RP: 188604 [AdVenture Capital] 1: Nath Tower

Spacecase would kindly decline the drink. "Sorry I can't drink alcohol."

Remembering what he was trying to do he walked over to Aashi and tapped her shoulder. "What's going on? What is this all about?"

A glass of champagne and two kamikazes ceased to exist. The alcohol had next to zero effect on a metabolism designed to tolerate platinum dust, but occupying herself with 'sustenance' made it easier to concentrate.

"Seats shouldn't be too necessary early on, but 'the terror'... I wonder if that kind of system would be worse above or below ground?..." Lyco responded to Groundbreaker. "One is an overt symbol of power, the other is just begging for conspiracy theories..."

Still had those cat boy dainty hands around her shoulders. She did the opposite of telling him to go away, by grasping the left one and inserting a finger into her mouth, gently gnawing.

"Have you met Akemi? He might be an acquired taste, but he's a sweet guy when you get to know him." The smile had become just a little more genuine. "Erm... That wasn't a pun. I mean, he's genetically engineered to have a flavor, but... erm, you know what I mean?"

Okay, maybe the drinks effected her a bit.

"I'm a bit ill-equipped to speculate on the xenopsychology branch of urban planning. I can't personally relate to how anyone could be more comfortable under the open sky than underground... except for the self-determined nomadic groups in this area, but they're not likely to use this system very much."

With that line of conversation having petered out, Queenie deigned to focus her eyes on Akemi once more, applying a new censorship filter that was less sophisticated, but much more direct. It had no effect just yet. "I haven't met him, this party threw off my plans for that. He is very acquisitive, though, so take care in determining who has acquired whom."

Akemi happily accepted the nibbling and continued to rub away with his free hand which started to focus on the side and back of the woman's neck. "Awww. You were planning to meet me? That's nice to know. I gotta wonder where you got the idea I was acquisitive without meeting me, but damn in this case I'm guilty as charged. I'd love to acquire a touching of your cute ears and beautiful hair. I'd love to acquire the shit out of you."

Queenie shut her eyes and shook her head as Akemi's speech was converted to text for her to read across her vision. It got about halfway through before the red underline and notes started scrawling below the fixed font letters, and as far as 'I'd love to...' before the remainder was blacked out entirely, and the red notes switched to all-caps. "I'm not sure how you can't be aware of this, but he's about as sweet as sulfur dioxide. This is how he talks all the time, in public. He does it until people try to kill him, and then he keeps doing it, if he can get away with it. It's all a game to him."

"I'm not taking the high ground, but are you saying it's better to abandon negotiations at the first sign of trouble?" Lyco removed the finger, and ended up holding both of his hands over his shoulders within her own cumbersome metal mitts. "I'll admit he is a lewd time-waster. Trying to form a standardized working arrangement with him is a nightmare, too, specifically because of his penchant for chasing ass. But can you really be sure that you're not just avoiding him to stay in Arccos' good books?... To stay in the old free state's good books? Maker knows, I told him to go fuck himself plenty when we first met, trust me."

A shrug. The tank girl had to admit, leaving was still a pretty tempting offer, too. But it was Arccos' imperialistic intentions that frightened her, not some lewd doofus with a pile of cash like Akemi.

Lyco, personally, had abandoned negotiations at the first sign of trouble. And that, ironically, was why she was quickly growing to trust the nekovalkyrja. He was one of the few people that really did seem to have no long term agenda.

"I hate being on this planet, too, but Uso really does seem like the perfect opportunity to be free."

Queenie listened and nodded as Lyco spoke, tilting her head at the questions.

"Well, from last to first and back again... Working with Uso is my last gamble in life. I'd rather go down in flames than be buried in bookkeeping, and that's why I didn't go home after the first negotiation. I can be sure I'm not avoiding Akemi to stay in Arccos' good books even without considering him, because there is no real difference between how Arccos would treat me if I were her top lieutenant than if I were just some scrub who sleepwalked into her presence. Indeed, I've no way to tell which of the two is more accurate.

"To be precise, the only reason I've been avoiding anyone on this planet is to avoid conflicts with them, that has nothing to do with politics. As for the rest of the Free State, I--" She was interrupted by an involuntary chuckle. "--I don't deign to believe that what I do now is going to change very many opinions while I still live."

Aashi extended her arms and exploded in excitement at seeing someone she barely knew after having had a few sips of her drink. Iroma were very susceptible to alcohol and it was already showing.

"It's a party!" she announced and turned her body with her arms still in the air, motioning towards the celebrations underway. "It's time to let loose and have fun!"

"Well I don't really think we'll have any conflicts on my part. All I said is you're pretty and I'd like to touch you. You can touch me, I'll let you touch my ears and hair even if you won't let me touch yours." Akemi turned his head sideways, tilted it forwards and wiggled his ears.

Spacecase was taken aback by Aashi's exuberance. "Are you normally like this or is this the alcohol?"

Aashi made a sour face and said, "That's no way to talk to your hostess."

She took a fresh kamikaze and the one she was already drinking to where her friend was, taking leave of Spacecase as she said, "Where's Ulysses?"

Queenie focused on her red-lined read-out of Akemi's contributions for a long moment, and waved her hand toward her eye, as if Lyco could see what she was seeing. "This is why there's so much passion to kill him. I don't believe for a moment that he honestly believes his compliments are flattering and inoffensive, and yet he persists, heedless of any reactions. Even someone with no self-awareness should function better than this." She wiped away the display and restored her previous filter program, shaking her head. "Do you think we can point him at someone else?"

Werner was quietly standing off in a corner as he sipped on a glass of whiskey, simply content to people watch. He watched the Freespacer congregation, then Uso's entrance, and finally he watched as Aashi got her guests (and herself) drunk.

He had turned away for a moment when he heard his name called. He turned to see Aashi looking for him. He sighed with a soft smile, and walked over to her. "Had a bit to drink did we? Must I watch you all the time?" He asked teasingly.

Spacecase scratched his head thinking, 'What I do wrong?', before walking off into the crowd to see if Sans was at the event.

"He's pretty forward, but he never once forced himself on me or anything like that." Lyco simply crossed her arms, unable to reach his ears to take preemptive advantage of the offer. Her look was a little disgruntled, but that was more because this newcomer seemed to be even more automata in the head than most of the junkers here were. "It's a little rude to talk about somebody like they aren't here, too."

"Cat boy?" Her hands grabbed the thing she could actually reach, his hanging stream of raven black hair, with her head looking straight upwards to make eye contact with him leaning over her. Tone of voice was actually more raspy and frank when talking to him, not less. "I know you are made of chocolate and gumdrops and all that jazz, but would you mind laying off this lady for a bit? I think you're freaking her out. Real head full of wires."

"Perhaps you'd like to try a coffee, or something like that?" Looking back down... Well, looking a slightly less steep version of up, to Groundbreaker. "I have a deal with an medically enthusiastic automata who's been looking after my contamination levels. I could introduce you."

Groundbreaker Eight-Four cracked a smile wide enough for the general shape to be visible through the veil. "It's like you're chastising a Gearhead for forcing open an airlock, when the hull has been breached in six dozen locations."

She slowly let her smile fade, listening distantly. In response to the offer, she said, "I'll handle my own maintenance, but I don't mind making new contacts." She glanced back at the shape of Akemi. "At least, not in principle."

Uso would turn around and lean against the bar, watching the crowd move about as drinks were dispensed.

"You know Gut-Stripe. You can die from drinking too much water too. Like anything, it is about using the proper amount to have the desired effect."

She would look over her shoulder at Gut-Stripe as she waggled her antennae at the drinks. The pineapple juice was both sweet and just a bit tart at the same time... while the green drink was far sweeter. The mix of heavy melon liquors made it a step above what you could make from just fruit alone, and the slightly dissolved ice cubes inside were small enough not to be noticed, the slivers capable of dissolving once they touch the tounge as a creepy surprise.

Uso had enjoyed it the first time... but she had no idea if Gut-Stripe had the proper organs to get the same result.

"I promise not to let anything bad happen to you should you want to try it!"

"Sure," Akemi said agreeably, positioning himself momentarily to make eye contact and then standing upright since his words were more for Groundbreaker. "I just wanted to say she was pretty and in what way is all. Just because I often do that early on doesn't mean that's all I do. We can all talk about anything. I just like getting that out of the way and out in the open. I value honesty and forthrightness. Plus you miss all the shots you don't take. I gotta say Aashi likes my compliments and Uso thinks I'm amusing. But whatever, you guys chat about whatever you wanna chat about."

Queenie played Akemi's comments back when she saw they were meant for her. Even without the filter on, she felt she could still see the red lines. She let out a deep breath of exasperation, and spoke with the friendliest tone she could manage. "Right, then. Here's your chance to prove you can do something in conversation other than aggress, defend yourself, and attempt to persuade and manipulate others. If you do that enough to make up for everything I have on record, you might start to look credible. If you don't like those terms, let's just leave the ship sunk."

Pressing onward, she tried to make conversation in smooth tones, though the water was rough. "I like your metaphor. It can go a bit further, though. Shots that miss go on to hit things that you never wanted them to, so it's good advice to check your fire until you know where to aim, do you copy?

"There's no value in being honest if you're misunderstood, after all, and if you always comment on superficial traits and are 'forthright' in this manner, people might get the wrong idea, and assume that you not only consider these traits to be of the utmost importance, but that you think everyone else should consider your opinions about them and base impulses provoked by them to be of key interest, too."

The episode had begun to bring back Queenie's memories of her time on the Hive's education board... but it was like someone had used them as inspiration for a Nekosploitation psychological horror sim. At least it was still surreal enough not to take too seriously.

"Well gosh lady I'm sure you've got plenty of other good points. I just haven't seen 'em yet. Well besides the hostility in a way. I'm sure it can be plenty charming. It is right now to a degree. You've definitely got spunk." He was awful tempted to say if she didn't he'd share his but he resisted the urge. "You at least were open to try talking to me even after someone painted a picture of me you disliked. That's nice."