The OIF Atuan was docked inside one of the slowly being completed Dawn Station's docking bays, the Ashigaru's that had previously served as the small carrier's compliment having been carted off of the ship and to the research labs of Sector Seven as soon as it had arrived. Javier Feyete's development team had wanted to get a good look at how the Ashigaru reacted to damage from real, high-intensity combat, and they also wanted to study the effects of the Mishhu Frames' weapons on the materials used to construct the Ashigaru. As this would leave the Atuan's frame compliment dangerously low, with only Kelly and his Asura remaining operational, it had been decided to upgrade the ship's frame wing. As such, three more Asura's had been assigned to the ship, with Kelly's Asura(which, apparently, was the preproduction model) serving as the fourth, along with two Kirins to serve as long range combatants. Also, because of the nature of the missions that the ship would have to take in the future, part of the lower cargo-bay was being modified, adding two of the new Scimitars to the Justicar's combat wing for added assistance. Of course, even with all of the production and repair capabilities of Dawn Station, it would still take a few hours for the modifications to be completed, so the crew had been given some time off. In hustle and bustle of unloading multi-ton giant robots from the Atuan, no-one noticed the small organic creatures, along with a vaguely feminine lithe shape dropping away from some of the Ashigarus and the Atuan itself, scurrying away into ventilation shafts.

~~~~~~

Because of the unexpected turn of events that had happened on the Kennewes mission, Kelly Williams found himself in full Origin Uniform, walking besides the attractive, slim-yet-lethargic Arah Tenner, as they strode down one of Sector Seven's major hallways. They had been summoned to the offices of the enigmatic Murakami Kensuke, who was curious as to the exact details of the new NMX Powered Frames, and if anyone outside of the Atuan's crew and most of the OAW-staff of Sector Seven needed to know about the incident. Sighing, Kelly's posture relaxed a bit, as he scratched at his braided hair, which resembled rows of corn.

"Arah, I think I hurt Yoshiko by telling her what happened to Oyu so suddenly. She seemed distressed and worried, and I'm not really sure if I did the right thing. I think that if it weren't for her team-mates, she'd be a bit more distressed right now. I'm a bit worried about how she's holding up, but Taela seems to really look out for her, in the good ol' Nekovalkyrja way." in fact, Kelly had gone to extreme measures to make sure that the pilots were okay. His first order of the day had been "All of you, Shinji, Meena, Lucien, Taela, Yoshiko. Go spend some time together. As a group. There's this place called Gamma's Diner, why don't you all go try it out." Kelly's second order was a bit more relaxed than the wakeup call he had given the pilots on the day of the mission on Kennewes, "Have fun and relax, all of you. That's an order!"


~~~~~~~

Sitting in the large, mausoleum like office, behind a rather modest MAHOGANY desk, Murakami Kensuke smiled smugly, his arms folded in front if his face, as if hiding his smile from the only other person currently in the room.

"You can stop trying to pose like that now, Kensuke. That ominous pose fits someone evil. Perhaps if you were secretly a member of SAINT, sent to spy on Aerin?" The other person in the room was a tall, fair skinned Nepleslian of above average height, with blond hair and blue eyes, and a somewhat pale complexion. His voice, Kensuke noted, had an odd accent about it, sounding more refined than the average Nepleslian accent. His apparently calm demeanor did not leave anyone guessing to who this man was, because there was just a bit of a subtle restlessness to his posture, the faintest hint of the smell that came from doing mechanical work on a Powered Frame, and a few strands of red hair on his shirt, obviously not his. With a slight smile, he spoke up again.

"I am sure that Kelly and Arah will arrive here soon. They may be a bit... odd, but they are certainly reliable."

Yoshiko entered first into Gamma's Diner on Dawn Station. She looked cute as ever, except for the slightly tired out expression and eyes with the mile long stare. Of course, this was on top of the abnormal semi-silence she had. Yoshiko usually talked as though she were a hamster on a 50/50 mix of SPEED and THRUST. Considering she was now talking like a normal girl, this meant that something was wrong. "Hey guys, we're here." she called out, her voice laced with a touch of boredom. And that was another issue.

After working so hard on improving her Frame, mainly the the sensor modules, she simply gave up. Stopped. Yoshiko had finished one, brought the other to three fourths completion, fell asleep and then spooned it in her bed, and simply stopped trying to finish them after Oyu's death. They now rested in her locker, waiting her return. The Ex-Neko waved over a person working at the diner, and ordered up her fixings. "Steak and Potatoes. Rare. I'd like some of the red pepper vodka. Yes. That one there." she spoke, pointing out the bottle she wanted it from.

Since her change of behavior, Yoshiko had started to censor her own messages sent back home, continuing to say and look like everything was fine. In actuality, she was starting to drink now, not fully understanding why she did it; her young age and inexperience only made things worse, having her follow the patterns of those around her. Her adoptive father, Anton Greer, drank a lot, and she was simply imitating. He always did say it made the bad memories go away. Yoshiko took a long draw of her reddish vodka, Anton's favorite, as though it were water. "So, what you guys going to get?" she asked, bored. Her finger traced the lip of the glass, which hummed a little.

Lucien had shown up the next morning in Origin uniform, somehow. He'd opted to keep his biker's leathers, but since he was an Origin employee, he had to wear the uniform. He was eventually coaxed into it after a heavy night of drinking. However, the Scotsman had his own spin on the clothing and had fun with it, as it was already rather crumpled, frayed and dirty, even though he was in an almost sterile environment.

The tunic was worn open with its belt undone, the shirt underneath it was unbuttoned and his tie had given a sloppy version of the Oxford knot. His pants did not fare any better, looking as though they had been thrown into a washing machine full of stones and a bottle of beer. He'd also opted not to wear one of those silly caps and to keep his biker's boots on.

"That's gotta be th' first toime I've gotten me orders tae party," The Scot commented dryly to nobody in particular as he and the rest entered Gamma, "But orders be orders, aye?"
He sat down at the bar and put his index finger towards the barman to order a drink. The barman promptly slid a drink his way. Lucien paused for a moment and inspected the drink, wondering what he'd been given. It looked like a cocktail of some sort.

"Mate, this is... green," He pointed out the obvious, unamused and uninterested in odd looking drinks, "Methinks I'll have some crisps first, and a go at wot the lassie is havin'."
A packet of those crisps got slid his way, along with the pepper vodka, accruing a tiny bill of 16 KS, so far.

He downed the pepper vodka drink in one shot, shaking his head from the rush, but he was still wary of the green cocktail. The Scotsman had the intention of getting this bill somewhere in the 40's, and that would hopefully be when he's still sober.

Taela was worried for her friend. The drinking session earlier didn't do much for morale, it just made them drunk and giddy. And headache-ey. Judging by the silence that the Ex-Neko was emitting, it didn't seem like it did any good in the long run, either.

"Maybe you should just have a soda, Yoshi-sama. . ." The Neko urged, trying to nudge away the glass of vodka. "I'll have whatever. . . I guess the soup of the day."

She was trying her best, but her friend was a complicated nut to crack. Spazzy one day, brooding depression the next. But, Taela thought of something that, hopefully, would get a crack of a smile out of Yoshiko.

"And put it on Kelly Williams's tab, please."

Arah nodded along with what Kelly said, her mind apparently elsewhere. Arah really didn't care about the crew aside from the fact of wether or not they died; which had happened to Oyu and which she actually was feeling a little bad about. Despite this, she seemed calm and, as usual, bored as the pair walked towards Murakami Kensuke's office. Anything Kensuke said, however, had very little to do with the Captain of the Atuan; Aerin was in charge of her and any problems the Murakami man could take them up with her. She simply came because she was requested to do so and figured it would be more invigorating than sitting on the bridge as her ship was hacked into and modified.

******

"I'm gonna get somethin' that doesn't mess with My brain, Girl." Shinji said to Yoshiko, Taking her drink and downing it before she could protest, with a slight cough and a chest bump, before ordering Soda water and a bunch of flavor concentrate shots, as well as a stack of cups. The demolitionist began to mix up some virgin drinks, his eagle eyes and experience mixing compounds giving him a hand in making stuff. After mixing some strange, dark drink for himself, He asked Yoshiko and Teala one simple question: "What's you're favorite flavors?"

Yoshiko sat upright at the thought of having things on Kelly's tab. Her lips were puckered tightly together as her brows met in intense thought. And then she started to giggle. And then Shinji took her vodka away, and jsut as she was about to give an indignant reply, he summoned all sorts of colorful liquids in little thingies. 'Mr. Greer called those 'shots' I think.' the Ex-Neko thought. 'Ooooooo! Colors!' Yoshiko thought at the sight of the syrups and flavors. The sad truth was, the only thing distracting her from thinking too much at this point was her work, and in between that, not much, since she had given up on her hobbies. However, bright colors seemed to be doing a good job right now. Like a little girl, she demanded, "Berries! I want something with berries!" when Shinji offered to mix something.

Lucien, surprised with the outburst from the then-solemn Neko, whose name he didn't quite know, had an idea.
Berries? Wot is this lady loike, a rabbit? He thought for a moment, putting a mental image in his minds eye, Not just som' production-line Neko. Might 's well throw in some green lettuce, 'n hay, 'n a whe- He made a mental/verbal backspace as he stumbled on an idea, "Have some Green, then, lassie!"

He slid his green cocktail drink towards her. He wasn't sure what was in it, but it was most likely absinthe, something with melon juice or mango juice or just some green-coloured cocktail. Either way, it offended the Scotsman's harder tastes, and he wanted it off his part of the bar. At least this was the nicer way of going about it.

"Watermelon," Taela replied to Shinji. "But it's understandable if you don't have that, so I also like cherry."

When she got Yoshiko to giggle, she silently cheered inside. A minor victory, but a victory nonetheless. The fact that their demo expert was also a mixing expert helped too, considering bright things were apparently up Yoshiko's alley. However, she noticed that Lucien was just passing a probably alcoholic drink to her friend. The Neko then stopped it mid-slide and snatched it up, downing it in two gulps. She thought as her mind began to get a teeny-bit fuzzy, Tastes like. . . eh. . . not my best idea. It's a bit stronger than wine. . .

"No alcohol for her right now."

A nicely manicured finger excitedly tapped a dataslate held by its twin and several neighbors, silver-white patterns glittering slightly against the dark brown hue of flesh tanned from generations of living in a radioactive environ.

"So, off-loading Ashigaru and on-loading Kirin and Asura?" the owner of the two hands queried the electronic screen nestled in its tender grasp, thoughts of tinkering with brand new systems tripping several synapses that launched an intense desire in the owner's brain to delay her orders and satisfy a chimera of curiosity and desire.

"No, no, first impressions are everything; customs, customs, they run this dusty little world" the word 'dusty' was intoned with a mixture of fear; respect; and loathing, a beastial grin warding off the troubling demons that had followed the Warcase since her first step outside the home she'd grown up in.

(a)Sync Seven-Three sat in a slightly less than ultilitarian chair that seemed to please itself in only partially cushioning her bottom from the hard plastic beneath its rough upholstery fiber. The chair grabbed the Freespacer's attention once more as she shifted in the well-fitted Origin Industries uniform the company had given her, attempting to find a position in which neither the rough fabric nor the hard plastic underneath meager cushioning would irritate her as much as it did right now. To her growing dismay every shift irritated her body even more until she finally stood up in a huff to see what resembled the faces of the Captain and the Lead Pilot of her ship. A small fragment of non-ego data corrected the pronoun, it was 'the ship of the company she now belong to the employ of'; the ego figuratively backhanded the incongruous linguistic data and wondered how fashionably the cap upon its body's head sat. (a)Sync's half-full hands absentmindedly reached up to check and, satisfied that nothing was out of place aside from a few strands of slightly rose red hair that seemed to desire obstructing her right eye no matter what her hands told it, waited for her superiors to reach her and the door immediately to the rear and right of her that led into the office they had been requested to arrive at.

Yoshiko stared at Taela in horror as she drank the concoction. "But, but, IT WAS GREEN!" she spoke in fear, pointing her hand at the Neko with conviction; her other hand was held up over her mouth to cover up the terrified expression. "In all the movie and stuffs, green is always evil or something, unless it's the army, right?! At which anyone wearing green is disposable!" At the end of that, she suddenly slowed down in her rapid fire speech. "Dispos...disposable..." Yoshiko's animated expression of fear and excitement slowly became downcast, and her eyes began to water, nose sniffing to keep it from running. At about that moment, her plate of steak and potatoes was laid in front of her; she started to dig in vigorously while simultaneously salting the food with the water that came from her eyes.