RP: Bahram Wing [Bahram Wing Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

As soon as Firuz had arrived, three figures made it to the presence of the Marranr and completely overshadowed him from behind. It didn't take much for him to notice he was in the way of people meeting-- only seeing the shadows behind him loom over his already tall body, and Nejem's shift of attention to those behind him were enough to tell him where the attention was due. Irk...! Just when he finished saluting to the Marranr, he had turned to let the higher ups meet, being in a bit of an awkward position regarding them for only a second or two until he had extracted himself successfully from their way.

This is what it's like being an extra, I guess... Firuz told himself reluctantly. He usually liked attention, but with his current rank he wasn't going to be getting a lot of it. To be fair, though, he had thus far gotten more attention than most Vayshirin in his same situation, considering he was Spaceship Operator so soon.

He observed the Vaygraiv and his associate with amusement, a somewhat dumbfounded look on his face. Old, experienced... the Vaygraiv looked so bad-ass it was admirable. The other woman looked like something out of a laboratory. And the shorter woman was rather attractive. Once she broke into conversation with the Marranr, he realized she was the Astarte's NI. He wanted to greet her, or even complement her on her appearance, but just as he was realizing he would be out of place doing so, Vaybalri Osei beat him to it.

PlaidMage said:

"Hallo!" she said cheerfully. "How're you liking being so tiny? In comparison, I mean." She paused. "...that came out wrong."

Click to expand...

Firuz looked away. She definitely didn't look sober, that was for sure... and in front of the Vaygraiv...

She was gonna get it, for sure.

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

Ishtar hadn't time to respond as she was slapped on the shoulder. Her grip on Amari's hand had been relatively light and now with the sudden slap pitching her forward. The little NI lost her balance as she stumbled forward arms flailing out wildly and right into the Marranr's chest.

Her face buried into Serhan's chest, voice muffled while she tried to speak to Mridula. "Mhmfh...hmf..mm..mf..hmmhff!" as if she could be understood as she was.

Her two bodyguards had twitched slightly when their small master had stumbled forward only to now remain at their statue-like pose.

After a few moments, Ishtar began to squirm against the Wing Commander's chest until finally she yanked her head away gasping for air. Her pale cheeks had gone slightly red not from embarrassment, but lack of air. And then finally embarrassment which only made them go darker as she looked up at the Marranr.

"I-I-I'm s-s-s-sorry!" the NI stammered while looking away.

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

"Oh hey, thanks a ton flyboy." Akjit would see that the woman's face was rather pretty, with dark red eyes and black half-gear tattoos marking her face, framed with a short and slightly wavy head of light gray hair. She definitely seemed to be around his age... and rather familiar. On the other hand, when she turned to the side, he'd notice through the gap between the boxes (and her) that she wasn't exactly as busty as the rest of her body suggested, topping out at a larger B-cup, but still had fairly curvy figure. "It's Khiyai. I'm a Marbalri, but in this office I might as well be a Saint. Treat me with reverence and I'll be extra nice with your frame."

"Now follow me up to the office and we'll finish up your release." She said with a rather cheery tune, going ahead of him despite still carrying quite a bit more. "Well. I'll listen to your name and cross you off my list of idiots I take care of last."

"Alia has one too, but I undercut it when I like people she doesn't."

----

Serhan reacted quickly, wrapping his arms around the girl out of sheer parental instinct. Perhaps it was simply because he hadn't seen his daughter in days, and that she reminded him of the younger girl that he remembered from before he'd returned to duty, but the damage was done. Although he was not doing anything so crass as squeezing the girl against him or speaking out in shock, and had retained a cool facade, he silently wondered if this might be the sort of incident that people would remember much more than any of the battles the ship would see in the future.

It would certainly be par the course for a crew full of reliably troublesome people.

He immediately let go and patted the NI on the head. "You're still quite clumsy, it seems."

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

The orange-haired runner grinned, clenching his fist. "Yeah! Vaybalri Malik Ibn Rashidan, at your service." Malik gently took Isha by her shoulder, and sat her down on the beanbag previously occupied by him. "Well, I was born to a Mazerinii mother, who was an ace Frame Runner back in her day; and my deadbeat good for nothing cohronl father. I'm the youngest of three kids: My sister grew up with me, she's graduated from a Southern Ghouron Naval academy and is probably doing Starship Officer stuff somewhere. My brother is a jerk and is off somewhere with my deadbeat father. And I'm me. I was mostly raised on a Mazernii space colony by my mother and sister for the first few years of my life, but my mom was reassigned to a groundside base on Mazerin, so I ended up living there until I finished school. Then, I figured that I might as well follow in my mother's footsteps and become a Frame Runner. Somehow, I managed to be one of the top pilots in my class, though you wouldn't know that by my combat record. After getting shot down a few thousand times, I ended up here, assigned to the Astarte." Malik took a deep breath, and sat on the beanbag next to Isha, taking care to not make any motions that would be seen as hitting on her.

"The the NVR is starting to piss me off," The runner began, eyes narrowing at the mention of the New Veyrin Republic. "I'm from Mazerin, and used to be stationed on the planet before coming here. My girlfriend's best friend is from the planet too, and I'm going to make sure to give them enough pain for the both of us."

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

"Well, I'm glad to know I'm not hated or anything." Akjit spoke. As Khiyai pulled ahead, he realized his mistake. He still wasn't carrying enough. "H-hey! Wait a second!" he called out, a hint of panic tinting his voice. The Ivouri went up beside her and began to take a few more boxes from her stack, all the while nervously talking in an attempt to suppress his terrible embarrassment as well as awkwardly make small talk. "Eh, well, to be honest, if anyone deserves that kind of treatment, it's my NI I think. He. She. It. It's not nice." He haltingly laughed.

Akjit regretted it as soon as it came out of his mouth. What if she found out? What if Nightmare tried to cover it up with an 'accident' or something? Akjit's pace slowed down a little again before he got hold of himself and got back up to speed.

'How could I be so stupid? Saints help me. Whatever happens now, it happens. I can't think of anything to stop this.'

A certain finality settled on Akjit as he grabbed another box from Khiyai.

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

Isha was a little surprised at his aggressiveness, but was easily amused and smiling as he began to share his entire background in a nutshell. By the second sentence she was leaning back, hands resting on her stomach as she listened. He was a talker, alright. When he sat down, she was perfectly comfortable. When he finally made room for a response, the Field Physician asked, "What does your girlfriend do and where is she now?"

She realized after the fact that might sound a little... invasive, but didn't say anything. It was only an issue if he made it an issue.

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

Malik seemed to smile wider, though the brown skin on his face was tinged with a blush. "My girlfriend is the best in the universe, Khiyai Sahrzad! She's actually stationed on the Astarte right now, as one of Bahram Wing's mechanists. Hold up, I think I have a picture of her from a few months ago."

Malik rifled through his uniform pockets, eventually pulling out his Datarod. After a few seconds of manipulating it, the runner brought up an image of two people, only showing their upper bodies. One of them was obviously of Malik, in drab, black, civillian clothing, smiling like always. The other figure was female, curvy but still somwhat petite frame, at least compared to Malik. Her skin was tanned lightly, her short gray hair framing a cute face, red half gear markings on her cheeks. She seemed to be wearing a sleeveless turtleneck, more stylish than the Vanguard's standard uniform, with a jacket over it. For the most part, the girl looked to be happy in the picture, as did Malik, and they were embracing.

"Yeah, here it is. This is from when the Wing was originally stationed on Mazerin, back at Fort Jarizas. We both had some time off, so I convinced her to go out on a date with me. She was pretty annoyed with me at first because I didn't have anything planned out, but it worked out." Malik continued speaking to Isha, explaining the circumstances. The runner's expression had changed, from his normal exuberant grin to a muted, tender smile.

"I miss her, Isha. I want to go see her, but I don't want to barge in on her while she's on duty."

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

Amari wore one of her little smiles as she watched Serhan 'catch' the NI in his arms. The poor thing had gone so red faced from forgetting she had to breathe and embarrassment afterward the doctor felt her heart skip a beat. Ishtar had backed up into Amari then, the woman's hands reflexively grasping her slender shoulders.

"She will get used to her new form eventually. Everything takes time..." looking up at Serhan, Amari couldn't help but smile a little wider before she let go of one of Ishar's shoulders the free hand now on her head.

"Isn't that right?"

Ishtar leaned her head back slightly, her cheeks still tinged pink but she nodded as best she could.

The physician stroked the NI's hair subconsciously while speaking to the XO. "Will she be needed on the bridge when we head out? I had thought to let her roam the Astarte a little to better interact with the crew."

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

Mridula winced as Ishtar stumbled into Serhan; she hadn't meant to thump the new girl quite that hard, though she supposed with her slight buzz and the NI's new body she should have expected something to go wrong. "Sorry," she told everyone present, even as she watched Amari stroke Ishtar's hair. It was so cute she couldn't help smiling.

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

Isha smiled at the picture, genuinely pleased. She was always joyous seeing others happy together, be they intimate or merely friends. It was always a good reason to smile. "I see what you mean: very cute girl. I'm very happy for you two." Her tone was soft, friendly, and honest.

"Maybe you could surprise her? It probably wouldn't be too good to interrupt her work, but maybe just a few minutes? Or find some time at the end of one of her shifts, perhaps. I know a lot of girls like little things like that." She shrugged. "I don't really know how that would work, though, so my advice might not be the best."

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

Then the NI fell on the Marranr. Firuz had stopped himself from acting mid-movement, and found the new host body was fine, as was the man that was in charge of him. He stood back and watched, just silently waiting for an order.

Sounds like she got saved by the distraction. Ugh... why am I even bothering to care for what happens to Mridula?

Then he turned to look at her, as she apologized and soon thereafter smiling with a dazed look on her face. Oh, that's right... cuz it'll be amusing as all hell! He laughed inwardly, only chuckling once in the real world.

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

"An NI that isn't nice?" Khiyai perked up, turning her head to the side to interrogate Akjit better. It was a strange sort of thing to hear about, when the majority of NI were programmed to be helpful, if not entirely obedient units. She'd heard of OMNI-types being a bit stuck up and occasionally less than helpful, but those were mature intelligences that hadn't developed within the idea parameters.

So the runner's statement came off as him being a bit too dense to handle such a unit, or really sort of unlucky and inheriting a core that had taken too much after a jerk. "Sounds like trouble. I'll have the NI technicians doublecheck your unit before sortie."

"So I guess you can tell me your name now, since it'd be stupid for me to just check every unit."

----

"I would agree. There is no shame to be had." Serhan rubbed the bridge of his nose thoughtfully and nodded soundly. He'd certainly recalled being a bit awkward after spending too long in Prajna therapy, so the profound dislocation of being inserted into a type of body that one has never genuinely experience was a stress he could understand, even if it was beyond his own understanding.

"There is no particular need to have Ishtar on the bridge at this time... although..."

Still... he'd just finished his shift, and the CO was on deck. He was half tempted to ask to be relieved for a little while, but he stood to miss the jump to fold and show himself to be a poor soldier. On the other hand, he'd deeply... wished, to spend more time Amari. And some things, like the newly sleeved Ishtar, could simply not be left alone.

"Vaygraiv, if you would..."

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

Mu'Tasim smiled as Zus came in, the muscular Sund Wakir setting down his weights as she approached. He cleaned wiped off his hands and face with his towel, and tried to soak some of the sweat in his hair into it. A light chuckle escaped his lips as he noted her blushing and her comment.

"Well, I don't want to come up short if I have to prove my strength like I did last night." replied Mu'Tasim, his eyes trailing for a moment to Chanda as she practiced her staff fighting, but then back to his blonde beloved.

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

Chanda nodded softly to the fellow Eyr Ranr, continuing her staff work, spinning about a little to keep her momentum, the soft sounds of her feet moving and various 'hai' sounds as she lands each strike and block on the invisible foe. She's doing her best to give them at least a little privacy while being subtle about it.

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

A darkly tanned hand rose waving Serhan off. The Vaygraiv keeping his back to the Marranr for the moment while he was shown several readouts.

"Go on. Your shift has ended and you will need the rest for what lies ahead of us. We cannot have tired officers on the bridge. Besides, if you wish to watch the event then you could go to a view port or where there is a view screen. We're to broadcast the event all over the ship so no one can miss out." the older man was rubbing at his chin before nodding to the operator who'd handed him the reports.

"If you're needed I can contact you."

_________

The NI's cheeks had remained tinged pink despite herself. Though, with the mentions of not being required on the bridge she was all smiles again. The chance to explore the ship, well...like a normal Iromakuanhe was thrilling. Sights, smells, sounds, sensations that she could not have experienced as a simple NI core now were at her fingertips literally.

The enthusiastic energy she had felt earlier swelled again, threatening to overtake her as she wanted to do naught but run right off the bridge; explore the ship and meet its crew firsthand.

Granted the two guards, Akkad and Sumer as she'd started to call them could potentially un-nerve or scare off people. Really though, they were not needed right now beyond merely seeing if they operated properly.

Ishtar didn't even have to look in their general direction to know the two had spun about, and now were walking off the bridge towards their storage units until they were needed.

Amari, seeming to have taken a shine to the NI kept her arms about the smaller girl. "Well, if you're now off duty... perhaps we could go on a little walk?" a little smile touching the corners of her lips.

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

Malik's had found itself on his chin, stroking non-existent facial hair as he thought. Isha was a girl. And girls tended to be right about things like this. And he really didn't have to worry about Alia trying to cave his skull in with her wrench, seeing as how he had brought Zulfiqar back in good condition. In fact, with the wing having brought their VANDR back in mostly good quality, the mechanists should be done by now. All in all, it seemed like a good idea to Malik.

"Well, that actually sounds like a good idea, Isha. But if I end up getting brained with a wrench or anything, I'll be expecting you and the ship's doctor to patch me up." Grinning, the runner stood up, quickly making his way out of the rec room at a brisk pace, jogging actually. Malik figured that if he was fast enough, he might be able to catch up to Khiyai and Alia before they leave the hangar.

Of course, running into two huge guys sort of put a damper into that plan. Malik was a pretty big guy on his own, but he was puny compared to these two. So when he bumped into the one on the right, he rebounded off, backing up into the one on the left before stumbling backwards, catching himself on a railing.

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

The two drones had been plodding down a hallway, their orders received when a small Iromakuanhe had bumped into them. Not once, but twice. The two autonomous giants stopped mid-stride, eerie eyes and gaunt faces focusing on the blond frame runner. The one on the right let out a hiss that sounded very much like a raspy gurgle, the sound of a person expelling their final breath, a death rattle.

The other showed one of the flattened, elongated hands from beneath the cloak.

"You lack capacities essential to locomotion. Step aside." the raw, grating voice that emanated from the left one stated.

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

Isha rose with another soft laugh. "That's a promise, Vaybalri," she answered before he took off. She slowly exhaled a deep breath before looking around the room. There were at least 2 other members of her team in the room, possibly a third. She wasn't quite sure who the last one was exactly. Normally she wouldn't be able to get away with such a great amount of free time, but the list of injured from the last conflict had been minimal, so it had been suggested she get out and try to meet the team.

"Here goes..." Vayshirin Ragnar crossed the room to where Zus and Mu'Tasim stood, smiling as always. "Hello, I'm Field Physician Isha Ragnar. I was assigned to your squadron in the midst of the last battle." She nodded and pointed toward Mu'Tasim. "If I recall, you are Vaytulri Mu'Tasim." Then, looking at Zus. "And you are...?"

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

"Very well. I'll come as needed." Serhan replied politely, placing his hand over his chest and giving a small nod to quietly acknowledge his kindness. He didn't not have the intention to beg for permission, so this sort of painless relief from his shift was always pleasant. "Otherwise, I'll return to the bridge at my next shift."

He glanced over to Amari, a subtle but happy curve coming to his lips as they prepared to leave, and then glanced down to take a peek at the NI, with her small stature and odd manner of dress. Being alone would have been nicer... but he supposed that she wouldn't be bad company, and playing escort to her on a military vessel would be little more than a thoughtless stroll.

Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden

Malik stood up straight, glaring at the two huge guys. They certainly seemed like an odd pair, given how huge and creepy they were. The fact that they were apparently twins made it worse. Malik was stubborn and brash, but he wasn't stupid. He thought this out first. In another reality, another time, Malik would've just given them a curt apology and ran off to the hangar. But here, things were different. Malik wasn't stupid, and he didn't like some hulking goons call him stupid.

"Like hell I do, you mook! I just bumped into you. Maybe if you idiots didn't take up the entire corridor I wouldn't have bumped into you." The runner glared, pointing at both of them with his index finger. "I was going to apologize, but calling me stupid is unforgivable!"