RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 4] A Pleasant Dinner

"Stainball, huh? My, I didn't know you liked games, miss Montreal." Claire sauntered after the administrator. Now most people would likely want to change into something more casual. (Why ruin good clothing?) But for her, well... it was her uniform. She better not mess it up. She didn't know how this lady felt about them, but they made that awfully clear in basic.

"Ooh, I hope you don't mind me asking a couple questions. First, do you mind giving us a moment to change? I don't think anyone wants to ruin what they have on. Least of all me, as I think that's a violation for ruining a uniform. You probably should as well, as I'd hate to see that dress get paint all over it." Claire was still in a bit of a bubbly mood. This place was fun already.

"And second... will you be joining us, dear? I hope so. We get to see THE Cassefin Montreal in action, perhaps?" Of course, that statement had more of a daring tone to it with a hint of innuendo, as did most things she said. Claire looked around the room. Well some of them seemed interested. She grabbed Keziah by the arm lightly, "You're with me, hon." She chuckled a little bit.

Stovaa's eyes glazed over, visions of brightly coloured yet nontheless violent warfare filling his mind. He jumped to his feet, imagining the team bathing Cassefin in paint in a spectacular display of gunmanship one instant and the next hooting like gibbons, comrades falling to paint-filled death all around. He jumped to his feet, hands tightly gripping the edge of the table.

"FANTASTIC. Uh, I mean... hooray? We can go change first though, I don't want to ruin this suit and I'd rather not play in just my boxers..." he said. Oh man how much would that sting... his mind ran on.

Something told her that this game of stainball after a fancy dinner wasn't a coincidence. 'Course, the reason why was somewhat childish--to ruin some of their clothes? It mattered to Keziah, at least. She wasn't about to get her dress uniform dirty, and especially not with paint.

She leaned a bit into Claire, putting her hand over top of the other woman's. Right now, she didn't care what anyone else thought of them.

"It would be a real show if you did, though," Keziah said to Stovaa, over her shoulder. "Might really be worth it, you never know."

Damn, she shook her head then, laughing silently, so only Claire could actually feel her shoulders moving. You're a bad influence on me. She looked to Claire then, smirking.

"Oh ho ho ho ho ho!" Cassefin laughed at their questions, raising the back of her hand daintily before her mouth as she bellowed. "Don't you worry your empty little heads...I've already anticipated your issues and had them all addressed. You will see once we reach the nanoconstruction floor."

Cassefin's chin raised even higher in the air when she was asked if she herself was participating. "Why, of course I am. Oh ho ho, and don't you all think I'm some sort of push over, with no chance of defeating you monkeys at your own games..." the Head Administrator said before gesturing grandiosely towards the opposite end of the room, to the display cases full of elaborate trophies on one side, and an impressive collection of guns on the other.

"I will have you know that many of those trophies and medals are for professional marksmanship competitions. I will also have you all know that I know the ins and outs of every single weapon in that display case, and practice with them regularly in my spare time," Cassefin said smugly. "There is no doubt that whichever team I am on will have the upper hand, no matter the situation. Now! Let's get a move on, shall we?"

---

In another moment or two, the Head Administrator and the rest of her guests had exited her personal quarters and were back into the hallway. However, they were taking a different path than the one they came by...this became fairly clear when they reached a set of sliding doors labeled with a large emblem reading CM. These doors were plentiful around the Cirrus, but could never be opened or entered...at least, not by the curious onlookers.

"As much as I know how the persons on my research station enjoy and anticipate meeting me by chance in the hallways, we are sadly in a hurry," Cassefin explained as she motioned towards the door. "We will be using my personal elevator system to traverse the distance in a much shorter span of time."

Almost immediately as Cassefin finished her explaination, Mimi appeared in front of the personal elevator door and smiled widely at the group. "Hello, miss Cassefin! I will open the door for you immediately."

"It's about time, Mimi," Cassefin said flatly, pulling her glasses out from the bosom of the dress and placing them on her head. She was starting to look more and more like the old Cassefin Montreal, save for the dinner dress. "Did you inform Guard Captain Winston of his routine patrol alteration?"

"Yes ma'am, he and his men are currently patrolling the scientist crew quarters," Mimi said sweetly. "Does my squad want me to accompany them to their destination? I'm sure you all will have a wonderful-"

"Of course they don't," Cassefin replied squarely, waving the Savtech away. "This is still a private function for Squad 35 and myself only. So butt out." Mimi's smile faltered a bit, but still held firm. "Yes ma'am."

Mimi's volumetric image disappeared, and the elevator door opened. Once everyone was inside the spacious confines, the party was on the move.

Sounds like fake combat, or a drill intended as a passtime, thought Tweak, quickly finishing up the rest of her soup and salad before following Montreal out into the corridor. Though what she wore wasn't all in good condition, they could be considered her best clothes and Tweak still would have preferred to change them...but it didn't look like she would get that chance.

She listened to everyone talk, listened to Cassifin boast of her weapon handling skills (When did she have "free time"?), and waved slightly at Mimi, giving the SavTech a friendly smile...she wasn't sure why. At the very least, because Cassifin was being rather rude to the AI. The mention of a "patrol alteration" was slightly interesting. Her hands were resting in the front pockets of her shorts, and her right hand absently pushed out a little to feel the weight of the book hanging at her thigh. Everything else in her bag on her bunk was, to some degree, disposable and replaceable. The book, and especially the tags at her neck, were not.

Keziah's comment came as a pleasant surprise, the kind of warm and saucy comment that made him feel right at home. "It'd be real nice, until the paint started coming. A seven foot tall naked guy is a nice easy target, and in less than a few seconds I'd look like an explosion in a rainbow factory" he replied swiftly.

His eyebrow raised as his mouth twisted into a smirk, brimming with understated intent, cool and calm.

"I'd need some help tending to the bruises afterwards, though, if you know of anyone who'd be willing to volunteer"

"Sounds fun, but don't do that, hon. You will regret it, especially if we're on the other team." Claire shook her head. Keziah was taking after her now? Oh dear, what had she done? Oh well... It was pretty harmless for now. So she let is slide. She might want to have a word with her later about that though... we'll see, no?

Speaking of whom, it seemed that she didn't care who knew how they related. Oh well. Claire wasn't going to parade it or anything, so she settled for reaching acrost Keziah's back and wrapping her arm around her, giving her a light sideways hug.

When Cassefin was done boasting, Claire smirked faintly. "Oh? I didn't know that. I will certainly look forward to putting you to the test then." She chuckled lightly. "I'll try not to disappoint you." Even though the elevator was spacious enough to accomadate all of them, Claire moved over and leaned against the corner near the door, but across from the controls.

How fun. Claire hadn't even been here a day and she was already having a blast. (In comparison to previously, of course.) And the game hadn't even started yet...

After a long period of swerving, multi-directional elevator movement and horrendously catchy elevator music, the doors slid apart, opening the large elevator directly into the bottom lobby of the Science Crew Quarters.

The first, most apparent feature of the room before Squad 35 was that these quarters were a lot nicer than their own. The area was set like a miniature atrium; a wide, open common area with four floors open and visible through balconies ringing the entire complex. Each floor was connected by a staircase on the four opposing ends, and the walls were lined with doors, no doubt leading to large, comfortable personal quarters for the Cirrus Station's many scientists. Similar to the Grand Atrium, there were also small rows of decorative vegetation ringing each floor.

The bottom floor of this smaller atrium acted as the common room of the complex. There were several comfortable looking chairs and tables scattered around, no doubt put there to seat patrons of the Cassefin Reservoir and BioNutri-Snack machines meticulously positioned on each floor. The whole 'lounge' area rested atop a hardwood finished floor, which stood out starkly from the bright white tiles around the immediate edges of the room.

It must have been meal-break for most of the science crew, as the walkways and chairs were occupied by men, women and others, most of them still in their special Cirrus Station labcoats. There were a few Cirrus Station Security guards roaming around as well, patrolling the area.

---

Cassefin stepped out, cleared her throat and clapped her hands twice. The sound of her claps were, strangely enough, amplified by the station as they reverberated throughout the room...a device for garnering attention programmed by her own hands. It seemed to serve its purpose, however; the room quieted down and several sets of eyes laid themselves upon the gussied-up Head Administrator and her entourage of casually-dressed security guards.

"Attention valued Cirrus Scientists! Clear the Nanoconstruction floor," Cassefin said, flicking her hair back boisterously and adjusting her spectacles. "Immediately."

There was some muttering, but none of the crew dared question their administrator. All of the scientists populating the hardwood floor promptly removed themselves, either heading off to their own rooms or occupying the white-tiled floorspace around the area. As they left, the furniture they were using suddenly melted into the floor itself.

The hardwood floor, or what appeared to be hardwood, was in fact the nanoconstruction floor itself. As each fleeting scientist left their comfortable seating, the chairs, tables and whatnot quickly sifted back into basic form and merged itself back onto the surface of the floor itself. For those unaware of the advancement in recreational nanotechnology, it was quite a scene. George and Lenny stared wide-eyed, but to Cassefin and the others, however, it was just the everyday humdrum.

"Alright," Cassefin said, a confident, calculated smirk spread across her face as she turned back to her guests. "While we wait for them, we will divide our group into two teams. I will be leading the Red team, of course. I suppose Dream can lead the Blue...she is your captain, after all," Cassefin finished blandly.

"Your free to choose your own team. Of course, we will have to separate accordingly to be fair...I can't have everyone be on my winning team, after all," the red-haired administrator finished with a smug snicker.

A purple haired guard was bored, routine duty of watching lab coats play with their toys wasn't the kind of action she had mind. Best my uncle could do I suppose, she complained to herself, with a scowl on her face as she slowly paced a hallway once more. Though she planned to grab a snack, and maybe talk to one of the guards during break period, as the scientists have a habit of talking about things that she didn't dare contemplate to keep her sanity.

Though peace of mind left the station when a loud CLAP noise came from the area of interest.

And didn't get the chance to get that snack.

A bit puzzled she looked at where the woman she recognized as the Head Administrator and an odd assortment of marines, namely the Hyena looking creature, but was confused to their arrival. The guard then walked up to an another guard who she had just met recently and asked, "Hey, what's going on?" Jen Jackson may have been told what was going to happen, but she clearly forgot.

In the scientist's quarters, Keziah broke away from Claire and the group to stand at the railings, her eyes sweeping across the whole expanse before them. To everyone else, she looked to be inspecting, inquisitively, the rooms and the common area and all the space around them, her focus settling on a few quarters for a moment before drifting away again.

In all reality, she was looking to see if any of them had a kitchen. And she wasn't really looking, at least not in the visible sense. Her eyes swept over and settled on heat sources.

And none did. Great, she mused inwardly, there goes that plan.

So it was back to trying to smuggle a plasma torch into their barracks, under the nose of every security sniffer and camera in the entire station. A torch and enough scrap metal to make an oven housing and some pans.

It was elaborate and stupid, but she couldn't help but want to get better food.

Satisfied that the scientists weren't hiding anything useful, and that they were condemned to the same kind of food as she and the rest of the squad was, she settled back and only barely caught word of the different teams.

"I'll be on blue, ma'am." Keziah turned and slipped back into the group, winding up next to Claire again.

Isaac stood on the Nanoconstruction floor, simply patrolling the area as he was assigned to do. It might not have been the best assignment, but he was new and he wouldn't complain. He routinely inspected the panels and system panels for any dents or damage. His eyes never gazed away from the materials that made up the floor, he wanted to make sure what he was doing was in the right.

He heard the noise of some people talking in the scientist's quarter of the Nanoconstruction floor, probably just the rabble of scientists doing their jobs. Wait, that didn't make sense, they were all leaving for some reason. Isaac decided to check and see what was going on. He carefully walked onto the outskirts of the quarter, watching the floor's furniture sink away. He had never seen such a sight, Cirrus Station was certainly a marvel.

Isaac was still in his EvER suit when he watched the group of staff members divide themselves up into two teams. His tan segments gleamed off in the overhead lights, but he tried to stay out of the way of them. They looked... selective and the administrator was there as well. Well, Isaac went on the assumption that it was, he had never met her in person. "Blue? Perhaps it's a game or something," Isaac thought to himself. Yet, he dragged himself away, back to his patrolling duty.

Stovaa watched the furniture melt into the floor, and suddenly felt a bit unsafe. He glanced at the floor to make sure it wasn't going to melt too and drop him into space. A few minutes passed, and he felt significantly safer.

When Cassefin announced that she'd captain the red team, he felt an almost electric atmosphere, almost as if everyone else decided to go on blue at the same time.

"Ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me..." he said sarcastically. "Uh, any chance I could go on blue as well? No better way to start a new assignment than to shoot your boss with stainballs..."

Tweak just stood a little closer to Dream, if that was any indication to her team preference. The floor absorbing furniture like that was unsettling, but her TOS reassured her uneasy thoughts that it could destroy the nanites before they tried absorbing her.

Serra watched as everyone tried to join the blue team. And with a curious glance to Cassifin, she sighed.

"I'll join Red, so it's not totally unfair." She muttered as she solemnly walked over and stood behind the Head Administrator.

Lorcan watched them all mill about and everybody of course wanted to cover Cassifin in paint... Including Lorcan but you couldn't have everything could you? With a grin he zipped, buttoned and even bucked his trech coat, pulling sunglasses and his gloves from his pocket, sliding them all on and making sure the gloves were nice and tight. This was obviously going to be lots of fun. He walked over to stand beside Serria, perfectly happy to get dirty. "I'll be joining you as well..." This was more to Serria than Cass, but if one chose to take it the latter way so be it.

Claire sort of had a feeling that a lot would join blue, and she did feel a bit bad for Cassefin. But then again, she did say she planned to put Cassefin to the test. And so she shall... Claire slid on over to the blue side next to Keziah. She wasn't sure what Dream thought about it yet, as she had been rather quiet for the past few minutes.

Oh well. She was a little incredulous on how she planned to play the game here. Usually in stainball you at least had a LITTLE cover... Though perhaps she was speaking too soon here.

((Gah, writer's block.))

Cassefin tapped her heeled foot impatiently as the small squad scrambled onto their sides. She didn't look too excited, even as Serra and Lorcan rushed to join her team Cassefin was expecting a more...hefty turnout of Red-Teamers. The rest of the room was permeating in an air of anticipation, the murmurs of both scientist and security guard mixing as they witnessed the beginning of an inevitable showdown. George, after some serious consideration, stepped over to side with the Head Administrator. "Heh heh...you guys'll regret facin' off against The Resetti!" The short, sharp-looking Nepleslian taunted and gave Squad 35 a slick smirk, no doubt ready to put their skills to a test of his own. Lenny, of course, was quick to follow, smiling at everybody, not entirely sure of just what was happening.

---

After the handful of Stainball players had begun to come to their reasonable decisions, one of the security members whom had been previously patrolling the upper floor of the crew quarters walked up to the squad. As he shouldered his rifle and removed his CSS suit's helmet visor, he was revealed to be none other Abeck Winston. A little red in the face and moist to the brow, but otherwise still giving them a captivatingly content, pearly-white smile. "Well hey, good luck everyone. Sorry I couldn't make the party earlier."

Cassefin took extra-special care to shove everyone between her previous standing point and Abeck completely and utterly out of her way as she rushed to great the Security Captain. "Captain Abeck! Have you changed your mind, and will be joining me for a little game? I could use another player on my team!"

Abeck immediately straightened up at Cassefin's approach, assuming a more rigid, professional demeanor. "I'm afraid not ma'am...I'm still not well enough to do anything more than this patrol reassignment you so graciously gave me...the robotics facility does get a little hot after a while."

"Oh..." Cassefin said, a tone disappointment obvious in her reply. "Well, it was the, uh, least I could do. I suppose it's just luck that we ended up in the same room. Ah hah hah...b-but feel free to watch our game! I will crush these peons..." Cassefin said enthusiastically, clenching her fist tightly in front of her as she finished. "...with my superior skill and genius mind!"

"Good luck, ma'am," Abeck said with a salute before turning to the rest of the group behind her and flashing them a smile and thumbs-up gesture. After that, he marched off to the sidelines, returning to his patrol...but keeping a keen view of the center of the room none-the-less.

---

"Well!" Cassefin interrupted the chatter wafting through the room with her pronounced voice. She looked at both of the teams thoroughly....

Red Team
Cassefin
Serra
Lorcan
George
Lenny

Click to expand...

Blue Team
Dream
Tweak
Stovaa
Claire
Keziah
Deacon

Click to expand...

"Seems a little unfair at the moment...and I do want to keep things interesting for my team. Hmmmm..." the Head Administrator pulled up a volumetric display before her face and quickly ran down a list of names...names of security personnel patrolling the very complex where she and Squad 35 stood. She begrudgingly had to cross out Guard Captain Abeck's name from the possible list of "pick-up" players...and then randomly chose two lucky names from the list.

A small volumetric window opened up in front of one Jen Jackson, and one Isaac Destris. Cassefin glared at both of them simultaneously through the small holographic screen. "Alright you," the talking head declared. "Both of you get on the bottom floor...you will be joining the Blue team." When Cassefin was finished, the screen disappeared.

Blue team? He was right, Isaac had just been pulled into a game. Splat ball, or something. He sighed for a moment and stopped his inspecting of the walls. Isaac quickly returned to the Scientist's Quarter and down to the bottom floor. Well, he was already on the bottom floor and still didn't know exactly what he was doing.

Yet, he went to where the blue team was and stood on the outskirts of the gathering, not really into the whole team thing. It was an order, so.. he would follow.

(Darn writers block.)

The young purple haired woman jumped a little when the unexpected holo screen appeared before her. She saluted and gave a sharp reply, to her embarrassment as she was on the same floor watching them all gather instead of actually patrolling.

Emerging from the spectator crowd and walked toward the team she was assigned to, while the visor opened up. "What game are we playin'?" she asked to the general group. followed by a follow up question when she saw one more joining the blues, "an' why is the H.A. on the fewer team?"

Stovaa reacted coolly to George, cracking his knuckles with a devilish smirk spread across his face, secretly hoping that Cassefin's list of firearms accolades didn't include many stainball championships.

As the newest "recruits" to the Blue team walked over, Stovaa nodded a greeting to them both and responded to the female's question:
"She's arranged a stainball game, and you've got a ticket to join in." He whispered the next part to her, quiet enough that Cassefin couldn't hear, hopefully. "She's convinced she's as good as several people, because she's like that. Make the most of this game, though, you don't get many opportunities to shoot at your boss."

He flashed her a smile before his eyes roved back to the Red team, mentally taking note of where to shoot at. He reckoned Cassefin's arm might still be a bit tender...