It's a goddamn oxymoron.

Aw, you noticed. See? You do care. And I’ll have you know that my hair is cute. Much cuter than that frizzy mop you call a hairdo.

I don't care, and it ain't cute. I just happen to notice a hideous haircut when it's shoved right in my face. And for the record, it makes your face look fat.

Ain’t that big a base though, funny how we keep missin’ each other. Smarter man might say you’re avoidin’ us all…

I haven't been avoidin' everyone, though. I just... value my alone time. I'll talk to people when they initiate. See? We're talkin' right now. That's proof enough for me.

And please, don’t fucking flatter yourself. Like I’d ever wanna follow you around.

Speaking of which, what in the high heavens did you do to your hair? Went and hacked off the one thing about you that could almost be seen as redeemin'.

Everyone welcome Maxine Sinclair to Barnblitz. Please make her feel at home during her stay.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Jesus fucking christ, I thought I was through having to deal with your ugly mug.

And yet here you are, several countries over, still annoyin' the shit out of me. God, how far do I have to go before you quit followin' me, huh?

Everyone welcome Maxine Sinclair to Barnblitz. Please make her feel at home during her stay.

You've got to be kidding me.

"Don’t make a habit of it," he says suddenly, trying to keep his eyes off the orange glow. “I don’t want you slipping back into the same pattern. All that hard work for nothing? I think not, Ms. Kleeman, I pride myself on my success rate! Now hurry up, I want to finish this. Haven’t eaten since this morning, have to wake up and do it all again tomorrow…" He sighs audibly and adjusts his scarf.

"I told you to call me Ida. Now go inside already. I can finish these by myself. Get somethin' to eat and then rest up for battle tomorrow," she responds. "As much as I want to squash your team under my boot, I do like a little healthy competition. That means having you in good fighting condition. Got it?"

"You’d think they were getting themselves killed on purpose! I swear, this is practically double the work we did yesterday. Mongrels…" Grumbling, he slides his gloved hands under the corpse’s arms again. “Just toss them in. I can already tell there’s at least two we’re going to have to pull apart in there, might as well save our energy for that. Give me a hand here, yeah?"

She strikes the match on the box and a flame flickers to life; she lights the cigarette and takes a long drag. It doesn't do much to cover the smell from the incinerator, but it's something. After a moment, she offers the one to the doctor. "Take the edge off?"

"Absolutely wretched," he says to himself, trying to pick someone up under their arms to drag them closer to the incinerator. He doesn’t look at their face, because he doesn’t want to know who it is. Not that he’d be able to tell anyway, this one’s already been burnt to a crisp. As usual, the work of that crazy French ankle biter he’d started to avoid. “I’m sorry you have to be set on fire twice, friend."

"Last batch, Mr. Burfitt. Finish this one off and we're done for the day," she says, jogging over to help him. He looks about as exhausted as she'd expected- but she's impressed. He got through almost the whole last batch by himself. Maybe he wasn't as much of a wimp as she thought. "Wanna break this one up or just toss it in whole? Looks like it'll break apart pretty easy either way."

Aaron is a bad influence.

Though they won’t be that fun, mostly just angry… Heh.

That aside, though, I'd be lyin' if I said I didn't want to pick up a few new words. Even if they are out of anger. Those are the most fun, anyway.

Heh, it means, to translate it in your terms. Shit.

I figured. I think I like paska better though, honestly.

It’s no insult at all dear, it’s Finnish. I can say, some of your names have.. Taken me a while to cope with, language barriers and all that.. Sometimes I think it’s a load of uh… Paska!

Finnish, hm? That's interestin'. Not sure I've ever met someone Finnish. And don't worry, I understand. There's some challengin' names here, I don't doubt anyone would disagree about it bein' a load of... paska? Paska.

*Takes her hand and gives an enthused shake, before pressing a kiss to the back of her hand out of habit.*

Valtteri is a nice name as well. Strange, though, if you don't mind me sayin'.

-More engineers, more sentries. Drat.-

I am Valtteri, and you?

-She squints, then reluctantly offers her hand.-