RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 27, Part 2] Night on the Beach (YE 39)

[HotelKilo]

Bar

"Thank you, Ramiro-juni," she said, offering a smile in return. If he wanted to play the 'stare down' game, Mehitabel felt far more prepared then she would have thought before getting off the shuttle. Compared to a veteran warrant officer her entire career was a mere heart beat, really. But that didn't mean she had to behave like a browbeaten recruit.

With a little more feeling, she actually laughed, "No, that would probably be a dreadful waste of champagne. Even with someone of your skill doing the flipping."

So she politely watched him mix. He was good; that wasn't her just being merely polite. And she had apparently ordered an actual drink, or he was humoring her. Either way there would be alcohol involved. After a few moments prep, however, Ramiro was back to glaring. His stare drew her attention back from dreamily watching the beach scene, the actinic flare of plasma still fading from her vision with Oshiro and Pan-hei's profiles in it. The game was afoot. Bel met his eyes again, leaning more on the bar now despite the risk of collapsing the whole thing, and kept them there until he reached for the flute.

"Thank you, Ramiro-juni, but there is no need for ice next time," she said, taking the glass with a pleased smile. Waving vigorously at Candon from across the sand, Bel called out, "What do you want, Suites-heisho!? My treat!"

The Tsuguka Dome

"Your wings are disturbing to me, Nito Hei. They remind me of an old girlfriend. And also a seagull." Hands still on shoulders, concerned that the woman might not absorb this crucial information.... Well, information crucial to a person who doesn't normally drink alcohol. Or hug people. "I hope this doesn't come between us. I respect your concise nature. It's a valuable resource."

Her shoulders seized briefly when Tsuguka's voice hit her abeam, making the situation worse by whapping the large, very solid infantry NCO in the face with her troublesome appendages. Carefully turning them away so she could look her, uh, friend, in the face, Mehitabel took a deep sip of her drink and found it pleasantly heavy on gin. As reassuring as that was, there was no way she could shrug off a slap from Tugs the way Wazu had.

"Ah, well, Tahariel-san was a little more, well-built then I am, so, I had hoped it wouldn't bother you," she said without a stammer, surprisingly, but it was a genuine sentiment. Despite the wave of fear that had washed over her at first, Tsuguka was her friend. Especially after their shared adventures, there was a stab to her heart as she reflected that the third of the Yacht trio wasn't present to enjoy the festivities with them. The corners of her eyes welled with tears for a moment...

She nodded, not managing to be nearly as cool with the large red refrigerator of a neko as she was with Ramiro. "Um, I, admire your ability to be so calm. And tough. A-And I know you value brevity and precision so that is a wonderful compliment, Tsuguka-san. You're my friend, I know that, and I'm sorry for hitting you with my wings," Bel gushed, "Can I hug? Is that, um, too much?"

 

[Gabriel]

Bar

Ramiro looked around at the group assembled in front of his bar. Completely up front, things were going as planned. Before he had started his novice showmanship of making drinks people were just all gathered wherever they might be. Ramiro smiled, some small wrinkles forming under his eyes, as he realized that he might be to blame for the motley crew in front of him.

"Don't be discouraged about talking in front of me about stimulants," Ramiro interjected into the conversation between Tan and Wazu. Having just finished his drink Ramiro started pouring himself a second one, absent all the fancy bottle flipping that had previously accompanied his work.

"The rest of these guys are at roughly the same hierarchy level that you are. As for me, I taught at a college." Ramio paused for two to three second to take a sip from his drink. "If you think I haven't dealt with, and frankly covered up, worse things than stimulant use, you've got another thing coming."

The only other person talking to Ramiro was that weird robotic thing. Looking up at Tsukaga, Ramiro responded. "If you're looking for my exploits, check Charisma's logs, and read some of my academic books." He paused to take another sip from his drink. "Not a single combat log has been recorded for me by anyone than my main girl, Charisma," Ramiro charmed, knowing that it would reach back to the AI. "From what is quite literally the first battle of the war, to what is quite literally the last battle of the war, I flew the crimson behemoth to the lowest depths of Hades."

Ramiro leaned forward into the bar as he thought back to some of his earlier missions. "And by the way. The answer is no, I don't have every medal. I haven't recruited anyone, because frankly I don't think there should be any reward in convincing someone of what it is already their patriotic duty to do. Second, I've never done a covert operation, because sneaking around and hiding are for SAINT cowards. I've never been awarded the Capture ribbon despite, you know, capturing an enemy. Go fucking figure. No conquest, despite conquering a planet. No command despite commanding an infantry squadron. And also none of the high-honors. Nobody has ever recommended me for the Chiharu Medal, The Order of the Blazing Sun, the Red Tessen, Yui's Blood Medalion, or any of the others.

Ramiro paused to take another sip. "Most of those, I'm honestly proud of, because some of them I haven't earned and I'm glad that only those worthy are able to receive the award. Others I have earned, by the requirements of the award, but it was deemed that I'm not worthy. If you think that I've been everywhere and done everything, you're both wrong and right at the same time. As is everybody who talks about my generation of recruits.

This time Ramiro pauses a little longer, taking a rather large gulp from his drink, his eyes distant and cold as he remembered some past atrocity or another. "You think I have every medal in the book. But fuck if the things I've done deserve every medal in the book." Ramiro looked up at the weird, robotic acting individual that called itself Tsukaga. "I've done some bad things. The crew on that ship," Ramiro said flatly as he pointed across the ocean, "have done some outrageously horrid things. Combat meneuvers, sure, they're all logged by either Charisma or some other MEGAMI that was paying attention. If you want to hear about cool piloting, there's a book somewhere out there about me landing the Eucharis upside down, in an ocean, with no wings and a damaged primary pylon after we shot down a half-dozen ships in the Battle of Yamatai. Have at it and then ask me anything you want. But if you think that my experience gives me some magical insight into the Star Army, you're insane."

Ramiro raised the glass to his lips for another sip. "I did whatever I could think of to survive. I taught a bunch of nobody recruits, guitar-boy over there included, whatever I could to make sure they survive. For some reason everyone thinks I'm some amazing soldier just because I flew during the War. Hell..." Ramiro trailed off as he paused to collect his thoughts. "I'm just a guy who manages to guess right more often than not, and win some cool, fancy ribbons for it along the way. But don't you ever think I deserve your praise just because of what I went through. I've done some absolutely screwed up shit."

Again, Ramiro paused. This time to think about some of the battles that he had been in.

"Push the button to massacre tens of thousands of your own troops. Your brethren. Just because you didn't understand what was happening to them as they turned to target you. And then have your high-command pin some medal to your chest because of it. As if becoming a butcher were worthy of the praise of the Taisho. Go through that, then tell me that my ribbons are impressive."

Ramiro took one last sight as he sipped his drink. "The best thing you can do as a new sailor is learn to ignore these awards," Ramiro continued to Tsukaga. "They don't mean a damned thing. They just mean that I was willing to do horrible things to win, and other people weren't. So do me a favor and don't praise someone for the hardware on their chest. More often than not it means that they're a disgusting excuse for a civilized person."

Ramiro trailed off one last time. He leaned forward into the bar and stared at a random point in one of the ropes. He heart rate and breathing started steadily increasing as he stared at the random rope in the middle of the bar. It was clear that he was having some kind of panic episode, but he was doing his best to cover it up and pretend that it wasn't happening. As his breathing rate slowed back to normal, the number of breaths that he was taking lowered as well.

"I think I'm starting to feel better," he called out, again to nobody in particular.

 

[Rizzo]

Bar

Waving vigorously at Candon from across the sand, Bel called out, "What do you want, Suites-heisho!? My treat!"

Hanako's World, Wood Pile
Candon was shutting down the insane pyrotechnic machine and releasing the pressure when he heard the offer. "Godfather," he called back over the crackling flames. The flamethrower was still far too hot to put back inside the box so after returning his shades to their place inside he closed the case and set the heavy weapon on top like it was on display.

Content with the arrangement he turned back to meet up with Mehitabel at the bar. Fortunately Candon was a cautious man who actually looked in the direction he intended to walk before walking into the approaching medic.

Bar -> Fire

Noting that Candon the Pyromancer was still seeking refreshment, she picked up one of Wazu's drinks and carried it over to him. "For your next trick, see if you can make this drink disappear."

"Thank you," he said accepting the cup, unaware of the sweetness of the cups contents, though the fruit was his first sign. Without reason to expect anything different, his first sip caught him off guard. It was a good drink for sure but for Candon it was like dessert. His face contorted a bit, "A little too sweet for me. Oh, you're our new medic, right?"

 

[HotelKilo]

Bar

"Can do!" she replied to Candon. She turned to the bar, and listened. She listened for what felt like an eternity. In the end, however, it was good that Ramiro felt better, since it seemed he had been holding that in quite a long time. Or at least considering the issue at hand. Nevertheless, the young Elysian had no comment. Her own awards were on Yamatai, in her apartment, in an unopened box, after all.

So Mehitabel waited for him to finish before making another request, "Excellent to hear, Ramiro-juni. Can you make a Godfather for Suites-heisho?"

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Bar

The confusion of having several people talk to her at once gave Tsuguka the impetus to simply close her eyes for a second, spark the nekovalkyrja ability to purge all toxins from her system, and then open them once more with a hundred times more clarity. She wasn't smiling anyway, but the newfound focus bestowed those razor-sharp features with a considerably more wolfish expression. As little as she knew them, it did seem like what Ramiro was going through required more than her passing attention.

"Forgive me for the formality, then, Itto Juni Ramiro." A calm tone, pragmatic. "I do not personality believe in the concept of good and evil, let alone the value of medals corresponding to the worth of a being. Nor do I believe that everything that the Yamatai state does is right and just... But, it doesn't make me feel like your efforts are unvalued, either. Keeping this crew alive and functioning has always been my sole focus."

"Perhaps, for a creature created to serve, with a homeworld they barely recognise, that is simply a given notion." A small change of pace, breaking eye contact to gaze back at the flourishing bonfire. "But it doesn't change the fact that things have been a lot worse in the recent past, and could become that way again."

Thoughts drifted to her direct superior and his affiliation with SAINT. It was true that one could go too far in protecting that sanctity, too. But she did have enough experience of trudging through guts, parasites, and alien horrors to know that her own opinion didn't deserve to be treated as worthless, either. She had seen the expressions of those that would prefer that Nekovalkyrja simply didn't exist, but were too neurotic to really acknowledge what life would be like without them, too. That burden was not so clean cut.

"I won't dig any deeper. Your business is your own." Cold, yes. But Tsuguka didn't have the free-flowing heart, or, indeed, empathy with this complete stranger, to compare combat histories. "Training with the use of a shuttle has been the only method I can think of to reduce rapid assault casualties in the future, however. Your insight would be fortuitous, but not mandatory."

A shrug. Their infinitely rigid back posture relaxed just a pace, so that they could run a hand through the soft exterior of Mehitabel's left wing.

"You can do as you wish, Nito Hei." With the drunken impulsiveness kicked out of their system, they had lost the urge to immediately grip onto the girl, but she still wanted to acknowledge their existence. "I am glad to see you joined us. We really share an inadequate amount of time conversing... Shiho-Hei's... untimely departure, well... It made me realise how foolish that is."

-"Please do. There are many improvements that could be made."- Wazu was contacted via telepathy, a small glance heading his way after talking to the Elysian girl. -"I'm not so sure that standard anti-starship weaponry and defences really serve our needs in many situations."-

 

[Blizzard]

Bar-> Beach

Freyja realized her decision to go to Jackson for drinking advice was the right call and took a big gulp of rum. She was starting to feel a little less stressed. Her tail was slowly moving back and forth. An overwhelming desire to dance hit her. "Hey, there's no music. We need music!" She called out. Her eyes settled on Mehitabel and she took another drink. "Feathers, get some mu-" Freyja stopped mid-sentence. Her ears perked up. Apparently, she hadn't noticed that Takao was singing before.

"Jax-san, come with me." She said grabbing his hand and tugging him towards the sounds of music. Freyja had somehow decided Jackson was going to be her entertainment. "I need to dance." When she stopped and turned back to him, her eyes were glittering. "I would rather dance to something faster, but this will do for now. You don't mind dancing with me, right, Jax-san?" Her tone was friendly but this was obviously one of those dangerous questions that strike fear into the hearts of men. There was only one right answer.

Bar --> Beach

For a moment, Jax's heart stopped, and his mind was flooded with memories of another familiar face.

Why? Why did she have to call him that? Only one person had ever called him Jax-san. And, as much as he hated to admit it, it was difficult to refuse those eyes, which were also green, yet... different. The two in combination were a force to be reckoned with.

What could be the harm? It was just an NCO helping one of the enlisted get rid of some emotional baggage. Freyja would need to have her head in the game during this mission, and as a Nito Heisho it was his job to ensure she was ready. Besides, he had the strong suspicion that emotions were not Candon or Tsuguka's specialties. They could lead an armor team into battle, train infantry to become expert killers, but Jax was positive that he had them beat in interpersonal skills. Thus, that was what he'd focus on. It was time he stopped acting like the wide-eyed Santo Hei he'd once been, and start being a leader.

Oh god, he was becoming mature. Not to worry, that could be remedied with more alcohol. He swallowed and nodded to Freyja, still a bit thrown off by her question.

"Not at all!" he replied confidently with a chesire grin, but the way his tail lashed nervously clearly showed that he was rather unsure about this. As he was being pulled along, he gingerly took the bottle of rum from Freyja's grasp and allowed himself to take an exceptionally large pull that made a noticeable dent once he'd finished. He had the feeling he'd need it.

 

[Navian]

Pyro Pile

"Yes, fresh out of the box; hope you don't mind the smell. Santô Hei Tan Ann Pan reporting." She sipped from her remaining vodka. "I wonder what we'll be drinking by the end of this mission? The booze might be the last thing to run out, at this rate; I bought mine from Ramiro thinking it would never run out and his supply dwarfs mine. Perhaps I underestimated the crew's thirst."

 

[HotelKilo]

Bar

"I-" Mehitabel watched Tsuguka change back to her typical, logical, mechanical, form with her hands barely lifted. There wasn't anything to object to in her pronouncement, but it was just that, a deceleration. Perhaps out of obligation, or her desire not to offend. Nevertheless, Bel looked a little smaller as she nodded at the red neko.

"Yes, I am glad to be here conversing, rather then stuck on the ship with my work," she murmured, almost indistinctly, "I am glad you came as well. Hopefully this will not be an entirely worthless exercise. At least there was a chance for underwater operations training."

 

[Primitive Polygon]

"Honestly, Mehitabel-Hei... I can't swim in a traditional sense." Tsuguka just angled her head to one side, occupying her hands by crossing them. "It's fortunate that inertia control works underwater."

Poking the ice on top of her second vodka glass showed her resistance to immediately jump back into drinking, but they were in danger of falling into an awkward silence, too. Combat talk always seemed to push people back into their shells, especially among those that had not undertaken in those actions together.

"So... You want to explain to me why you have more guns than the entire stockpile on my yacht?" Not quite a joke, but a valid question. "I must admit, I was surprised to see that marksmanship award on your skills record."

 

[Rizzo]

Pyro Pile


"Yes, fresh out of the box; hope you don't mind the smell. Santô Hei Tan Ann Pan reporting." She sipped from her remaining vodka. "I wonder what we'll be drinking by the end of this mission? The booze might be the last thing to run out, at this rate; I bought mine from Ramiro thinking it would never run out and his supply dwarfs mine. Perhaps I underestimated the crew's thirst."

Candon shrugged, "from my experience it's usually like that at first when we have young nekos around, just wait until someone cooks that fish Tsuguka caught. Anyhow, please, catch up with me later. I'll be much more interesting in a few minutes."
With a nod he resumed his mission to have a pretty girl treat him to another man's alcohol.

On the way he passed Masumi.

Hanako's World, Beach
Masumi felt the heat on her face and enjoyed it immensely, smiling now as she looked at the orange and red flames licking at the night sky as they dispersed warmth into it. She felt comforted and calmed by the fire now blazing and listened to Takao's voice and nothing else.

"I took a sip of this and thought of you," he stated in a teasing way, "this is way too sweet for me, so I'm sure you'll love it." He pushed the cup into the sand beside his roommate with a twist.

Hanako's World, Bar

Candon weaved his way next to the ship's clerk.
"Do you actually prefer being called Belle?"

 

[HotelKilo]

"It is indeed. Although, I suppose it would be hard to drown a neko...." Mehitabel trailed off as her own thoughts went much darker then intended. Her own drink had a quantity of ice currently melting into the mix of champagne, sugar, gin, and lemon juice. Try as she might, she had ended up with something relentlessly sugary anyway. Not that it was bad... The amount of booze Ramiro-juni had poured in definitely packed the wallop its name suggested.

That didn't stop her from almost choking on her beverage when Tsuguka brought up her personal arsenal. Swallowing carefully, Bel held her pointer finger off the glass, "Point one, I don't have ammunition for most of it. Point two, there was a sale. Point three, that is not technically an award, it is a competitive prize."

Suites intervened as she was about to explain her professional interest in arms manufacturing, and she twisted to look at him.

"Ketsurui-shosho prefers it. Freyja-san, and others, call me 'Feathers'. I have no objection to either, Suites-heisho."

 

[Gabriel]

So Mehitabel waited for him to finish before making another request, "Excellent to hear, Ramiro-juni. Can you make a Godfather for Suites-heisho?"

"Erm..." Ramiro projected unsurely as he looked under the bar, trying to desperately to remember the drink recipe. Pulling out the scotch, he quickly filled a glass half-full with ice before adding a two-second pour of the alcohol. Placing the booze back under the bar, he pulled out the Amaretto and added a one-second pour. There was nothing showy to his movements this time.

He handed the glass across the bar. "I've seen them made some sweet, but sometimes not. We'll see if he likes this one."

"I won't dig any deeper. Your business is your own." Cold, yes. But Tsuguka didn't have the free-flowing heart, or, indeed, empathy with this complete stranger, to compare combat histories. "Training with the use of a shuttle has been the only method I can think of to reduce rapid assault casualties in the future, however. Your insight would be fortuitous, but not mandatory."

Ramiro turned his attention back to Tsukaga. "Ah, don't mind me. I really am an open book. And let me know if I get too preachy. Gotta remember that I just came from a place where I spent the last few years teaching a bunch of new kids who haven't really experienced the military life yet. When their ideas of grandeur for the romanticized military life started cropping up it was my responsibility to drag them back to reality. War sucks, is all."

Ramiro finished off his drink before reaching under the bar and pulling out a few bottles of Lorath wine.

"So, everybody..." He said with a vicious grin as he paused to start uncorking some of the bottles. "Anyone interested in having some fun with Lorath Wine? I should have a bottle of almost every type."

 

[Rizzo]

Suites intervened as she was about to explain her professional interest in arms manufacturing, and she twisted to look at him.

"Ketsurui-shosho prefers it. Freyja-san, and others, call me 'Feathers'. I have no objection to either, Suites-heisho."

Hanako's World, Bar

Candon nodded appreciatively to Ramiro as he sipped the drink, remembering it being sweeter but enjoying the greater bite of current drink.

"Well I'll tell you a secret, I prefer just being called Candon," he replied to Mehitabel, "So do you have any interests beyond the ship. Hobbies, maybe?"

 

[Ametheliana]

Hanako's World
Beach

Masumi didn't have time to react before Candon had spirited away. When she was left alone, she dug her toes into the sand and watched the dark skin of her feet submerge beneath the gritty substance. She was wearing a bathing suit that had gotten mixed in with the haul Freyja had given her. It had a strappy design with cutouts on the upper breasts and was as light of a blue as her eyes were.

She looked up at the sky as the embers dispersed into it and back across the flames, to Takao as he sang and strummed. She then shifted her gaze to the ocean. In it were the bodies of the swimmers, fluorescent fish, as well as unknowns to her. She wanted to know so much more than she did currently. So much more.

 

[Zack]

Beach

"Humblebragging and that syrup the lor consider wine?" Wazu said, sounding displeased at Ramiro's offer, "... Maybe some other time."

He'd look through what was stocked at the bar... and found that he hadn't exactly brought any water. So instead he grabbed the bottle of moonshine soaked cherries along with his glass, heading off to the shuttle so he could fill it with water.

 

[Gabriel]

"Not one for wine that gives you hallucinations?" Ramiro asked jokingly to Wazu. "That's fine. They also have a stimulant wine. Plus, you know, I've got the whole selection of Black Wold and Chateau Hanako. And if you decide you want anything stronger I've also got some Industrial Cleaning Alcohol under here. Dunno why, but you seem like the type that would like it."

Ramiro reached under the bar and grabbed the green bottle and placed it down on the bar. "That goes for anyone here. You wanna drink like a Nep, this is the stuff to do it with. But disclaimer! I ain't responsible when you go blind or, you know, die."

Ramiro leaned back over to examine his stock again. "But if you think I'm being a grumpy guss and need to lighten up, I've got that covered." Straightening back up, Ramiro grabbed the bottle of mood-elevating wine that was he had placed on the bar and poured himself a glass before taking a large gulp.

 

[Wes]

The Ocean

"When I wanted to find a suitable place, I knew that the planetary survey scans were all in Charisma's memories so I asked her to find somewhere with the right features and she suggested these coordinates and got us satellite photos, and then I sent a drone..." Hanako explained to Saiga. "Ah, also, I thought I would save my swimsuit for daylight since I only own one."

She waded in place, stirring up swirls of shimmers of teal on the surface that were soon joined by reflections of the new bonfire on the shore. "From your perspective as a semi-outsider," Hanako asked Saiga, "Am I wrong to stick with the Eucharis? I do not know of any other Shosho with a ship this small. Did you expect me to still be here even after 10 years?"

 

[Navian]

Bar

Tan stared at Ramiro for a moment, worked her jaw, and made a face, but her attention ultimately passed on before she'd said a word in reaction. There was little enough left of her drink to down the rest, and move back to Wazu's bar to put down the glass.

Finally, she propped herself up on the bar with her hands and said, "How much of this is going to the ship's stores?" in the tone of voice one might use to discuss an invasion.

 

[Zack]

Beach

Wazu turned around, walking backwards towards the shuttle, "I WAS THERE WHEN THEY STARTED USING IT AS A DRINK!" he laughed, moving back up into the shuttle and getting that glass of water. He'd then head back towards the fire, getting a bit closer before continuing so he didn't have to yell.

"Lor wine is the overcooked meatloaf of wines. They never quite learned that more isn't always more... the wine is either sickly sweet or drugged up to the point where you ca not taste it properly. If you want to mix your uppers and your downers you do it like a normal person and keep them separate. Maybe crush it up a little and use it like a garnish... generally you want to make sure you know what you are taking, in what amounts, and what dosage.

You do not want to just mash all the ingredients together, overcook it, then serve it up... like you would meatloaf."

 

[Gabriel]

Bar

Ramiro leaned forward over the bar, closer to Tan. "All of it," came his dry response. "Or at least, as much as the Shosho will let me keep, or we can just slip on without her objecting." He took another big gulp of the wine before turning his attention back to Wazu.

"You make a fair point. But then again, I think part of the fun is the mystery of not knowing exactly what dosage you're getting. A little mystery can be enticing. But I didn't bring energy drinks, so mixing uppers and downers like normal may not be an option tonight. And for the record, I wasn't exactly wrong about by guess that you'd like ICA." He took another gulp.

"But I digress. You're sentiment was right, I need to lighten up, and we still have plenty of time to liven this party." He chugged down the remainder of his glass. "I feel unsurprisingly better," he exclaimed. He corked the bottle of mood-elevating wine and placed it back under the bar, this time reaching into the ice case and pulling out a cold beer. He popped the cap of, letting it fall onto the bar surface, before taking a sip.