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[ ANTIVIRUS ]

The previous one didn't fit, so she went to check those still available. That was what a professional matchmaker did, help one to find the perfect candidate from out of million, hmm, this was just a challenge to her and she should overcome it.

[ ANTIVIRUS ]

Shu was now pouting like a duckling, thinking if someone grabbed the Mr. Right of Miss A. Mr. Right, where are you? She mumbled while she fiddled another part, checked its rune for similarity.

[ ANTIVIRUS ]

Like a little girl ignored by her parents, Shu quietly played with her toys.

Jordan's head hurt inside and out. He seemed to be lying on the floor, and there was something sticky under him that he didn't want to think too closely about. He pushed himself up slowly, squinting and wincing, and the memories that trickled back in a bit at a time were ugly, hazy and smeary and skewed. He'd fought Ferros in an attempt to hurt Melvin, and half-succeeded. The distinctly displeased silence from Ferros confirmed that that had not been a hallucination.

He'd been delusional, his thoughts infected by something painful and paranoid. That wasn't a good excuse. I'm sorry, he said to Ferros.

You should be, Ferros answered grumpily, but the sense of him softened. You were not yourself. You should apologize to Melvin.

I should. The anger he'd felt had been misdirected and wrong, but weirdly pure, the familiar clawed twist of shame missing from the emotion, and Jordan didn't want to think too hard about what it meant that that had felt good. It had felt okay to be angry, for once, like he could be angry yet not bring all the hurting weight of anger back down on his own head and heart. He rubbed a smear of something off his face and looked, found Melvin nearby, trying to craft something. "Sorry," he said hoarsely. "I don't know what that was. Thanks."

He got slowly to his feet, looking around the room. Were all the infected down? He didn't immediately see anyone still trying to bite, nor any pockets of fighting. They weren't leaving yet, but it seemed that the immediate danger was over.

His gaze fell on Harrison and Rep curled up together against a wall, looking exhausted, worn down, but self-contained, almost content. Something in him cracked, broke cleanly, ignited with a dull yellow flame, and he stared for a few moments, feeling again the burn of resentment, but this time without the accompanying crackle of paranoia and frantic shame. This wasn't a good time for personal business, but there was a lull, and there was never a good time for this.

He stalked over to stand in front of them, and said without preamble, "I was hoping it was the delusion, but it doesn't matter if I'm there or not, does it. Maybe it never did. <********> you. I hope you're happy," and then his tone softened, less angry venom and more sincerity, and he said again, "I hope you're happy," and turned to go. He could make himself useful with whatever Melvin was doing, at least.

Everything Sherry said seemed like a surprise (of course she liked tea, everyone liked tea!), especially the compliment (Abbi was not deserving of such affectionate phrases, but she wasn't going to tell her to stop). But there was an opportunity provided to divert the conversation and the girl, quite good at running away, did so with glee.
"Yeah! There's this like all natural sweetener cause yanno what they say... Sugar is bad for you." The last part was said in her most serious voice along with a rune waved in the air. "Which is dumb. The Human body needs sugar to run, obvi!" Stupid fad diets trying to ruin the good thing science had going.

"Oh man! Chicago was a total blast! Even if Leslie was SUPER GRUMPY like all day. Just the biggest grump butt." She laughs anyways and fiddles with more runes. "I tried to find a good date dress while I was there but Leslie was no help whatsoever. Grump-butt friends do not make good shopping buddies, I'll tell you what." Another laugh. "So yeah... After this. Totes shopping."
Another lapse in silence before a softer spoken sentence.
"I bet you're in need of a nice, new date dress too, huh?"

Anti-Virus: 1/3

Jordan staggered forward with the force of the blow, dropped to one knee and used his hand to steady himself. Then he rose slowly and half-turned to look back at them. "And you let me," he replied quietly, coldly angry. "The way you always did."

HP: 44

Harrison was still sore and he felt ******** hungover.

Seeing Jordan, on instinct he wanted to wrap the guy up in a hug. At first. It'd been kind of a ******** awful mission. He had been unconscious when Jordan knocked Rep out. At the ******** you, though, Harrison just worked up the majority of his remaining effort to give the retreat a middle finger.

So do something about it, he thought, bitterness in place of sympathy.

His reaction time to what happened next was not great. It seemed with almost supernatural (and let's face it, it probably was) speed Rep had his weapon summoned and buried right between Jordan's shoulder blades.

"s**t, s**t," and it was mostly with muscle memory Harrison pushed himself off the wall, and found himself sweating and standing between them. B0nez dangled from his hands. He wasn't even in much of a defensive position. "You idiot. You ******** idiot. You could have cut him in two. What the <********: Rep, Jordan