crossing_lostrp | [Daniel] Day 20: Debriefing (open tag)

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Current Location: medical facility

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day 20

[Daniel] Day 20: Debriefing (open tag)

Daniel waited quietly, going over the notes in front of him, while waiting for everyone to have some breakfast and get on the same page. The notes were simply a way to organize his thoughts and a list of questions he wanted to ask, systems that needed to be investigated, observations that he'd made about the prisoners and the facility.

"Okay then, I'm not seeing any dusty rocks so what do you –" Jon leaned over his shoulder to peer at the writing and stopped in mid-sentence. "Do you do anything the normal way, ever, Daniel?"

"What's the problem, Jon? Not up on your Gaelic?"

"You're writing notes in Gaelic. If I ask why are you going to tell? You know without boring me to death before I'm actually legally old enough to drink?"

"It's a precaution," Daniel explained. "Our friends here, and I do use the term friends quite lightly, have access to –" Daniel paused, then decided that there was really no point in not saying it aloud, "—Ancient technology. They might be able to read it.

"I thought about all the other languages, but didn't want to chance that they knew one of those."

"Right. Makes perfect sense," Jon rolled his eyes. He kicked out a chair and dropped into it. "So, what's the big game plan? Interrogation? Torture? Throw them to the smoke monster?"

"Sounds good to me," someone muttered.

"It looks like we're all present and accounted for," Daniel looked up at those assembled and smirked at Dean balancing two plates of food. That seemed awfully domestic for Faith, but he could be wrong. "At least all of us whom are going to be present and accounted for.

"Let's get down to it, then."

"What are we doing with them?" Damon asked. The red head didn't have to point out which them he referred to.

"Before discussing the prisoners, I'd like to go over a few other things. This is the easy stuff." Daniel looked at Rodney and then the Doctor and gave them both a nod. "The Doctor and Rodney spent a lot of time working with the start you gave us, Damon. This entire complex is under our control now and completely separate from any other systems that these DHARMA people might have or do have running.

"That doesn't mean that we can let our guard down. It's entirely possible that they are planning a counterstrike. We do have several of their people, and I'm sure that they'll want them back. We'll keep the outside guard rotations at night. The cameras do have a lens to shift to night vision and we can engage the perimeter lights if we chose to do so.

"This place has food and supplies, but we don't know what or how much. Someone, probably several someones, are going to need to take stock of what's in the pantry, what's in the storeroom and what's in the kitchen. Also, I'll see if Dr. Pierson can't take stock of the medical supplies, particularly the drugs that we might need."

No one interrupted to ask why he hadn't chosen House.

"Preliminary checks and a bed count reveal that this facility sleeps 22. I'm not going to assign rooms. We're all adults, and I'm sure you can figure it out. There are twenty beds. There are a limited number of rooms. Some of you are going to be roomies, if you want to have a roof over your head. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

"In addition to inventory, someone is going to need to go back to the garden, the tunnel, the Beach Camp and Camp Serenity, to brief them on the situation here. We have a jeep, which won't be as fast as the other methods of transport available to us, but a jeep won't physically tire anyone out."

"A jeep that has to go in two different directions. That's going to take time," Damon pointed out. "Whichever way the jeep doesn't go, I will." He didn't elaborate. He also didn't sound happy about volunteering. Given his preoccupation with finding Claire and being with Claire, Daniel wasn't surprised.

"Let's not jump the gun, Damon. We'll see what we need," Daniel said quietly, giving the other man a sympathetic nod. "Last but not least, we have the prisoners. Some of them got away, and chances are that the ones who escaped will come for their people. We need to be prepared, and before we decide what to do with them, we need to find out a lot more about them."

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"Great." People with access to Ancient technology.

Of course, Dr. McKay has experience in Ancient technology. He can recognize it, use it, jury rig it, interface to it, and can even read it-- technical jargon, that is. He's been immersed in it for over a year, and in that time, he's effectively the technical expert in it in not only this galaxy but probably in the Pegasus Galaxy as well. In that, they've still got a somewhat level playing field. He'd be the first to say that the survivor group is lucky to have him on their side, but at the moment, he was a bit too preoccupied with that second cup of coffee, and after that, a third.

The moment it was done brewing, Rodney grabbed his own cup and retakes his seat. He and The Doctor worked to isolate the system, and there are still a couple more things he'd like to do to make sure that they're completely protected, or rather, as protected as they could be. The fact they've got the CCTV working helps, however. At least, it went a long way to help alleviate his concerns.

Chris swallowed his eggs and hash browns. "Wasn't that strange girl... what's her name... a prisoner here? Maybe she'd know."

"Alex," someone supplied.

"Right, maybe Alex would know what's going on," Chris offered. "But I haven't seen her this morning." He wondered if she was still there, or had disappeared into the night.

"She was up half the night, scrubbing away in the.." Jon's trailed off, remembering that Locke was present. "..corner room."

There was some shifting in seats as everyone recalled why that room needed scrubbing, so Jon decided to plough on.

"Inventories, billets and communicating with the other groups we should be able to start on without Alex, even rotas - though they might be subject to change depending on what we find out. She's not exactly battering the door down to do away with our prisoners though, is she? So there might be some loyalty hiding away in there, however cooperative she seems."

He thought a minute. "The girls were asked questions, lots of questions, weren't they? Maybe there's some kind of truth serum about."

Mention of the "corner room" made Scott shudder. He knew the blood hadn't been Ami's and that Daisy, being a grim reaper, had recovered -- (Physically, at least) -- but still. (Monsters!)

Scott briefly wondered where the prisoners were being held. For now he and especially Ethan were better off not knowing. Ami was his first priority. Revenge could wait until she was conscious and able to care for herself.

Jon's mention of questioning caught Scott's attention. "Even if the bastards weren't questioning the women, they were doping them up. Did anyone find their medical records? I can tell what the drugs did to Ami, but I need to know more about the drugs themselves." Damon's, Locke's, and the Doctor's presence reminded him that Ami wasn't the only person who'd been experimented on or hurt. "When we're done here I'll see what I can do for Tara, and anyone else who's hurt."

Megabyte noticed that he wasn't the only one who shuddered or blanched at the mention of the "corner room." And most of those present had only heard about it. He'd only gotten to see it in black and white, but that was enough for him.

"We have their medical records," Daniel confirmed, a fact that Megabyte already knew. He'd been there when Daniel asked for them and Alex had immediately pointed them out. They were thick files for the few days that the women had been in captivity; even given that according to timestamps in the security system, it had been nearly ten days for the women, the files were still incredibly thick.

Megabyte hadn't tried to look at them. Not because he didn't think he could decipher what was done, but because he was afraid that he could.

"The Doctor, Dr. Pierson, Rodney, and I looked them over last night," Daniel continued. "They don't make for pleasant reading." From anyone else those words probably would have sounded patronizing, but a good deal of sincerity, sadness and anger -- well hidden by the calm on Daniel's face -- flowed from the archeaologist/soldier when he said those words.

"Why Rodney?" Megabyte asked.

"Because I am one of the --"

"Because Rodney has an understanding of the sorts of advanced technology, as well as a few of the other things we encountered in their files. Believe it or not, he can be helpful -- and discreet -- at times."

"Of course I can be discreet, I never would have --" Rodney stopped as a ding rang out, signifying a fresh pot of coffee. "Coffee's ready. Good. I think better with coffee."

Daniel shook his head, pushed his glasses up on his nose and continued as though uninterrupted. He looked directly at Scott. "If there aren't any objections, I don't see why you can't look at the files when we wrap up here. But it won't be my final call. They aren't my files."

Thinking about the files and the medical "procedures," Megabyte glanced at Scott. As much as he wanted to ask the man a question, he didn't want to do it aloud. Though he'd done what he had to do, revealed himself in order to rescue his friends, he felt a little odd about it now. There was no desire to continue to advertise that he was more than a little bit different.

He gave Scott a telepathic nudge, /Scott./

Megabyte waited until the man's head turned slightly and he knew that he had his attention. /I don't know how exactly how your healing works, but you said that you can tell what the drugs did to Ami. Could you check on Claire and the baby?/

"I don't think we'll need to resort to truth serum, Jon," Daniel said. "The Doctor has been able to confirm that Alex hasn't lied to us."

"A lie of omission is still a lie, Daniel. She isn't exactly volunteering stuff either, is she?" Jon reminded him, the scowl on his face so reminiscent of Jack O'Neill that for a moment Daniel felt like they were off-world in an unknown hostile environment, banging their heads together to figure everything out.

(Oh wait, we are. Except it's Jon instead of Jack. Other than that, it's life as I've come to know it.)

"She's not visiting the prisoners either," someone pointed out.

"Which makes sense if she was a prisoner here," Daniel agreed. "It also makes sense that she wouldn't necessarily be shouting 'off with their heads,' either. We don't know how long she's been here, what they've done to her or how she's been socialized --"

Jon looked dubiously at him. "Stockholm Syndrome?"

"We can't ignore the possibility."

'Believe it or not?!'

Oh, certainly Rodney can be discreet. He hasn't said word one about the existance of the Lost City of the Ancients millions of light-years away to anyone not directly 'in the know', and the fact that he's comfortable around an alien could lead to supposition, sure, but he'd never come out and /said/ that he deals with them on a regular basis. The Asgard. Goa'uld. Ascended Ancients. Even in this push for honesty, he hasn't really said who he worked for, much less the USAF. He'd simply said the Pentagon would be looking for him...

As for what to do next, well.. that was not necessarily his call. For all intents and purposes, Dr. Jackson was running the show, and this meeting was for prioritizing, right? Those who needed to know what his expertise was, knows, and beyond that?

"I'd like to get back to the computers, bring it down to base code if I need to." After all, there is power in the building, which means he can run his own laptop with impugnity. Get everything organized the way he wanted them now that he's got a great deal more information... And, with coffee and food now in comparitive abundance, McKay'll pull all-nighters if need be. After all, what else was there to do? At least for a brilliant scientist like himself...

Looking more and more the college professor, Daniel said, "If there aren't any objections, I don't see why you can't look at the files when we wrap up here. But it won't be my final call. They aren't my files."

Scott nodded. "I'm positive that Ami won't be upset if I look at hers. As for anyone else's--" he glanced at the Doctor, John, and Damon "--that's up to them."

"Daisy is fine physically," John remarked. "Once she's more... centered I'll ask her what she wants to do with her file." He turned to Daniel. "I'll see to taking inventory of the supplies. There's sure to be weapons, or at least materials good for defense."

Sam, who'd been quietly eating and listening the whole time, spoke up. "I'll help you." Scott had the distinct impression that the burgeoning psychic was avoiding meeting his eyes. He couldn't figure out why.

Damon's telepathic words were a (mostly) welcome distraction. It was weird hearing anyone other than his father or Ami in his head. /Could you check on Claire and the baby?/

Scott caught Damon's eye and nodded slightly. The thought of drugging a pregnant woman made him sick to his stomach. Claire couldn't be too bad off since Damon had stayed for the meeting. He hoped that he didn't find anything bad.

The longer the meeting went on the more Sam felt out of his element. If his brother hadn't been off getting laid -- not that he was jealous, nope, not one bit -- he was sure that Dean would feel the same way. Their work was pretty cut and dry. There were good guys and bad guys. The bad guys were either already dead or not human, so killing them wasn't an issue. The only exceptions they'd run into were possessions -- *shudder* -- and a few cases of the criminally insane. For the latter they could leave the crazies for the authorities to deal with.

This place, though... Dharma seemed to be run by regular, mortal humans. Sadistic, sure, but Sam didn't think he could kill one of them in cold blood. Dean, neither. Scott... maybe, after what he'd seen in the office. Sam was still resentful about whatever psychic crap the guy had tried on him the other day. It was a far cry from how Max had used his abilities, but still...

And what was this ancient technology? The control panels and notion of temporal barriers seemed pretty damn high tech. After volunteering to help John take stock of the supplies, Sam turned to Daniel, who spoke way too many obscure languages for a soldier. "Question. Ancient technology? None of this seems ancient to me."

Daniel sighed. Sam, his brother and May had not been there for the what-the-hell-everyone's-seen-the-goods-anyway conversation. He could feel both Jon and Rodney's eyes on him as they wondered what he could possibly say that didn't compromise more than had been compromised.

"Alien," Daniel translated. Everyone else knew that. Oddly, everyone else accepted that. "It's an ancient type of alien technology, with ancient being a relative term. And yes, I said alien, and no, I don't mean people who sneak into the country and don't hold green cards."

He waited to see how Sam would handle that information.

Sam frowned at Daniel for a few moments. The soldier simply looked back. "Huh," Sam murmured. He glanced around the table. No one was surprised. In fact, Jon and Rodney looked bored. Scott seemed to be a bit on edge; the Doctor mildly amused. "Huh," Sam repeated. Then he grinned. "Does Faith, um, not have a green card?"

Everyone looked at him askance. "No," Daniel said slowly. "What would make you think that?"

Sam shrugged. "Wishful thinking. I'd love to tell Dean that he hooked up with E.T."

Rodney sat back in his seat, his expression falling to a scowl. He didn't like mentionning them-- in his book, while they had wonderous cities and incredible technology, every single one that he'd met (or read about) were, well, jerks. Pure and simple. Whether they were ascended or only 'technically'. And more to the point, he didn't like feeling as if he was being put on the spot, even if only through Dr. Jackson. Security meant safety. And, if anyone finds out that the barely defensible City 'out there' still exists, he puts his friends in jeopardy, if only indirectly.

Oh, hey, look at that. More coffee...

McKay looked away to attend to his coffee, waiting for the inevitable questions that would follow; answers he was more than willing for either Dr. Jackson to field, or-- hey-- perhaps The Doctor?

May sipped her orange juice, gauging the reactions in the room. Everyone else looked supremely bored at the revelation, but... it made sense, really. Aliens seemed to fit the explanation for most of the technological weirdness of the past few days. "I wish Dad were here," she mumured, thinking aloud. "He'd be in geek heaven."

She racked up another language on the list of languages Daniel spoke as Jon mentioned the Gaelic. English, Japanese, Aramaic, something that wasn't Japanese (whatever that other couple in the clearing spoke), and now Gaelic. She'd intended to get the Doctor the other night, but it was probably best that she'd run into Daniel instead given his linguistic skills. /How many languages does this guy speak already?/ She took another gulp of her orange juice as Sam asked about Faith.

"Wishful thinking. I'd love to tell Dean that he hooked up with E.T."

May nearly spit out her drink at that, but saved herself from hosing Jon and Daniel down and nearly choked instead. "You okay?" Jon asked.

She swallowed and nodded. "Yeah. Bad timing. Not funny," she added at Sam's smile. Somehow, the citrus hitting her sinuses must have kick-started her brain because something important occurred to her. "But seriously, with all this talk of aliens, has anyone figured out exactly where we are? On Earth, I'm assuming, but beyond that? The way we got dumped here, we don't really have a point of reference."

Dean arrived back at the cafeteria and got himself another cuppa joe. Putting on his best 'I'm ready for anything' look, he settled down to business just as May finished asking her question. At that moment, they heard a loud crack from Tara's room and the lights flickered momentarily. "Not only that, but what we gonna do about Ms. Random Acts of Witchery? I don't know about you, but I sure don't want to be walking down the hallway and have one of her bolts hit me in the ass."

May scowled at Dean. "Would serve you right." May wasn't too happy about Dean's callous comment about Tara's critical condition.

"What? I'm just saying. Sounds like they might be getting worse. At least we should cut off any electricity to her room in case she arcs again. It might take the whole place out next time."

"Huh, lughead's actually using the proper organ to think with for once." Rodney said.

ooc: out till much later tonight.

The Doctor smirked at the mention of aliens. He’d long since stopped even pretending with this lot. And no one had treated him any differently. Of course some thought he was barmy. Maybe he was. But for the most part this lot were a good sort. Across the table Ripley was listening to Daniel attentively while sharpening her claws on a whetstone. Yeah, some non-humans were more obvious than others. Scott still kept himself hidden, and he was welcome to his secret. So did Molly. She wasn’t totally human, but he hadn’t a clue what species she was crossed with.

Rose cleared her throat at Damon’s suggestion of looking at files, and Daniel’s deferring to the ‘subjects’. “You can see mine. I don’t know what they did. But another hand at figurin out what it was and why can only help, yeah?”

The Doctor found himself reaching for her hand and feeling the warm, comfort of her touch. He gave a squeeze of support. But he didn’t fool himself into thinking he was only being supportive of Rose. No, he was going to need her support as well. Because he couldn’t tell her what had been done just yet. He would, eventually. But he had to get a handle on his own response to it first.

“As for where we are,” he spoke up, “Earth definitely. South of the equator, the Pacific Ocean. East of Australia and West of California. Rodney has the coordinates on his computer. He plotted it out using star positions for the distress call. There has to be a map here somewhere. And it’s 2004, in case that’s not when your from.”

Across the table Ripley snorted back a laugh.

Molly chewed her lip. There might be an answer to Tara's 'misfiring' and her own bone deep wariness. Tara had absorbed so much of Molly's energy, she had almost inadvertently killed her. Elves WERE magic. It was part of their physical make up, as much as blood and bone and flesh.

To others Molly looked tired and paler than usual. Her hair seemed a bit duller than usual, and even her eyes seemed somehow diminished.

But if Molly could actually work a reversal, to absorb Tara's magic, like she could absorb the magic of a storm... She might be able to leech away the force behind the magical blips.

"I'm all for cutting power. She doesn't need another round as a lightening rod. But I think I might be able to do something to help diminish the discharges. I'm not sure."

Faith led the short distance to the kitchen, and ducked inside with George and Isabel on her heels. Everyone was listening to Daniel -- or talking or asking questions -- so no one seemed to notice her immediately.

A shrill wolf whistle changed all that.

The room fell silent, every head swiveled in their direction. She could feel George alternating between glaring and cringing, and she figured Isabel had probably just gone scarlet. Whatever. At least they had everyone's attention.

"Yo, everybody, George brought home a stray," Faith announced. She jerked her thumb towards Isabel, "This is Isabel. She's just an ordinary girl who got washed overboard out at sea and wound up in our little island of tropical fun and sun. Isabel," Faith glanced over her shoulder and grinned at the newcomer, "This is everybody."

Her eyes moved around the room and Faith snorted, "And we are all starting to look like a bunch of extras from ER."

Rodney decided that he wasn't going to answer the question regarding where and when they were. Thankfully, The Doctor spoke up, allowing the astrophysicist to finish his second cup of coffee before he began to consider his third.

The scowl began to fade, and all things considered, he had his work cut out for him for as long as he's here. He mentally began to check things off, much like he had while lying in bed, smelling the aroma of breakfast.

The interruption of Faith brought his focus off the middle distance, and pressing his lips together in a grimace, watched the introduction of yet one more undoubtedly unhelpful person to the castaways.

Still, she was cute.
Blonde.

"Never saw it. I'm thinking we're more like 'The Prisoner', but without the giant rubber ball."

Aiden was both tired and psyched, and she was quite used to the feeling. She'd pulled an all-nighter fingerprinting everything she could get her hands on as well as trying to get a general feel for the place. Cameras were everywhere. Well almost everywhere. There were a couple of blind spots. She hid the evidence she'd collected in an air vent out of camera range so no one had seen her do it. Trust no one.

She sighed and knew her "shift" as it were was not done yet. She wanted to speak to the doctor(s) who'd treated the victims and the victims themselves if they were up to it. She wanted to interview the prisoners she'd heard they'd brought back as well as this girl who'd helped them do it. And no she wasn't planing on taking a nap first. Witness testimonies were shaky enough without letting more time pass.

She wished her partner was here to help, or at least play good cop insane cop with her. She smiled at the thought but it quickly faded. She was homesick.

She swallowed her hurt and loneliness as she came into the room, snapping her gloves off in the process. She turned them inside out and put them in the plastic baggie she took our of her jeans pocket. She sealed it with a piece of tape and pulled the pen off the v-neck in her shirt to initial and date the tape. Then she helped herself to a cup of coffee.

She looked over the group as she wrapped her hands around the mug.

"Good morning." she said to the group. "So where are we?"

((OOC: I'm going to place this about a second before Faith's Big Entrance since Aiden's managed to slip in quietly. With everyone staring at the door, she wouldn't have come in unnoticed.))

May blinked at the woman - oh, wait, yeah, she'd been in the clearing on the night of Let's-Meet-Everybody-And-You'll-Be-Quizzed-Later. Ann? No, it wasn't a common name, but all May could remember was that it began with an A.

She was getting up to put her plate in the sink anyway, so she came over to greet the new arrival. "Eating, mostly. Help yourself, I think the wolves haven't devoured it all."

((OOC again: Okay, my brain is now trying to escape out my ear due to the Headache That Will Not Die. Bedtime....))

Aiden smiled at May's joke. She assumed she was reffering to the overwhelming number of men. Not that it rattled Aiden, she was used to working in a place that had testerone dripping down the walls.

She looked around for something to eat with her coffee.

"That you know of," George said acidly. (Way to tempt fate, McKay,) she thought. "Nobody's tried to leave the island yet. For all we know, if somebody tries to sail away Rover will come along to stop 'em."

George turned to take a look at Isabel, to see how she was dealing with all the strangers staring at her--and noticed Blaise. He'd been sitting at a table in the corner. Now he was standing, staring at Isabel with an odd expression.

Before George could identify his reaction he gave his head a little shake and sat down again, muttering to himself. Blaise focused on his plate, picking up his fork and resuming his meal.

George watched him for a moment longer, wondering what that was about. Blaise glanced up at Isabel once more, then concentrated on eating again.

Blaise glanced up from under his brow for a moment, then lowered his eyes again. He picked up a piece of bacon and ate it. He shook his head slightly.

(Damn,) he thought. He'd been shocked when Faith's whistle caught his attention and he'd looked up. For a moment he thought that Lily--his Lily--had somehow turned up on the island. Torn by conflicting emotions, he'd leaped to his feet; thrilled to see his wife again, but angry and frightened by the thought that she'd somehow been dragged into this mess.

But Faith introduced her as Isabel and on closer inspection, she wasn't Lily. The resemblance was remarkable, but it was only a strong resemblance. She might have been Lily's sister, but not her identical twin. Still, it was a painful reminder of how much he missed her.

Isabel surveyed the room, admitting to herself that she hadn't expected there to be so many people. What was going on here? A more disparate group she couldn't have imagined. The man who looked like he was leading the briefing, bespectacled and looking at her curiously, was kind of cute, but looked irritated to be distracted by her arrival.

Most of the others were also looking at her curiously; she didn't really hear Faith introduce her. There was definitely something extremely odd about these people. A strange feeling about some of them, but no two quite the same. Most of them wildly disparate, like a badly-chosen collage. She managed a brief, shy smile.

"Hi," she said. Her stomach rumbled again; the smell of bacon, eggs and coffee was much stronger in here, and her eyes soon found its source - an evidently much-diminished pile of cooked bacon, and a large pot of strong coffee. "Can we leave why I'm here until after breakfast?"

Dean looked at the gorgeous blonde next to Faith and George. Whoever or whatever was doing this certainly had great tastes in women. He casts a sidelong glance at Sam who was also scrutinizing the woman. Sam glanced at Dean and shrugged ever so slightly as if to indicate, 'nope, got nuthin'.

Next he looked at May to see if her senses were telling her anything.

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Page 1 of 4

[Daniel] Day 20: Debriefing (open tag)

[McKay] Day 20: Debriefing (open tag)

[Chris] And what about.... (tag Daniel, open)

[Jon] And what about.... (tag open)

[Scott] And what about.... (tag open)

[Megabyte, Daniel] And What About . . . (tag Scott, open)

[Daniel] And what about.... (tag Jon, open)

[McKay] Priorities? (tag open)

[Scott, Locke, Sam] And What About . . . (open tag)

[Sam] Missing the occult (tag Daniel, open)

[Daniel] It's ancient ... and it's alien (tag Sam, open)

[Sam] It's ancient ... and it's alien (open tag)

[McKay] It's ancient ... and it's alien (tag Sam, open)

[Mayday] It's ancient ... and it's alien (open tag)

[Dean] Whew, that was close! (open tag)

[Doctor] It's ancient ... and it's alien (open tag)

[Molly] Whew, that was close! (open tag)

[Faith] Hey, Check Out the New Girl (tag Isabel, George, open)

[McKay] Hey, Check Out the New Girl (tag Isabel, Faith, open)

(frozen comment) [Aiden] Another day at the Office...er..compound

(frozen comment) [Mayday] Another day at the Office...er..compound (tag Aiden, open)

(frozen comment) Re: [Aiden] Another day at the Office...er..compound (tag Mayday, open)

[George] Hey, Check Out the New Girl (open tag)

[Blaise] Hey, Check Out the New Girl (open tag)

[Isabel] This is worse than Show and Tell (open tag)

[Dean] This is worse than Show and Tell (tag May, open)