Claire smiled calmly as the dinner ended. In her mind, it had been very fruitful... very informative indeed, whether her enemies realized it or not.

Her thoughts strayed to Kokuten's behavior and she frowned mildly. Laj must have given more direct information to him for him to start acting the way he was. She would probably try to ply that out of him later... the results would be interesting either way.

For now, she smiled as Fidela got all worked up, she reached over and patted her bottom lightly. "Go get em, girl. We'll be looking forward to seeing you on the station."

As the food arrived, Tweak realized she never ordered, except for her drink. Her menu was taken when her drink had arrived. Fortunately, one of the waiters noticed and asked her what dish she was waiting for, and then took her request, returning with it rather quickly.

As she ate (the device thingy turned out to make a rather interesting eating utensil when configured appropriately), the 'spacer neko remained quiet for the remainder of the dinner, finishing her meal swiftly. Not to say she didn't enjoy it, but she did so at a rapid pace.

Upon finishing, Tweak cleaned her "sporkni" and returned the device to its original configuration as an addition to her bracelet, barely noticing Laj making his closing remark and leaving, followed by Cassefin excusing herself to talk over the job request with Fidela. Once the leaders had left, Tweak glanced around the table one more time as she clipped the device back on her wrist. Everything seemed to be wrapping up, so she got up and pushed her chair against the table while checking her dress and coat, making sure she had everything.

The last third of the dinner had passed rather uneventfully, she thought. But the night wasn't over yet. She still needed to talk with Kokuten.

Blake finished his Orangewing with a contented sigh. In fact, the whole meal was expertly prepared in just the way he liked. Throughout the entire meal, he'd delicately taken piece by piece of the different courses onto his fork, and then carefully into his mouth. An incredible challenge, considering the large amount of painkillers he'd ingested before the meal.

Of course, because of the incredible challenge that it was to eat, Blake was able to silently avoid any further dinner conversation while he carefully ingested the portions before him. Naturally, he felt disappointed to Nell's departure, as that left him without a subject for the night. Following her departure, he excused himself silently from the table, and made his way down to the nearest elevator.

In the elevator, the young Morris considered other potential subjects for the evening. He had to art. The station was so clean and boring, there was very little for him to represent there without breaking at least two of the station's rules. He could approach Kokuten, but the poor Captain was feeling ill. He could approach Tweak again, but he had a sneaking suspicion (and an equally suspicious bump on his shiny head) that she still didn't like him very much.

Bing!

The elevator doors welcomed him into the hall where his hotel room was found and the young man ushered himself gladly through the well-decorated corridor. Finally finding his room, Blake jiggled the handle. Nothing. Maybe the unlocking process hadn't finished yet. Maybe he wasn't close enough to the lock. So, Blake tried again to open the door to his room, this time pressing hard against the door as he pulled against the handle. It was turning out to be a bad night for art.

Cassefin led the young lady down the stairs and off to the side, carrying her coat slung over her arm. The woman sighed with relief when she came to a stop near a large potted plant, the restaurant lobby now fairly empty save for a handful of patrons trickling out as they left for the night.

"So," the red-haired Administrator said, clearing her throat and giving Fidela a quaint smirk. "You want to work on the Cirrus Research Station. If you know that much, you also know how prestigious and important our work is to Nepleslia. So I'm going to assume that you are really serious about this and are going to give it your all, because that's what I require from all of my employees," Cassefin nodded along with her own preaching, looking quite proud of herself and her explanation.

"It just so happens that I am looking for a few more assistants for one of my bigger projects in our astrometric geometry field," the woman crossed her arms in front of her, watching Fidela as she spoke. "You'll have to start at the bottom in data processing if you want to move up. I'll also require one or two things from you before I let you work for me. Understand?"

---

As Blake fumbled away at his door handle, the man would suddenly feel two hands clasp themselves firmly onto his shoulders. Try as Blake might, the hands would not allow him to turn, keeping him facing his door as the one behind him held him back wordlessly.

"Hey there tough guy," a familiar voice crooned softly behind Blakes head. "Where ya think yer off to, hmm?"

Fidela kept hot on Cassefin's heels as she struggled with her own, having found that she had bent her own heel getting out of the chair. The brown skinned girl seemed to hobble with a limp, trying to keep her balance. Only her supreme anticipation for the next few moments was keeping her from cursing in a steady stream of whining frustrations. Though as soon as Cassefin turned to face the girl, she straightened up and smiled.



The smile slowly became wider. It was an unconscious response to the fact that this really happening! Fresh out of college, and finally getting a job with her degree was one of her personal goals in life, and now, it was about to get realized!



Fidela's fingers began to curl together tightly behind her back. The excitement was beginning to burst from within her! Bitch work? Yes ma'am! Anything was better than pushing coffee beans in some name-brand coffee place under the thumb of some pompous tech graduate! Her lip tucked under her teeth as she tried to hide her exhilaration.

"Yes!" she slipped, letting some of it out in a joyful outburst in response to her new boss, before she slapped a hand over her mouth, "I mean. Yes. Yes ma'am. What would those two things be?"

Blake stiffened in place as the hands wrapped around his shoulders with a firm grip belonging typically to an overly expressive fat uncle. The door, now loose, swung slowly open in front of him, exposing the perfectly clean and dimly lit room beyond. He let a sigh escape from his lips when he spotted his cigarettes sitting invitingly on a small table near the door. 'Okay, so this is my room.' He thought, 'So, what did that question mean?'

"Uh... Could you repeat the question?" Blake said. The drugs were earing off, but the confusion still lingered. Why would someone want to know where he was off to like that?

"Was I supposed to be going somewhere else?" he added, twisting his head to make some sort of awkward eye-contact with the mystery speaker. He couldn't see them of course, the sunglasses he'd been using as a social escape net all night were for once obstructing his view instead of theirs.

No one seemed to notice Tweak leave, which she preferred. She noticed a few patrons give her looks, ranging from surprise and curiosity to snooty "Oh, one of those people"-type expressions before turning back to their meals.

---

Outside of the restaurant, Tweak facepalmed. Where would Kokuten be? He said he wanted to talk with her after the dinner, but not where to meet him. She lowered her hand and gave a small sigh to calm herself, heading away from the lines at the front of the restaurant.

Once away from the people, as she was going over the memories of what happened over the course of the evening and copying them to her memory drive (there was no way she was ever chancing loosing those memories!), Tweak stumbled on something Kokuten said before Laj had inquired about Tweak's placement on Cirrus.

She facepalmed again. "Oh yeah...he said he was going to his room," she mumbled, changing her course to head to the elevators.

---

The entry request alert sounded at the room assigned to the squad captain. Tweak stood outside the door, one hand fidgeting with her bracelet and its attachment as she waited for a response.

Tweak's sensitive ears would likely pick up on a mild groan coming from inside the room. A familiar voice faintly called back. "One second. Shit." it rolled, before a few awkward steps heavily tromped to the door. With an awkward handling of the knob, the door opened revealing the occupant, likely not as Tweak expected him.

Kokuten was not exactly the most pleasant looking gentlemen as he had been for most the day. He stood there in the doorway, shirtless, allowing everyone to see his cybernetics meet his skin in it's hastily grafted form. He still wore his slacks, but they were somewhat wrinkled, with his bare feet poking out from under the hem. At first, Tweak was welcomed with a disgruntled, red-eyed stare, before he blinked, seemingly recognizing the person in front of him. The red slow glazed back to an oddly shaded green, before he ran a hand through his lightly muffed hair.

"Ah, hey there... Tweak." The Doctor, obviously inebriated from tone, expression, and smell, looked back into his room. "Um... Come in. Yeah, come in." He beckoned at that, wavily stumbling back into his room, which was rather well-kept save for the tossed aside jacket and turtle-neck, shoes nestled carelessly over them.

He lumbered onto his bed, which seemed to be slightly disturbed. On the nightstand, was the now empty bottle of Nepleslia Green with a single shot-glass cohorting at it's side. The young man began speaking to her in Yamataian, as he gave his toe an unusually long stare.

"I apologize if I'm not too seemly." he spoke, wistfully mouthing off in his native language, "But I'm still coherent."

The captain's appearance stunned Tweak for a second, but she accepted his invitation to enter after a moment's hesitation.


The smell of the industrial alcohol was strong. She absently noted that he must have an insane tolerance to the stuff if he had actually finished the ENTIRE bottle...were humans really so resilient?


"It's nothing..." Tweak replied in kind, using Yamataian, her eyes still looking anywhere but him as she gathered her thoughts. His cybernetics were distracting...yeah. The tinker in her kept wanting to map out the mechanics of the things...maybe see if there was a way to improve them a little...

"Whatwha...um...you wished to talk to me about something?" she asked, her speech reverting back to Trade.

"I did didn' I?" replied Kokuten, slurring back into Trade, looking up at Tweak with a very discerning expression on his face. He was silent for a few moments, as if he was trying to figure out how to tell her his thoughts. Then suddenly, he fell back on his back, look up at the ceiling.

"I don' quite remem--..." he started, but just as he was revealing he didn't recall ever asking, he shot back up his metal arms nearly throwing him up into the air. "Oh!" He paused in that position for a few seconds, his hands up in the air, with a look of shock on his face. Then he broke out into laughter when he realized how funny that was, and neglecting what embarrassment he may have felt.

"Eh heh heh..." The Captain finished, now swaying gently from side to side, "Right, I dihd have a few things to assk you." He crossed his legs and raised a finger. "Your mind works like a brain recorder, righ'?" Another bit of mirth broke through his lips when he realized he had said that wrong, "Is it possible t'turn that whole thing wit' Laj into a small video playbahck? And!" He started into his next set of words, throwing his finger forward to point at her to emphasize the importance of his words, before he realized how bad an idea that was.

When he was inebriated like this, his brain often neglected to accommodate for the extra weight in his arms. Even though his eyes were cybernetic, his brain was still dragging his vision along, and that showed as he continued to stare rather plainly at Tweak as he tipped over.

THUD!

Suddenly, Kokuten realized he was upside down on the floor. The back of his head was experiencing a very pained sensation after it had bounced off the when he fell on his back. Even so, his legs were still on the bed, and that counted well enough for grace in Kokuten's book at this very moment. He thrust a finger back up at her, dragging him along the floor a little bit, turning his neck in an odd direction.

"Do not tell anyone about what Laj told us this evening." he said, with iron-hearted determination in his face and tone, even as he failed to move himself from the floor.