“Being bullshitted? Since I was about eight. Also known as ‘Tuesday’ in Russia. Why, thinking of Sean, or something about this place?” She joked. Bethan had a point though. She hadn’t given this as much thought as perhaps she should have, but she also thought of them as too insignificant to be lied to. They were fresh off the boat - or truck, or however the other three got into the country - and thus pretty much had to take whatever anyone was merciful enough to throw at them, so why bother lying? But the district around her told a different story.

“You’d have to be pretty desperate to think that you need to lie to a bunch of nobodies.” The Russian opined, “Then again, it’s not like it’s Mensa county around this part of the world, and this scene is hard to argue with.” She gestured to the fairly nice looking district around them, “And no human windchimes hanging anywhere, picture that.” Yekaterina paused in thought, and Bethan could’ve probably heard gears grinding in her head if she listened carefully enough, “You think we should try our luck here? With ghetto hoodlums?” She would’ve much preferred to stick to one of the corporations, whether through Victor or through finding their own path, perhaps the centralized way of Russian life drawing her to a larger, outwardly more powerful and secure organization.

Then an epiphany struck her square in the head like a ricochet against an altyn helmet. “I may have just thought of a way of learning more about this place though. On my way here, the official line of bullshit I fed to customs along the way was that I was a humanitarian worker going to Matanbai to see how all this is affecting the locals. If I leave my gear with you, I might be able to ask how life is in this part of town without raising too much suspicion while we wait.” She offered a suggestion, “Unless curiosity kills the cat, this is all a very elaborate ruse and [i]Edik[/i] tries to turn me into a hat for my trouble.” Despite the attempt to lighten the mood, it reminded her of Melani’s throne room again and though the scarf covered her expression, the shift in her body language clearly expressed a measure of unease at the thought.