RP: 188604 [AdVenture Capital] 1: Nath Tower

"So much for that second chance. I can still spare you a third, but only after I simulate a stiff drink." Queenie made a swift gesture as she tuned Akemi out and walked over to the hotel bar. "Bartender, give me an imaginary."

"We are chatting about you, cat boy." Lyco remarked defensively. She wanted him to be involved, even if this conversation was getting out of hand. Feeling out of her league negotiating with a type three, however, the awkward tankish thing did the next best thing to talking and went to fetch drinks...

Groundbreaker had finished her battleship metaphor and Akemi had already retorted, at which point Lyco came rolling urgently back, carting a tray of three small coffees upon the oversized battery unit of their caboose.

Just in time to see the other spacer turn and leave.

"So..." A nervous glance up to Akemi, green eye not quite managing an earnest look of positivity. "Is she going to help us, do you think?"

"Yeah, I bet things will work out fine," Akemi answered before reaching down to take a cup of tea. "She'll work with you at least. It's not like I need her help anyway. I would like to save as much money as I can though. I don't need to but I'd always like to make and save some. Thanks for the drink."

Wanting to try to quickly alleviate the woman's worries the Neko took the tray to Groundbreaker and presented the remaining cup. "Disliking me won't stop you from working with Lycosidae, right?"

Queenie, by all appearances, was not acutely aware of Akemi's presence, nor did she hear his words. "If I ask for it on the rocks... No, I'll just take it neat." She pushed the cup aside as it came toward her.

Akemi simply waited and continued to hold the tray. He felt like the chick was possibly just a stupid subconscious attention whore vying for attention and praise by acting pissy and playing hard to get but he decided to continue playing nice to show Lycosidae just how much of a patient pal he was. He was amused by the idea she might as well beg to be objectified as everything she'd said so far only made her personality and intellect seem like absolute trash. What a little baby she was if she couldn't handle someone casually saying nice things about her. If the dumb shit couldn't handle his words she should have done herself and the world a favor by killing herself ages ago.

"Are you sure she's not logged into the poly?" Lyco followed and asked simply. "I don't think she has ever lived outside of spacer society, from what I can tell."

-"Anyone home miss?"- A transmitted message. -"Or is this some kind of information filter system?..."-

Queenie raised her invisible glass in intangible toast, without turning, and answered the message a second later. "Yes, I'm here. Is this about the meatsack doing the butlerbot impression on my five? I'm fairly sure he heard me just tell him to take some time out and think while I drink."

Corgan nodded appreciatively. "Thanks, Arccos. I didn't mean to imply you were my dealer. I guess no one else was listening.." He didn't notice at first that she had quickly moved on. His eyes were on the various drugs of which he was unfamiliar. Despite what people may think, he was actually pretty vanilla. He had never really been interested in drugs other than caffeine and alcohol. Sure, he took the occasional mild stimulant, but this was on another level.

By the time he had worked up the nerve to try the barra leaf, he had noticed Arccos was leaving. He wanted her to stay, so he sent her a message.

Corgan swiped some barra leaf and looked around. If Arccos was leaving, he would have to find someone else to talk to. Akemi seemed to be conversing with a Spacer he didn't know. He recalled that she had spoken to Arccos momentarily a few minutes ago. As he watched she walked off, probably in response to something Akemi said. The mysterious woman looked like a princess from some strange alien planet with her dress and veil. He wanted to talk to her immediately, but something about her made him nervous. Maybe it was her demeanor. She practically screamed, "Approach at your own risk."

Someone walked by and stuffed a green drink into his free hand. He drank all of it quickly as he decided on a strategy. Corgan walked towards the bar. Before he could reach the woman of mystery, Akemi was beside her offering her a drink. He walked up on her other side and set his glass down near the bartender. "Could you get me something a little stronger and less sugary? Maybe something that will relax me." He requested.

While he waited for the bartender to pour his drink, he turned to look at the woman. "Haven't seen you around here before. I see you aren't with the Lament's crew. What brought you to this dustball?" As he spoke, he prepared the barra leaf in the hookah. The bartender slid a glass to him, informing him the drink was a Mazrit brandy. He took a small sip at first, then nodded. This person knew what they were doing.

"I wonder what kind of society she was in," Akemi said, turning to Lycosidae. "In Yamatai you can often just basically walk up to someone and say 'hey you're hot, I'd totally bump uglies with you if you'd like' and you're alright. I mean sure some people would get offended but a lot wouldn't and a lot of the ones that would get offended could be calmed down. Then again she did say she'd give me a third chance."

At the bar, by Corgan

"Arccos. The White Lament. Vagaries, of fate and otherwise. I'm not with the Lament's crew at the moment, because I thought it would be convenient to stay at this hotel. How wrong I was." Queenie took a long pull from her 'imaginary' drink, though it still seemed to burn intensely on the way down from the way she cringed and thumped her collarbone. No coughing, at least. "I volunteered to rebuild the old Osman palace for the empress, though things didn't work out that way."

She wasn't young, maybe around fifty by Nepleslian standards, and she looked even older while stooped over the bar, though she was still in good shape and her synthetic hair showed no signs of age. It seemed she had a good cosmetic surgeon, as well. Even her cybereyes and ears and the bodysuit under her dress had a keen, polished look that seemed a bit less than egalitarian, though traditional status symbols, like gold and gems, were absent from her attire.

"So you're an architect or something like that?" Corgan replied, taking a long drink this time. "What sort of buildings are you interested in.. uh.. building?" He asked curiously. He didn't want to be too obvious, but his interest in her had quickly become professional. Not that he wouldn't have a very unprofessional relationship with her given the chance. Her apparent age and her blasé attitude were alluring. Right now he needed to find out if she might be able to design and build a military stronghold for his Reavers. Besides, after seeing how she had shut Akemi down so hard, he wasn't about to try to hook up with this woman tonight.

Queenie sat up straight for a moment, then leaned back, dropping her hands to her sides, pressing them into the small of her back, and popping a few vertebrae back into position with a relieved sigh, before raising her hand again. (That was another handy thing about virtual beverages, they didn't have to spill if you dropped them, and you didn't have to pick them back up from the floor.) She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a normal conversation; a matter of months, at least. Most people she knew, herself included, tended to skip the warm-ups and dive into the deep end.

"I'm a civil engineer. I specialize in habitat construction and ecology, recycling systems and life support; though I've picked up a few other areas of interest relevant to the establishment of new colonies. Yourself?" She turned a sideways glance toward Corgan, and eyed him a bit widely upon becoming aware that his apparent size wasn't a problem with her optics.

The I'ee commander's antennae visibly gravitated towards the alcoholic drink, unable to deny the sweet scent wafting up from it. "That... is bizarre, but..." there was a pause. "If you promise that you shall ensure nothing bad happens, I suppose I can try an alcoholic drink..." Gut-Stripe crawled closer to the bright green drink, gently clasping the glass between her mandibles and lifting it gingerly into the air. She tilted her head back, allowing most of the drink to neatly pour out and into her mouth, with only a little of it missing its mark and splashing to the bar. Gut-Stripe shivered, placing the glass down and tilting her head. "That was... odd... but pleasant," she said, tapping her antennae on the now-empty glass.

"Give it a moment... it can take a while to kick in..." Uso said, slowly leaning in towards Gut-Stripe, unable to hide her growing smile,

"...... Another?"

Gut-Stripe sat sedately upon the bar, gazing up at Uso. "Ah, yes. I can feel something now," the I'ee said, letting out a squeaky sigh. She shifted position at Uso's question, snorting with laughter. "You are determined to intoxicate me, Uso," she said with amusement. "I am your responsibility. Bring me another."

Akemi rested the tray on the table and decided to do something that would surely be productive. "Well we can chill with Aashi while we wait. She should be easy for both of us to talk to. We can call Truffleclub over too. She'd totally do stuff with you even if she's already working with this lady."

The Neko then began walking over to their hostess. "Hey Aashi, would you like to hang out with Truffleclub and Lycosidae? They're both cool. I was thinking they'd work with me and they could do stuff with you too."

"Ahhh, Akemi, yes, yes." Aashi waved a hand about after he approached her. "Let's meet your new friends." She bent down to a table and said, "Yes, hello," before taking a hit of the salcra weed off the hookah.

She looked up at Ulysses and widened her eyes, then blinked excitedly as a smile pushed up on her face. She took his hand and made her way to Lycosidae.

Lyco just finished her coffee whilst she watched Corgan loom past, apparently not noticing her. Oh well. Couldn't be helped. Feeling a little defeated, she just placed the tray back up on the bar with a particularly strenuous reach upwards, then rolled on after Akemi.

"A-Aashi? We had a little bit of a talk, about the tower, b-but..."

The horned lady was super tall, too. At least six foot. Lyco was starting to feel like she should have come to the party riding a junker instead. Frustrations over the sheer amount of people around where seriously beginning to rise.

"Only if you wish to, Miss Nath. I-I'd understand if you were busy..." Lyco said to the pair taking drugs. Of course they weren't busy. But this was all not quite going to plan. "Erm... What is that you are taking?... It's not on the poly..."

Aashi was into making Lyco comfortable and bent down, putting her hands on her knees as she did.

"Hey there, pretty thing. I bet Akemi's told you all sorts of compliments that I can't match. But you really are something else. Come over to the lounge where it's more quiet. We'll get you set up with a nice place to relax."

She took them to the back corner of the lounge and stood, waiting for them to sit. Ulysses was at her side and she said to him, "I'll sit next to you," while putting a hand on his momentarily. She was feeling the salcra weed and was reminded that she was asked about it. "Salcra weed," she interjected oddly and out of nowhere as she waited for them to position themselves inside the nook of couches and ottomans.

Ever the gentleman Akemi looked around and found a big, thick, cushioned lounge chair to carry over and present to Lycosidae before sitting down with her. He couldn't let her be the only one without a chair or allow her to be stuck with something she might just crush.