure. Why not.

"Runic training, House duty, off-island missions. Got it. Now if only I could get out of bed," she grumbled, itching to do something besides lay there and ache.

She wasn't going to debate the crazy leads thing, though. One of them had tossed a damn bomb on them, for better or for worse. "Which one's ours again?" Nora asked. "Not the bloke with black and white hair I hope. I was actually thinking about asking our guy a few things. Namely about the sort of armor we've got here, of which I've noticed there's a distinct lack."

She made a weak motion to wave him off dismissively. "Bah, Moons . . . Armor isn't heavy if you train enough. Or at least not that heavy. Got a little collection myself I like to keep polished and use from time to time."

A few pieces which had been parted from her in the ensuing blast. She wondered with a sigh if it meant they were done for--or if someone had disposed of them while she was down. Or if they were sitll stuck in that godforsaken desert. Damn it.

"I'm not talking full plate and chain mail, Evan. Even bracers could do a lot of good on the right hunter," Nora defended as she flipped the ice pack and let it settle over her other shoulder. "Not like any of those are heavy either. Knights were expected to be able to dismount and mount horses with the whole she-bang. S'just advanced weight training. Hell, slap some of that runic stuff on and I bet it could be a real boon--like, say, if some arse just breaks your shield in one go. No Moon faster enough to watch you for that."

Another wave.

"But that's talk for Mr. Allan the ginger, not Mr. Evan Roberts the skeptic," she went on to say dryly.

Nora clicked her tongue. "Oh, don't give me that," she grumbled, losing the edge in her tone as she sighed. "Sorry, too. I'm just being snappy, don't mind me. Staying still like this is driving me mad."

As an expert on your health, I totally totally totally recommend getting him to kiss it better~

"Oh, shut it," she replied aloud on accident, gingerly rubbing her temple. "Gah...So what was going on back there with those girls?" Nora asked as it occurred to her; talking was the most she had done all day and, draining or not, she was going to take as much of Evan's time as possible. "First the nasty eye with Peyton, then that nutter going on about bugs?"

Moving past Beatrix's series of absurd kissing noises, Nora snorted with a little smile. "Have to pay attention to people, Mr. Roberts. Probably half the point of my old job. I'll take you up on the cards, though. Bring some others along, make it a right party."

She recognized Evan had completely avoided the question, though, and waffled on pursuing or not. A compromise came to her: tuck the knowledge away for now and expound on the other topic. Probably was a little personal anyway (and only being completely burnt made someone like Nora stop and have the patience to notice). "She introduced herself at this tour Bix was giving the newbies," Nora thought aloud, snapping several times as she frowned. "Gale's girlfriend--Gale Gentry if you know him, he's my cous'--fake name, had the hat on...Storm? Sunny? Something like that."

Ice cubes. Bah, she'd rather go for actual money . . . It'd be much more fun.

"Our mothers are sisters," Nora replied, giving him a weird look. "Why? Don't tell me he's gotten himself in trouble, because he hasn't mentioned a thing to me and I'll be sore if he's been keeping secrets."

The sad part was if he had suggested it, she would have said yes because of the risks oh no.

"Oh." Now it was her turn to start shelving a few plans in case they offended the person who had befriended her first here, though Nora's outspoken nature shined through regardless. "Sorry, mate, but she looks like trouble," she told Evan with an apologetic shrug, plucking the ice pack off her shoulder and pressing it to her neck next. "Almost a drug addict even: talks nonsense, twitchy, baggy eyes, baggy clothes, gods only know what else. She's . . . peculiar."

And not in the quirky way. More like the street vagrant with a cute face looking for the next hit. It really didn't make sense to her that Evan would adopt that sort of kid, except maybe to rehabilitate her.

"Not really sure I approve of them canoodling."

so much for strip poker sigh

Nora was quiet for a moment, which in and of itself was uncommon given her nattering habit. Her eyes narrowed.

"I know enough that when she let herself get swallowed by that thing, he was stupid enough to go in after her without backup," she snapped. "My cousin's her boyfriend, not her handler. If she's not mentally well, why go on a mission at all? You should have told her to leave if she's still mourning."

It disturbed her to think that Gale wasn't helping the situation. There had to be more to it than just what Evan was telling her, because she knew her cousin: responsibility was practically etched into his bones.

Frustration and anger at the pain and this knowledge rushed to the surface in a brief moment of outcry. "What godforsaken organization does that?!" Nora couldn't help but growl, fists balled in her sheets. Immediately she regretted raising her voice, grimacing as her throat burned. At least there was water in reach, which she gladly took advantage of and drank, the ice pack sliding off as she had leaned to grab it.

It was a rhetorical question, of course. She knew there was little point in voicing it, but she could only keep it in so long when her patience was worn through by her condition.

Nora brooded. "He got here when he was fifteen, Evan," she said after a moment. "Fifteen. Three years of this insanity and more while I was busy almost ******** my life over. I dunno when yours arrived, but one thing's clear to me: neither of them should have been here to begin with." Child soldiers, that was all she could think. And for what? To get beaten and swallowed and nearly killed for insane leaders who didn't care?

Nora knew some of that already by signing up. But she was a consenting adult, and as far as she concerned, anyone below 20 was a child and shouldn't have been recruited, shadows be damned.

Her fists loosened, now cradling the cup of water instead. "She stays in his guest room sometimes," she told Evan in a more level tone. "Went riffling through when I stayed the night. You talk to her about that smoking issue?"