RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 4] A Pleasant Dinner

"Maybe--" Her mouth snapped shut as soon as Lorcan started talking to the two of them, her eyes settling on him as he spoke, then wound his way around the table. She pulled back noticeably when he put his head between them, her eyebrows raising slightly at his words.

And... it all made sense. His reaction to Dream when they all first came onboard, his attitude around all the girls this night, even Cassefin, her memory of his confrontation with their first Captain. It all fit.

She turned to Claire, an amused look on her face, and leaned in closer to whisper to her. "In his case, I think he's pretending really hard."

Claire jumped a little when Lorcan spoke, apparently not paying attention too well. After she took a couple of seconds to bring her mind back to speed, she heard Lorcan's rather shameless attempt. While she herself didn't respond, she did look back towards Keziah. Listening to her response, Claire wondered if she had just now realized that he had taken an interest in them.

Nonetheless, when Lorcan moved away, she nudged Keziah playfully, "See? I told you. I'll bet you anything that he's just one of the few who has the guts to come right out and say it." She gave her an amused smile.

She paused for a moment and added a bit more quietly, "And you can't tell me he's just like that with all the girls on board here. If that were true, then why'd he only come up to you and me, hm?" Claire seemed to have brought it upon herself to raise Keziah's self-esteem. Though whether it would ever be up to her own standard of self-confidence was yet to be seen.

Deacon remained where he had stationed himself, between the dinner table, with all of his squadmates happily eating and conversing, and the doorway where they had all entered. His head swivelled slowly from the door, to the table with a tight smile. The hyena rose a pawlike hand to hopefully catch Cassefin's attention.

"Ma'am, will you be needing me to stand guard all night, or may I be excused to attend to other matters? I thank you humbly for your generosity in inviting me to your dinner party, but my stomach still has not settled from the ordeal planetside, and I feel that I would do well with a little more rest in the barracks."

"Maybe he's just running down the list."

There wasn't even a glimmer of self-confidence in her whispered words. Her eyebrows slowly settled down, her eyes frowning as she met Claire's eyes. She glanced sideways to Lorcan, then back to Claire, her face still impassive.

Then, it broke, and she smiled. But it was a small one. "Besides, the gutsy ones are the ones in it for themselves."

Claire chuckled, "Well even then, if he's 'running down the list' then that means you were at the top of said list." She was going to get through to Kaz one way or another. "Don't make so many excuses, dear. Just admit it. You're good-looking and you're nice. If I weren't a woman myself, I'd be coming on to you too." She paused as if actually entertaining the awkward thought. "Buuut I suppose I'll have to settle for being your friend, hm? That's more than enough for me." She wasn't a dishonest person so she wasn't joking, even if her demeanor was humorous.

In response to her second speculation she rolled her eyes a little while laughing again, "Hon, you'd be hard pressed to find a relationship that doesn't start out like that. There's got to be something to make the people interested to begin with, doesn't there?" Claire was generalizing, of course. Not implying any specific situation.

If nothing else, Claire made it easy to forget where you were. She only seemed to be half-listening to the things going on around her. Of course, she was a little more alert now after being snapped out of it by Lorcan.

Keziah looked down and away, down at her lap, her hands folded up together. Her short hair fell around her face in a thin veil, hiding her burning face.

Why did she have to feel like a little girl again? She hated that feeling, that kind of powerlessness over everything. She had joined the military to get rid of that, but here it was, sneaking up on her and attacking her. But... that was just because Claire didn't know. She couldn't see the tattoos, and she couldn't see the past written on her arm. All she sees is me.

All she could see was the mental trigger for her arm. Those few synaptic commands that could turn it into a wrecking ball. She could only see that and wonder why anyone would find her attractive.

Finally, after several eternal seconds, she breathed. Then she shook her head, and laughed, but it was without any humor. "If I had joined the military to find a guy," her voice lowered and lowered with each word, until it was barely a whisper. Then she leaned up to Claire, cheek-to-cheek, her lips close to her ear, so nobody else could hear. "I would've stayed right where I was."

Then she sat back, biting her lower lip as she settled into her chair again.

Too bad that Dream wasn't listening to all the interesting things that were being said around the table. It would have helped loads in the course of her future work, to understand more deeply, counsel, and motivate her team-mates.

But she was at her third meat-substitute-substitute hamburger, and showing no sign that she was going to stop for anything else other than running out of hamburgers.

Which, eventually, happened.

"Woah, that was a feast." She muttered, with a deep sigh and a satisfied expression on her face, while slowly filling herself a glass of water, with extreme care as to not waste even a single drop.

"So, Real." She gulped down a bit of water. "You've been acting weird recently. What's the matter?"

Cassefin had been listening intently to all of the criticisms flying around about her newest non-meat project, returning mixed results. She, of course, did not taste her experiment beforehand...she was hoping to get some data from the squad instead. A minor success, seeing as a few of the undesirables seemed to enjoy the concoction...perhaps the station would be seeing a shiny new button on the BioNutri-Snack machines in the near future.

However, when Deacon called forth unto Cassefin, the Head Administrator snapped out of her observational euphoria and waved a single hand in a halting gesture. "Ah, no no no no no no, Deacon, there is something else that I will need you for tonight. Something that I will need everyone for, actually..."

Dream said:

"So, Real." Dream gulped down a bit of water. "You've been acting weird recently. What's the matter?"

Click to expand...

Cassefin raised her face upward smugly, displaying another classic Cassefin facial expression; the self-praising canary-eating grin, complete with obnoxious laugh. "Oh ho ho ho! Dream, how perceptive of one such as you," Cassefin replied.

"Well...after that little episode down on Prilisa IV, my peers on the Nepleslia NAM branch seem to think that I should have to reward you all. I know that you feel you probably don't deserve such a reward, and I expressed that quite clearly...but never the less they felt compelled to voice their idea, and I had to comply," she dolled on. "SO! In addition to this gratious meal, I am going to show you all the Nanoconstructor system on the Scientist crew deck. All I hear from you all is constant complaining about the system anyway...but I think it would be a nice little side-trip before your double-duty tonight."

Serra blinked. "Wait what?" She stammered. "Double Duty?" She perked a brow and glared at Cassifin.

"What? Double shift? Knew there had to be a catch to this dinner..."

The visit to the nanoconstructor system didn't really appeal to him, mainly since he wasn't aware of what it did or how it worked to do whatever it was it did, but he wasn't going to turn it down. Gives me another chance to circulate the rest of the team and get to know them better or at all, I suppose, he thought to himself.

He glanced at Lorcan, the suspicious figure filling his pockets with bread and leaning in close to the women across the table. Presumably some lame joke about buns, maybe a double entendre about meat... he pondered before his mind reacted to Serra's words and reality crashed around him like a ton of lead.

Double duty, a great start to his new posting on the station.

"Of course!" Cassefin said incredulously, her expression clearly indicated that she simply couldn't believe they didn't expect this turn of events. "If I were to give you all an evening off duty, that would mean that ANOTHER squad would have to pick up the slack. That wouldn't be very fair to them, now would it?"

Cassefin clapped her hands together and stood up before opening them wide again, taking a deep breath in the process. "Alright! Dinner time is over! Everybody up; we're going to have a little post-meal fun on the Nanoconstructor floor! And I think you all are going to enjoy it very, very much~!" She said enthusiastically.

Dream didn't stand up.

She side-skipped everything that Real had said and inquired without any hesitation: "No, I don't mean about us, Real. I mean about you. Are you in love or something?"

Talk about cutting the Gordian knot.

A Pleasant Exchange.

((Yes, this is the JP Liam and I were supposed to do a while ago. And no Moonie, you can't have IC knowledge of it. Cassefin wasn't at her monitors.))

"Well of course, no one joins the military to find guys. You just have to work with what you have." Claire glanced back at the doorway that she and Keziah had emerged from. Back inside the dinner drama was still going on. Keziah had gotten up for some reason and Claire, being the friend that she is, followed suit to see what was up. "Hey, you alright, dear? You look sad." Apparently stating the obvious was Claire's way of trying to show her concern. How effective that is... it's still under debate. She held a mild frown for her expression which was semi-rare for her.

"Yeah. Sad." Keziah shook her head, her pace brisk and steady even as she walked. "But I'm just... not interested in that, at all." Her body shivered, unconsciously and visibly, but she carried on as if nothing were wrong. She looked over her shoulder at Claire, and smiled a bit, her pace slowing, slowing, and then stopping. They were standing outside a service hatchway, and Keziah leaned against it.

Claire bit her lip, "Well ok, it's not for everyone, I'll concede. But..." She watched Keziah for a quiet moment before placing a hand firmly on her shoulder. "Dear, you're shaking like you've just been traumatized. Do you need to lie down?" Claire's eyes searched Keziah's. She was a bit more perceptive than she normally let on it seemed. "Look, I may not know you that well, but I've even the shyest girls I've met don't act like this. What's wrong?"

She laughed. It was a harsh sound, cutting through all the sound of the station, all the life. In that instant, she became aware of the life in the hallway--even though it was sparse, just a few security guards, some cameras, some scientists, she was acutely aware of them all. A faint paranoid look settled in her eyes, and she couldn't meet Claire's inquisitive gaze. "Let's find somewhere private." She hugged herself tightly, almost too tightly, as she winced when her fake arm gripped herself too tightly.

Claire looked over her shoulder. She was used to having others around so she had hardly noticed them. But for Keziah. "Alright. I may be new here but there shouldn't be anyone back where our bunks are. They'd all be at the dinner now." She gently pulled Keziah by the arm, although at a slightly slower pace since she had to remember how to get there. Once arriving she checked to make the area was clear before drawing Kaz inside. She sat down on the bunk that she had claimed earlier and made a patting motion beside her to insist that her friend have a seat. "Is this better for you, hon?"

A nod, and her body uncurled, straightening itself out. She tore off her uniform jacket, and tossed it onto another bunk. "It'll make more sense if I show you something." Then without warning, she started unbuttoning her tunic, until it was completely open. She slid it half-way down, and turned her body so Claire could more easily see the tattoos on her back. "Do you know what they mean?"

"..." Claire might have commented on why she half de-robed right in front of her, but she bit her tongue on that when Keziah showed her. "I know what they mean, but not what each represents. All I know is that people get branded like that if they're someone's servant. Traded through slavery or otherwise." Claire's expression had become much more serious. Unconsciously she began running the fingers over the scars on her palm (With the same hand.) "Hon... I'm sorry if you got involved in all that. I don't have much of a place to talk... but I'm sorry." She slowly stood up and gently placed a hand on her shoulder (On the organic side anyway.) "I may have overstepped my boundaries back there at the dinner then. I apologize, but I didn't have any idea. Do know that it doesn't change my opinion of you. I still think you're very sweet." Claire smiled faintly. She held no dishonesty in her eyes.

"Each star represents a year. Nine stars, nine years." She spoke as if she didn't really hear Claire. Her body was still, her back still turned, her head bowed as she made herself hold back tears. She had done this... this confession with Bakare, she could do it again. She breathed in deeply, and her voice was strong; "I never got involved in it. I was born a slave." Her hand snaked up, and gently clutched Claire's hand. "So don't apologize. Or just listen, if you have to."

Claire froze a bit when Keziah grabbed her hand. She hadn't been paying attention to which hand she had been using and now Kaz had her scarred palm within her grasp. She quickly tried to play it off, “Oh... is that what it means..." For a brief moment, Claire had let a bit of panic slip into her voice. She pretended like it didn't happen though. "I can't imagine then. Being born that way. Still... that does explain a couple things." Claire shook her head. "Still you are who you are, regardless of whom you were. And I like you as you are." Her eyes glanced down over Keziah's marked back. "You and everything that comes with you. That's what friends are about, dear." She tried to discreetly remove her hand if possible. She mentally reprimanded herself for being careless.

The tone of Claire's voice made a small part of her mind twitch. She turned around, her tunic trailing behind her, her hand falling away and into her lap. "What's wrong?" She cocked her head to the side, and pulled her arms around her, pulling the tunic together but not bothering buttoning it up.

Claire smiled quizzically. "What do you mean? I just said I liked you. I'm not asking you out or anything." She added in a voice so quiet that would be impossible to hear, but enough to know that she did add something, "...yet." Then again, that was Claire for you. “Anyway, as alluring as you look that way, you might want to put your tunic back on before some random guy walks in. I don't want to have to fight him off of ya." She chuckled slightly. It looked like she was back to her semi-flirty personality again.

"Nothing." Keziah shook her head and looked sideways at the barracks door. But she made no move to dress herself, just remained sitting on Claire's bunk. For a while she was silent, then slowly, she looked up to Claire, a kind of darkness behind her eyes. But she just exhaled, and pulled her tunic the rest of the way back up onto her shoulders. "I've only ever been with one man, and he bought me."

"I see. Well I'll try to stop teasing you about it then. To continue would just be mean of me." Claire patted Keziah's shoulder with her non-scarred hand this time. "That's too bad though. It can be so much better than that." She shrugged. "Oh well. I suppose you could always just spend more time around other women instead." Claire smirked. She wouldn't let on whether or not she was being serious about that. "I still want you as a friend though, dear. I hope you feel the same way about me." Her smile was a bit gentler this time.

She nodded, uncertain but trying to hide it, and slowly buttoned up her tunic. "We'd make good friends, I think." She smiled at Claire, warmly, but didn't rise, staying on the bunk as she leaned forward on her knees and elbows. "But... what do you mean 'spend time around other women'?" Keziah looked up at her, feeling infinitely more ignorant.

"I'm glad you do, hon. As diverse as the crowd on this station is, it might be kind of hard to find a friend sometimes." Claire idly rubbed the scars on her palm over the bunk, as if that would somehow erase them. At Keziah's second question, her eyebrows raised as she slowly turned to look at her. "What do I mean?" She chuckled a bit, obviously finding this amusing. "Dear, this is what I mean." In one swift, but gentle move, Claire leaned forward, placing one hand alongside Keziah's face, and planted a good, sensual kiss right on her lips. She pulled back quickly, trying to fight off her own laughter as she watched for Keziah's reaction. Her wide grin didn't help that any.

Keziah stared at her, more surprised by the kiss than anything. It felt better, kissing her, than it ever had with even the slightest touch by Mako. Slowly, she regained a sense of composure, and swallowed heavily, sucking her lips in as she ran her tongue over them, trying to resolve the rush she had felt. She stood up, feeling nervous and childlike and... It was okay. They had a secret now. "I..." she stammered, and looked to Claire, blinking and completely unsure of herself.

Claire probably could have handled what followed a lot better. But she didn't. She burst out laughing. At the very least, she controlled the volume so other people wouldn't hear. "I'm so sorry, hon. But you made that WAY too easy." Claire carried on for a short while before controlling her breathing enough to stop. "Whew... Sorry about that, but that is what I was implying. I think..." She shook her head. "Anyhow, don't be mad at me, please. It's not like you're not fun to kiss...” Claire stopped herself, realizing she was only making it sound worse. "Gah. I don't know what’s with me today. That was rather mean of me to pull that on you. I'm sorry." She played it off as a joke, but part of her posture and expression suggested that she had wanted to beforehand.

"No, it's okay." She shook her head, biting her lip as she did so. "I just..." She breathed out steadily, frowning slightly. "I liked it." Then, suddenly unsure of what to do or where to stand or... anything, she hugged herself and turned away from Claire, part of her intensely wanting to be alone so she could consider everything. And another part of her desperately not wanting to be alone.

There was a short period of silence. Just pure silence. After what probably seemed like an eternity, a slender hand found its way around Keziah's waist. Claire stood on the other side. "You did, huh?" Claire's eyebrow was raised again. But she was no longer laughing or making light of things. "You know, most women would recoil if I did that to them." She shook her head. "It's alright though. Some do like it. And truthfully? Considering the way you were raised, I don't find it all that surprising." Claire smiled at her, "You want to know something? I've been involved with both. I know that makes me sound like an immoral person, but when I was in my teens, I experimented a lot. I found that I enjoyed the company of both genders. And trust me when I say that confused the hell out of me as well." She shook her head. "It's alright if you did." There was a pause then a bemused 'hm' before Claire added, "If you like, I can do it again."

The silence wracked her mind, and when Claire touched her she jumped, startled into complete silence as she just let Claire's words flow over her, aware of their meanings more than what was said. She leaned into the touch, into the body of the other woman, feeling an incredible wash of nervousness, as well as a kind of rising anxiety. A joy, something she hadn't ever felt before. Then... Claire's proposition. Keziah turned around, still hugging herself, as if her arms didn't know at all what to do. "I want you to... kiss me again."

Claire couldn't help but smile at Keziah's reaction. It almost reminded her of... nah. Shouldn't be thinking of that right now. Upon hearing her response she shook her head with a warm smile on her face. "Oh? Alright then. Come here, hon..." Claire turned Keziah around so that she was facing her. After taking a moment to look at her she leaned in and kissed her in a similar way, except for it lasting much longer. She even wrapped her arms around Keziah's waist as she did. After a long blissful moment she stopped. "Was that better for you, dear?" Her warm smile was still there.

Once their lips touched, Keziah's arms relaxed, slipping down and around Claire, holding at her as they kissed. She liked the contact, feeling Claire's warmth through their clothes, her breath and the smell of her hair, the gentleness of their embrace. When, after an eternity, they broke, Keziah breathed in slightly and then started laughing. Almost a giggle, almost like a little girl as she lowered her forehead to Claire's shoulder and just laughed. "Yes," she said finally, grinning slightly, not showing signs of wanting to let go. "A lot better."

Claire gave one of those silent chuckles as Keziah voiced her approval. (You know, the kind where they laugh without actually opening their mouths?) "I'm glad you enjoy it, dear. Let me say it was pleasant for me as well." She ran a hand through Keziah's hair as she brought her mind back together. Just now noticing that they'd been absent for a while, she sighed and shook her head. "Well, normally I'd show you what it's really like to be with a woman. But we probably should get back to the dinner before we get into too much trouble, don't you think? I'd hate to land you an extra shift because I was too busy." She loosened her grip on Keziah. "Don't worry though. I'll always be here for whenever you need me, alright?" Claire dropped her arms from her.

Keziah nodded, smiling as her arms fell to her side, too. "Okay. I'd like that." She stepped away, and went back to her uniform jacket, shrugging into it and buttoning it up as she did so, ignoring the flush spreading across her face. "We'd better hurry, then. I bet they're almost done." In a single, fluid motion, she stepped up to Claire, kissed her cheek and grasping her hand, quickly, before she made her way out of the barracks, waiting for Claire so they could head back to the dinner together. Just as they had left.

"Alright. It'll be our little secret as long as you want it to be." Claire smiled as she received the last kiss. "I have a rule of 'what happens on the bed stays there.'" She glanced back at her bunk where they had sat. "Let's go. You're not alone, Keziah."

"I-I am not!" Cassefin said unconvincingly, shunning her head to the side with a short 'hrmph!'. It was pretty obvious, blatantly obvious that she was, however, harboring at least some affection for the infamously perfect guard captain, evident by the splash of red running across her cheeks to match her fiery eyes and hair.

"A-anyway!" The Head Administrator said quickly, getting up from her seat and pulling up her ridiculously ornate party dress as though they were a pair of overalls. "Come now, we're on a tight schedule...and I want to have plenty of time for this fun fun activity I have planned. The activity that you all don't know about..." Cassefin said, letting her voice trail off almost whimsically. A strange tone for her, almost as if...

"A special activity that only I know about and we're about to do, at the nanoconstruction floor...you know...?"

...almost as if she was deliberately expecting one of them to ask her what the activity was.

Stovaa observed the dead silence around the table, taking a few seconds before sighing. "...Okay, I'll bite. What special activity on the nanoconstruction floor we don't know about? What is it, I mean..."

He crunched another lettuce leaf between his teeth and swallowed it slowly. Whatever 'activity' was lined up for them, he was dreading it already.

Meanwhile, Dream was doing, after Cassefin's statement, something that she should have paid more attention to.

Something that should have terrified her.

She was THINKING.

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked, you little nosy bastard!" Cassefin squeeled with glee. "We are going to have some good old fashioned friendly, competitive competition. I have set up a program for the Nanoconstruction floor that creates a large, closed environment with which we can start our true fun; a Stainball match~!" The Head Administrator cheered, no doubt waiting for their identical reactions to her idea of fun.

Stainball, of course, being the Nepleslian version of what many would know as paintball...with a slight variation here and there. Most of these including a certain amount of necessary clothing to act as padding for the high-velocity ammunition and very thick smoky goggles used not just to protect the eyes...but to shield them from the hideous mish-mash of color most Stainball players leave their areas covered in. The sign of a victorious Stainball champion is usually a lack of a vivid pattern of splotched, steaming color, akin to if a clown vomited a rainbow onto somebodies chest. Losers meant one set of permanently ruining clothes and twenty-or-so sand dollar-sized bruisers.

"So get your things ready," Cassefin continued. "Because we're leaving right now!"

And so they were. Cassefin exited her room hastily, still in her elaborate ballroom dress no less, expecting her little guests to be close behind her. After a heated battle with overwhelming forces of amazonic nekos, what Nepleslian wouldn't want to let off a little steam in perhaps the most painful children's sport there was?

Tweak had ignored most of the conversation in favor of cleaning out one of the salad bowls and several bowls of soup...while consciously ignoring the flavor (or lack of flavor?) of the latter. While "nutritious", Cassifin's vending machine offerings cost too much for too few calories for Tweak to properly sustain herself, even if she ate the wrappers. But Headmaster Real's mention of a competition caught the catgirl's attention. She leaned over to Dream.

"What's stainball?" Tweak whispered. Curiosity turned to concern when she saw her fellow Freespacer's face turned in a decidedly not normal expression. "Are you okay, Dream?"

Deacon listened to his boss talking about something called stainball, and that it had something to do with a competition. After canting his head slowly to the side, watching the Administrator leave the room in her elaborate clothing, the hyena put on a grin and followed. I mean, surely if his boss didn't change out of her fancy clothes, he had no need to worry, right?

"Stainball."

The reply (or lack thereof) to Tweak's question came from a seat or two across from her. Sitting there, his dinner plate laden with a once-bit hamburger, was none other than George Resetti. He and Lenny had been fairly quiet throughout the whole meal, which was a surprise from the larger of the two. Lenny, however, seemed more content with the posh dinnerware than the actual food itself...George didn't seem to mind. It kept the big lug quiet, after all, and allowed him more time to nose his way into Tweak's conversation.

"It's a Nepleslian sport," George said, flashing her a smile. "Real fun. You basically gots two teams, ya see? And everybody has these guns that shoot these little balls fulla paint. If you get hit by the little ball, the paint gets all over ya clothes, and kinda stains their clothes, and you gotta sit out 'cause your dead. Last team alive wins. Stainball."

George looked pretty proud of himself at the end of his lackluster explanation. It obviously wasn't often that he had more knowledge about any given subject, and he seemed to personally enjoy the experience.

Lenny just nodded his head in agreement as he looked at his distorted hand through the crystal glass drinking glasses.