A
Anonymous
Malik stretched out, the tall cohronl's arms almost touching the ceiling of one of the Astarte's many corridors. After yesterday's mission, Malik wasn't absolutely in the best of moods. Instead of people actually respecting him, it seemed that his performance wasn't good enough. He hadn't been fast enough on the draw, and was far too quick to shift focus from one enemy to the next. A Single sword stroke wouldn't always be enough, making sure that the frame was inoperable was the only sufficient way. Malik continued on his way down the hallway, lost in self reflection and being hard on himself, not quite looking where he was going.
As Murphy's Law has stated, what can go wrong will go wrong. And the principal of Occam's Razor said something about... Nenetl always being right, because that was the simplest option. Right? The long and short of it was Nenetl, cheery as a cockatoo, came hop-skipping her way down the hall in precisely the opposite direction Malik was, and considering that neither was really paying attention to the 'where they were going' part, the results were hardly unpredictable. Nenetl came bowling into Malik at rather significant velocity.
And then the day got worse. While Malik had been going along at a slow walk, the skirted Maekerdanii was moving at enough of a velocity that when she impacted into him, she managed to knock him back, the cohronl's arm failing wildly to grasp something , and only managing to pull Nenetl down with him. As the duo fell to the floor, Malik bumped his head on the surface of the floor, making him close his eyes.
"Oww! Wha-" Opening his eyes, Malik blinked twice, first to make sure that he wasn't in heaven, and secondly to make sure that he wasn't in hell. Straddling his lap, with her hands somehow on his chest, was a quartz skinned, slender, Maekerdanii girl, who, to Malik atleast, was incredibly cute. Malik's hands had moved, in the confusion, to their current positions, his arms around her waist by accident. The Runner blushed slightly, only a few words escaping his lips. These words were probably the worst choice of words Malik Ibn Rashidan could've chosen.
"I didn't expect to run into a cute girl today."
Down goes Nenetl, ending up in a rather compromised position atop a stranger seconds later. At first this drew out a slightly embarrassed blush as she'd had no intention of running into anyone. A moment later, he had the audacity to call her cute, and unleashed the fury...
"I am not CUTE!" The last word was punctuated with a sudden swing of her left fist for Malik's sternum. "I am NENETL, the most BEAUTIFUL-" Punch. "CLASSY-" Punch. "TALENTED-" Punch. "AND AWESOME FUCKING RUNNER ON THE-" Punch. "FUCKING ASTARTE." She wasn't swinging particularly hard, it was really just a matter of making her point extra cogent. Same with the large quantity of profanity. "Maybe you should watch where the fuck you're going AY?"
"Well, I'd agree with the Beautiful and classy part, juding by your face and your hair." Malik smiled, his grin widening with each punch. "But, to be completely honest, I'd have to say that the most talented Runner is Zus. And the most awesome is probably Me." Still grinning, the Cohronl let a chuckle escape his lips as he looked Nenetl's features over. She didn't exactly seem to look like that bad of a person, and Malik could've sworn that he had heard her voice somewhere before.
"Malik Ibn Rashidan. First Squadron. Nice to meet you."
"You, the most awesome? YOU? I've got more fucking awesome in my right horn than you do in your whole cuntlapping body!" Her voice rose up in a shrill crescendo, capped by, yet again, another swing of her fist. "And I don't know who Zus is but she's obviously a cocksucker! Nobody is more talented than me!"
Abruptly Nenetl became aware, again, of the compromising position she was in - and stood up, bolt upright, as quickly as she could manage. "And why are you touching me? Don't you have someplace to be? I mean I'm not your fucking doll!"
Deep breath. Then another deep breath. "Malik you said? I'm Nenetl. You already knew that, though. Because I'm that awesome."
"If you're going to keep going on and on about how you're so awesome, you won't make many friends in Bahram Wing." The Vaybalri stood up, his expression suddenly serious.
"And lets get some things straight, Nenetl Zeltzin. Don't insult Storhan. She's... Important to Vaytulri Farouk, and that means that she's an important friend of mine." the Cohronl's eyes narrowed even more, as if he was glaring through Nenetl's face. "Cease with the constant insults as well. I think that we're both on the same side. And thirdly..." Malik's expression suddenly changed, the thin straight line of his lips becoming a smile, his eyes open fully. "We're both in Bahram Wing's first squadron. You gave me fire support on the last mission. You arguably saved my life, and I'm really, really thankful for that. Being a good squadmate is enough to make you awesome in my books." The Cohronl abruptly hugged the Maekerdanii girl, letting go after a second or so.
Nenetl just rolled her eyes. Malik struck her as rather stodgy, not at all down with the modern times that Nenetl lived in! But he was entitled to his opinion, even if he was... Nenetl found herself grinning.
"Ay, calm the fuck down, didn't mean anything by it!" She raised both her hands up disarmingly, her grin widening a bit. It wasn't like she was going to stop insulting people, she pretty much did that as a matter of course. "Just a bit of fun, I've got nothing against your girl-toy." Few things could have taken Nenetl more off-guard than Malik hugging her. It also silenced her about as effectively as anything could have.
"She isn't my girlfriend!" Malik said, quite matter-of-factly. "She's currently in a Relationship with Vaytulri Farouk. And they are both good friends of mine. You've met them before. Zus, in the Raevr, and Mu'Tasim, the guy who was paired with Zus in his EVII. They're both from the original Bahram Wing, back on Mazerin. Same with me." Smiling at Nenetl, Malik nodded.
"I'm sorry for bumping into you, Nenetl. I was just thinking about the mission. Though," Malik added, "I'm glad that I bumped into the Beautiful Nenetl Zeltzin."
"Oh, I see how it is." Nenetl nodded knowingly once she was released from the hug. "You want Storhan, but you've been cockblocked by an older and more virile man! One you ADMIRE!" Nenetl pursed her lips slightly. "Do you admire him in an untoward way, Vaybalri Rashidan?" This was followed by a trilling giggle. "Since I think Farouk is dead fucking sexy, myself."
She took a step back. "I think I technically bumped into you, but I'm going to pretend otherwise if anyone asks. Okay?"
Malik just glared at Nenetl. "I don't have an interest in Storhan. She's a friend, and a Rival. And Mu'Tasim is my friend and superior.. He was everyone's guiding light, back at Jarizas." Nodding, Malik frowned slightly at Nenetl's comment at Mu'Tasim. "... It's the beard, isn't it? Girls love the beard, don't they?"
"And I don't care if you spin it that way. What's the worst that could happen?"
"You can say that, but I know what I'm really hearing, ay? And you'd like to tap Storhan's mineral field all night!" Nenetl could chitter with remarkable expertise, and she clasped her hands right across her chest, grinning delicately. "I won't tell anyone though. Don't worry. And I won't tell anyone about what you want to do to Mu'Tasim's beard either."
She smelled blood, you could say, and took a quick step towards him. "Nyaaa, but Farouk's beard... I would do everything to his beard!"
Everything happened to include dying it in rainbow colors. She didn't say that, of course.
Malik took two steps back from Nenetl, a look of surprise crossed with terror plastered on his face. Shaking his head, Malik tried to refute Nenetl's accusations. "Like I said, Storhan isn't my type!" Just then, the simplest solution jumped into Malik's head as he stepped back again, glaring at Nenetl.
"Zus isn't my type! And I already kinda sorta have a girlfriend. Khiyai Sahrzhad!"
"Just because you've got a backup plan doesn't mean you aren't waiting for the chance to jump Storhan's entry ports!" Nenetl responded to his backing up by advancing on him again, a gleeful look in her eyes. "I can smell it! And my sense of smell is awesome! It's never wrong!"
She abruptly poked at Malik's chest, her expression practically leering for a moment. "I smell... a four-way sexual encounter in your future! With a spectacular beard!"
Malik stepped back again, trying to see if there was a way out of this. "Tch, no! I wouldn't want to do such things! I'd rather jump your entry-ports instead of think about doing it with Storhan, any time of day, any week, any month!" The orange-haired Cohronl-Mazerinii found himself backed into a corner by the Maekerdanii, trapped like a sandrat in the clutches of a Neesh. A dark skinned Sandrat with orange hair and violet eyes, trapped by a quartz Neesh.
Malik cornered himself! Nenetl now had a captive audience, in a very literal sense, and she had to say she liked that. Not being completely sadistic, she wasn't going to corner him for long, but she had to take a shot at that most recent comment of his. "You want to be my woman, Malik? It's not an easy job. All the girls will envy you. And all the boys will want to kill you. They can be real Neesh fuckers sometimes."
Nenetl stepped aside at this point, her usual shrill giddy squealing laugh let off again. "Don't corner yourself next time. Where were you going before you knocked me over?"
Malik grumbled to himself, something about "ship full of crazy women", stepping past Nenetl. "I was going to try to see if I would be able to talk to Khiyai, but I don't think I'll be able to, even if I hadn't gotten... Waylaid." The Cohronl seemed to be slightly... down, as if he had gotten sad over the possibility of not seeing the mechanist for whom his heart burned.
"Khiyai has been mad at me ever since I got back on this ship, and she probably hates me for making her worry about me." Malik let out a short sigh, leaning against the wall, eyes focused on the floor.
Spinning about on her heel, Nenetl trotted along after Malik. Now, it was time to play therapist! Vulgar, insulting, aggressively self-promoting therapist. "If she's angry at you, you can't be a pussy about it." Nenetl opined that with a highly amused tone. "You have to go and do something completely fucking stupid to prove your love. It's the only way. Trust me, I know what women like. I'm kind of the authority on femininity."
"Why do I not want to believe that, Nenetl?" Malik asked, walking further down the hallway, hands in his uniform pockets. "It really feels like you're just trying to make things worse."
Nenetl rolled her eyes. "Oh get the fuck over yourself Malik. I've got nothing to gain from making things worse!" Giggle. "I don't mean completely fucking stupid in a bad way. Women love grand romantic gestures with a large chance of exploding in your face. The trick is to pull it off right and not fuck it up."
"Yeah, well I have a bad history with those kind of things. I promised Khiyai I'd return from a mission and do everything I could to make her happy? All that happened then was me getting shot down, sent to a hospital, escaping from the hospital, and getting put in Jail. The first time I saw her in months was yesterday. What can I do to apologise for completely dissapearing for four months? I'm just a simple guy from the colonies over Mazerin. All I want to do is tell her that I love her, and cuddle."
"Make it about her." Nenetl didn't hesitate for a second in that answer. One would never guess how innocent she actually was, hearing her talk. Between the profanities laced between every word and the pathological need to opine about the sexual habits of others... "You broke out of the hospital because no wounds could keep you away from her. And you fucked up six guards doing it, too, which is why they put you in jail! And even there, you never stopped thinking about how you'd escape to find her again... but you got released for exemplary service, which is even better, since you don't have to kill any of those Neesh fucking guards this time."
Nenetl flashed a smile at him. "Or you could show up in her quarters with no clothes, a box of chocolate, and all the alcohol you can carry. That works too."
Malik smiled at Nenetl, scratching at his horn. "Thanks for the advice Nenetl, but that isn't exactly my style. I broke out of the hospital because I knew that my wing would need my help. I couldn't break out of the military prison, because I didn't want to anger anyone. I don't need to overexagerate everything. I'll just tell her how I feel about her. If she was willing to get mad at me for making her worry about me, then I know that she still cares about me!" The Runner nodded, holding his fist up and clenching it.
"I'm Fifty Five Thousand percent sure that my burning heart beats in time with Khiyai's! Four months of seperation have done nothing but strengthen our love!"
"Malik. You're missing the point." Nenetl quickly stepped in front of him. "Women. Are. Not. Fucking. Logical." To drive the point home, she gave him another punch. "We love drama and romance. Tell her how you feel. But make it fucking MEMORABLE."
A grin and Nenetl laid both her hands on Malik's chest lightly. "If you are so certain, you should propose! Marry your Khiyai, and jump her entry ports! Just don't take a second wife, that makes everything too fucking complicated, and then when the first one gets mo-" Nenetl trailed off sharply. "Um, marry her. Ay?"
Malik shook his head, but his smile stayed on his face, the Cohronl full of burning passion. "I've seen too many shows where the hero proposes to his love interest, only for her to get killed!" The hotblooded runner stood straight up, hugging Nenetl again, but his grip seemed to be tighter this time. Letting the Maekerdanii socialite go, Malik patted her on the shoulder. "But thanks for the idea! As soon as this whole mess with the NVR is over, I'll propose to her!" And, with that, Malik strode off, whistling what had to be the theme music from an old children's cartoon about a teenage high school student using a giant robot created by his grandfather to fight the giant mechanical monsters unleashed by his grandfather's insane former colleague.
As Murphy's Law has stated, what can go wrong will go wrong. And the principal of Occam's Razor said something about... Nenetl always being right, because that was the simplest option. Right? The long and short of it was Nenetl, cheery as a cockatoo, came hop-skipping her way down the hall in precisely the opposite direction Malik was, and considering that neither was really paying attention to the 'where they were going' part, the results were hardly unpredictable. Nenetl came bowling into Malik at rather significant velocity.
And then the day got worse. While Malik had been going along at a slow walk, the skirted Maekerdanii was moving at enough of a velocity that when she impacted into him, she managed to knock him back, the cohronl's arm failing wildly to grasp something , and only managing to pull Nenetl down with him. As the duo fell to the floor, Malik bumped his head on the surface of the floor, making him close his eyes.
"Oww! Wha-" Opening his eyes, Malik blinked twice, first to make sure that he wasn't in heaven, and secondly to make sure that he wasn't in hell. Straddling his lap, with her hands somehow on his chest, was a quartz skinned, slender, Maekerdanii girl, who, to Malik atleast, was incredibly cute. Malik's hands had moved, in the confusion, to their current positions, his arms around her waist by accident. The Runner blushed slightly, only a few words escaping his lips. These words were probably the worst choice of words Malik Ibn Rashidan could've chosen.
"I didn't expect to run into a cute girl today."
Down goes Nenetl, ending up in a rather compromised position atop a stranger seconds later. At first this drew out a slightly embarrassed blush as she'd had no intention of running into anyone. A moment later, he had the audacity to call her cute, and unleashed the fury...
"I am not CUTE!" The last word was punctuated with a sudden swing of her left fist for Malik's sternum. "I am NENETL, the most BEAUTIFUL-" Punch. "CLASSY-" Punch. "TALENTED-" Punch. "AND AWESOME FUCKING RUNNER ON THE-" Punch. "FUCKING ASTARTE." She wasn't swinging particularly hard, it was really just a matter of making her point extra cogent. Same with the large quantity of profanity. "Maybe you should watch where the fuck you're going AY?"
"Well, I'd agree with the Beautiful and classy part, juding by your face and your hair." Malik smiled, his grin widening with each punch. "But, to be completely honest, I'd have to say that the most talented Runner is Zus. And the most awesome is probably Me." Still grinning, the Cohronl let a chuckle escape his lips as he looked Nenetl's features over. She didn't exactly seem to look like that bad of a person, and Malik could've sworn that he had heard her voice somewhere before.
"Malik Ibn Rashidan. First Squadron. Nice to meet you."
"You, the most awesome? YOU? I've got more fucking awesome in my right horn than you do in your whole cuntlapping body!" Her voice rose up in a shrill crescendo, capped by, yet again, another swing of her fist. "And I don't know who Zus is but she's obviously a cocksucker! Nobody is more talented than me!"
Abruptly Nenetl became aware, again, of the compromising position she was in - and stood up, bolt upright, as quickly as she could manage. "And why are you touching me? Don't you have someplace to be? I mean I'm not your fucking doll!"
Deep breath. Then another deep breath. "Malik you said? I'm Nenetl. You already knew that, though. Because I'm that awesome."
"If you're going to keep going on and on about how you're so awesome, you won't make many friends in Bahram Wing." The Vaybalri stood up, his expression suddenly serious.
"And lets get some things straight, Nenetl Zeltzin. Don't insult Storhan. She's... Important to Vaytulri Farouk, and that means that she's an important friend of mine." the Cohronl's eyes narrowed even more, as if he was glaring through Nenetl's face. "Cease with the constant insults as well. I think that we're both on the same side. And thirdly..." Malik's expression suddenly changed, the thin straight line of his lips becoming a smile, his eyes open fully. "We're both in Bahram Wing's first squadron. You gave me fire support on the last mission. You arguably saved my life, and I'm really, really thankful for that. Being a good squadmate is enough to make you awesome in my books." The Cohronl abruptly hugged the Maekerdanii girl, letting go after a second or so.
Nenetl just rolled her eyes. Malik struck her as rather stodgy, not at all down with the modern times that Nenetl lived in! But he was entitled to his opinion, even if he was... Nenetl found herself grinning.
"Ay, calm the fuck down, didn't mean anything by it!" She raised both her hands up disarmingly, her grin widening a bit. It wasn't like she was going to stop insulting people, she pretty much did that as a matter of course. "Just a bit of fun, I've got nothing against your girl-toy." Few things could have taken Nenetl more off-guard than Malik hugging her. It also silenced her about as effectively as anything could have.
"She isn't my girlfriend!" Malik said, quite matter-of-factly. "She's currently in a Relationship with Vaytulri Farouk. And they are both good friends of mine. You've met them before. Zus, in the Raevr, and Mu'Tasim, the guy who was paired with Zus in his EVII. They're both from the original Bahram Wing, back on Mazerin. Same with me." Smiling at Nenetl, Malik nodded.
"I'm sorry for bumping into you, Nenetl. I was just thinking about the mission. Though," Malik added, "I'm glad that I bumped into the Beautiful Nenetl Zeltzin."
"Oh, I see how it is." Nenetl nodded knowingly once she was released from the hug. "You want Storhan, but you've been cockblocked by an older and more virile man! One you ADMIRE!" Nenetl pursed her lips slightly. "Do you admire him in an untoward way, Vaybalri Rashidan?" This was followed by a trilling giggle. "Since I think Farouk is dead fucking sexy, myself."
She took a step back. "I think I technically bumped into you, but I'm going to pretend otherwise if anyone asks. Okay?"
Malik just glared at Nenetl. "I don't have an interest in Storhan. She's a friend, and a Rival. And Mu'Tasim is my friend and superior.. He was everyone's guiding light, back at Jarizas." Nodding, Malik frowned slightly at Nenetl's comment at Mu'Tasim. "... It's the beard, isn't it? Girls love the beard, don't they?"
"And I don't care if you spin it that way. What's the worst that could happen?"
"You can say that, but I know what I'm really hearing, ay? And you'd like to tap Storhan's mineral field all night!" Nenetl could chitter with remarkable expertise, and she clasped her hands right across her chest, grinning delicately. "I won't tell anyone though. Don't worry. And I won't tell anyone about what you want to do to Mu'Tasim's beard either."
She smelled blood, you could say, and took a quick step towards him. "Nyaaa, but Farouk's beard... I would do everything to his beard!"
Everything happened to include dying it in rainbow colors. She didn't say that, of course.
Malik took two steps back from Nenetl, a look of surprise crossed with terror plastered on his face. Shaking his head, Malik tried to refute Nenetl's accusations. "Like I said, Storhan isn't my type!" Just then, the simplest solution jumped into Malik's head as he stepped back again, glaring at Nenetl.
"Zus isn't my type! And I already kinda sorta have a girlfriend. Khiyai Sahrzhad!"
"Just because you've got a backup plan doesn't mean you aren't waiting for the chance to jump Storhan's entry ports!" Nenetl responded to his backing up by advancing on him again, a gleeful look in her eyes. "I can smell it! And my sense of smell is awesome! It's never wrong!"
She abruptly poked at Malik's chest, her expression practically leering for a moment. "I smell... a four-way sexual encounter in your future! With a spectacular beard!"
Malik stepped back again, trying to see if there was a way out of this. "Tch, no! I wouldn't want to do such things! I'd rather jump your entry-ports instead of think about doing it with Storhan, any time of day, any week, any month!" The orange-haired Cohronl-Mazerinii found himself backed into a corner by the Maekerdanii, trapped like a sandrat in the clutches of a Neesh. A dark skinned Sandrat with orange hair and violet eyes, trapped by a quartz Neesh.
Malik cornered himself! Nenetl now had a captive audience, in a very literal sense, and she had to say she liked that. Not being completely sadistic, she wasn't going to corner him for long, but she had to take a shot at that most recent comment of his. "You want to be my woman, Malik? It's not an easy job. All the girls will envy you. And all the boys will want to kill you. They can be real Neesh fuckers sometimes."
Nenetl stepped aside at this point, her usual shrill giddy squealing laugh let off again. "Don't corner yourself next time. Where were you going before you knocked me over?"
Malik grumbled to himself, something about "ship full of crazy women", stepping past Nenetl. "I was going to try to see if I would be able to talk to Khiyai, but I don't think I'll be able to, even if I hadn't gotten... Waylaid." The Cohronl seemed to be slightly... down, as if he had gotten sad over the possibility of not seeing the mechanist for whom his heart burned.
"Khiyai has been mad at me ever since I got back on this ship, and she probably hates me for making her worry about me." Malik let out a short sigh, leaning against the wall, eyes focused on the floor.
Spinning about on her heel, Nenetl trotted along after Malik. Now, it was time to play therapist! Vulgar, insulting, aggressively self-promoting therapist. "If she's angry at you, you can't be a pussy about it." Nenetl opined that with a highly amused tone. "You have to go and do something completely fucking stupid to prove your love. It's the only way. Trust me, I know what women like. I'm kind of the authority on femininity."
"Why do I not want to believe that, Nenetl?" Malik asked, walking further down the hallway, hands in his uniform pockets. "It really feels like you're just trying to make things worse."
Nenetl rolled her eyes. "Oh get the fuck over yourself Malik. I've got nothing to gain from making things worse!" Giggle. "I don't mean completely fucking stupid in a bad way. Women love grand romantic gestures with a large chance of exploding in your face. The trick is to pull it off right and not fuck it up."
"Yeah, well I have a bad history with those kind of things. I promised Khiyai I'd return from a mission and do everything I could to make her happy? All that happened then was me getting shot down, sent to a hospital, escaping from the hospital, and getting put in Jail. The first time I saw her in months was yesterday. What can I do to apologise for completely dissapearing for four months? I'm just a simple guy from the colonies over Mazerin. All I want to do is tell her that I love her, and cuddle."
"Make it about her." Nenetl didn't hesitate for a second in that answer. One would never guess how innocent she actually was, hearing her talk. Between the profanities laced between every word and the pathological need to opine about the sexual habits of others... "You broke out of the hospital because no wounds could keep you away from her. And you fucked up six guards doing it, too, which is why they put you in jail! And even there, you never stopped thinking about how you'd escape to find her again... but you got released for exemplary service, which is even better, since you don't have to kill any of those Neesh fucking guards this time."
Nenetl flashed a smile at him. "Or you could show up in her quarters with no clothes, a box of chocolate, and all the alcohol you can carry. That works too."
Malik smiled at Nenetl, scratching at his horn. "Thanks for the advice Nenetl, but that isn't exactly my style. I broke out of the hospital because I knew that my wing would need my help. I couldn't break out of the military prison, because I didn't want to anger anyone. I don't need to overexagerate everything. I'll just tell her how I feel about her. If she was willing to get mad at me for making her worry about me, then I know that she still cares about me!" The Runner nodded, holding his fist up and clenching it.
"I'm Fifty Five Thousand percent sure that my burning heart beats in time with Khiyai's! Four months of seperation have done nothing but strengthen our love!"
"Malik. You're missing the point." Nenetl quickly stepped in front of him. "Women. Are. Not. Fucking. Logical." To drive the point home, she gave him another punch. "We love drama and romance. Tell her how you feel. But make it fucking MEMORABLE."
A grin and Nenetl laid both her hands on Malik's chest lightly. "If you are so certain, you should propose! Marry your Khiyai, and jump her entry ports! Just don't take a second wife, that makes everything too fucking complicated, and then when the first one gets mo-" Nenetl trailed off sharply. "Um, marry her. Ay?"
Malik shook his head, but his smile stayed on his face, the Cohronl full of burning passion. "I've seen too many shows where the hero proposes to his love interest, only for her to get killed!" The hotblooded runner stood straight up, hugging Nenetl again, but his grip seemed to be tighter this time. Letting the Maekerdanii socialite go, Malik patted her on the shoulder. "But thanks for the idea! As soon as this whole mess with the NVR is over, I'll propose to her!" And, with that, Malik strode off, whistling what had to be the theme music from an old children's cartoon about a teenage high school student using a giant robot created by his grandfather to fight the giant mechanical monsters unleashed by his grandfather's insane former colleague.
