WO "Mikey" Rangel
"might be in poor taste to call it the perv dungeon in a room of people who just lost their CO to said location, but I definitely would prefer that view over the ocean"
Goosebumps went straight up Mikey's back and her blood ran cold. First, from simple surprise. She hadn't registered the presence of the... well, the quite striking woman standing behind her. Then, from embarrassment. She certainly hadn't expected to be overheard, and a part of her now realized that her choice of words probably
was in poor taste.
Way to stick your fuckin' foot in it, Mikey.She shook her head hard a couple times, physically forcing the wide-eyed reaction off before more than a couple of seconds had passed, and gave the woman a smile. This one was... another volunteer. Mikey thought she remembered her dossier saying she was from Russia, but that might have just been her own assumption based on the accent.
Her name was... Tonka, right? Like the toys."Uh, yeah, sorry." she whispered back, doing her best contrite face.
"Didn't mean to make light of the whole thing. Just, uh... yeah, sorry."At least Archer didn't seem put off by her faux pas, judging by his laugh. That was a comfort; of all the other people in the room, he seemed the most normal, and Mikey thought she could use a bit of normalcy at the moment.
"Honestly, I’m not sure where I fit into all of this. I suppose I’ll just let them decide where I’m best suited. I can’t exactly pinpoint where my... talents would be most useful,"
There was something in those words, in the other soldier's demeanor, that twinged Mikey's spidey senses. Mikey felt nervous as hell, herself; maybe that's all there was to it with the big Englishman, too, but she had to admit she didn't know him well enough to say for sure. Instead, she filed the judgment away; if she were really curious, she could always ask him about it when they weren't, say, in the middle of a briefing, surrounded by other people.
"What about you?"
Mikey shrugged.
"You know, it really hadn't occurred to me that we'd actually have a choice. In my experience the military isn't big on--" She was suddenly aware of another person standing next to her, looking at her with bright blue eyes and an inquisitive expression. Mikey thought that this white-haired woman might also have been older than her, but there was something disarmingly childlike about her question and her broken English.
”Uh, Myke? What is a Perv and Norm?”
Mikey opened her mouth. Closed it. Almost said, "I'll tell you when you're older," then thought better of it. Looked to Archer and Tonka, her face a silent appeal for help.
Several feet away, closer to the front of the room, she heard Charles speak up.
“I’ve had more than enough time in, so called, perv dungeons.”
Oh, come on! Frenchie too?!