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RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 6] Sunny Side Up

"Alright, I think that's quite enough. You've already won, don't need to keep teasing me...."

20-30 minutes later, or however long it takes.

Claire let the hook slide back into place on her bra and began pulling her pants back up. "Heh. Guess I should know better than to expect any man to outlast me." Not that she was dissatisfied, she just wasn't exhausted like she had hinted at. Good enough for all intents and purposes though. She felt much less pissed now about.... well, everything.
 
Absently wondering if she should create an index for the book, Tweak ignored the man climbing over the other one standing behind her. At their distance, even with perfect eyesight, the pages were mostly blurs of black dots on white. If at normal reading distance (like Tweak), the print would still be tiny but they would probably see symbols and letters by then. Oh, and the occasional diagram in microprint.

However, what they could see from their distance and angle was that windbreakers didn't really keep water out all that well and that black t-shirts were not as interesting as white ones when wet. Even though the garment was stuck to her like...well, a thick black cloth stuck to a person with rainwater, it was several sizes too big for the 'Spacer girl. The sleeves dropped well past her elbows and all that extra cloth didn't lend itself to more than a vague hint of what was underneath the baggy, wrinkled material. The cargo pants were likewise soaked, oversized, and not prone to clingy behavior.

Ah. There it is.

Tweak glanced back at the Duo and then at the entry. Then she closed the book and stood up, placing it back in the knapsack before looking up at George. Now they could see that the shirt's neck was hanging just below her clavicle, exposing a small, dark red gear tattoo between the collarbones and stopping just...to remind them to keep eyes on her face since her expression was still cautious and she didn't seem like she wanted to stick around. Oddly, though, George might recognize it as the way Tweak had always looked at him whenever he talked to the odd engineer for the first time on any given day. Minus the impatience, usually. If he thought about it, that same expression had been there ever since they had first met, in fact...

"Okay, we've spoken before...so what did you want?" She spoke slowly, her tone mirroring her caution.
 
Keziah swam towards him as he spoke, her head up above the water the whole way. Stopping several arms lengths from the Kohanian, she treaded the water and turned around in a circle, scanning the shoreline for any landmarks. Not that she really needed to try. The resort's two arms stretched almost all the way into the water. One was about... fifteen meters from them. The other was way away, maybe a hundred, maybe more. She wouldn't have seen it if her eyes weren't cybernetic.

"It'll take my mind off of her," she muttered to Deacon, stopping in her circles and looking him straight in the eyes. "Everyone's trying to help me, it seems. What I really want is just a bit of time to think.

"And swimming does that for me!" She cracked a smile at him, and without waiting for a response, pointed to the farthest arm of the resort. "Let's race to there. First person to touch the resort wall wins."
 
"Hey, it's been a while, ok?" Stovaa replied curtly while tying the string of his trunks. This done, he poured another two whiskies and added fresh ice. "About... 8 or so months, probably."

He stood by the window and sipped his drink, glancing out across the waves. "Nothing better than a bit of sexual healing, eh." Sip. He flexed his neck and ran his fingers through his hair, feeling more relaxed than he had for a long time, stresses and strains melted away leaving only calm. Well, except for the small bite marks. They stung a bit.

"When d'ya think the luggage'll get up here?"
 
In contrast of all the excitement elsewhere, Speedy dropped off his gear in his room, and sat on his bed cross-legged. "Great. Why did we bother coming here? No one had the foresight to check the weather, and what are people supposed to do for fun around here?"
 
While Purina was a little disappointed with so many of the others striking out on their own, she quickly returned back to her cheerful smile. "Well, you all have a good time then!" she called out to nobody in particular before moving out towards the Sunny Sands wing, her bouncy pink locks swaying with each step.

Cassefin, much more visibly disappointed by the outright ignorance of her own offer of sketchy health food, gave no such farewell. Throwing her head up in a huff, the Head Administrator stomped off in the other direction, heading down the Sunny Palms wing, wide-brimmed straw-woven hat bobbing with her stamping.

---

Outside, the rain continued to pour over Deacon and Keziah as they waded through the darkened, but still amazingly clear, waters. They were close enough to one of the buildings jutting out over the water, held up by large support beams, to see the light from inside breaking into the darkened sky. Although impossible to hear through the storm, this area was alive with sounds of many conversations, clinking glasses and soft music. Only Deacon's impeccable Kohanian hearing could have made this out, however.

The water and beach around the, expected, was devoid of any beach goers...nobody else seemed to be as enthusiastic about swimming during a monsoon. The beaches were lined with wooden reclining seats and closed umbrellas, all of them either planted firmly in the ground, sliding across the shore or outright gone from the storm. The only object to truly stand out amongst the beach was a single, small cabana-style open hut in the center of the beach near the shore. The hut was actually a beachside bar, the thatched straw roof holding admirably in the rain as it protected the four or so tables and stools lined up against the bar itself. The lights were on...and if the only two people on the beach looked hard enough, they could see it was also being tended, alone, by a single resort employee. Probably a very bored one, at that.

---

Noboru's order, unfortunately, was only one in a long line of drink orders flowing into the Lobby Bar. Only staffed by two individuals, the bartenders were desperately struggling to keep up with all of the alcohol-thirsty Cirrus vacationers, much to the dismay of several of the patrons who'd arrived later than the others.

The Yamataian felt a hand reach over to his shoulder, grasping it lightly in a friendly manner. It was Abeck, giving the soaked securityman a skeptical smile. "Good luck with that," he said above the din of the crowd. "Me an' some of my boys have been waiting for a drink for a while now. Hope this ain't the only bar in the resort," Abeck joked.

---

"Uh..." George stuttered, sliding down off of Lenny and hitting the ground, his sandals thudding against the tiles softly. His face showed a little hesitation at first; it wasn't that hard to notice how Tweak was always pretty cautious, and it continually baffled him. He knew he wasn't the greatest of Nepleslians, but he never had this much trouble making an acquaintance before, aside from his first run-ins with Lenny. George opted for another smile as he rose back into his usual demeanor.

"...yeah, uh, I just wanted to know if..." George started, then stopped and began scratching the back of his head. "...me an' Lenny wanted to know if you'd, uh, wanna see the beach with us." George corrected himself mid sentence. He suddenly dropped the semi-suave put on, his voice becoming a little more sincere. "We've never seen a beach before that wasn't fulla trash an' green water, an' I'll be damned if a lil' rain makes us miss our only chance. Whaddya say?"
 
"Shensheng de gaowan*!" Noboru responded in Yamataian when Abeck suddenly gripped his shoulder. Noboru's hand immediately, reflexively, went for the interior of his aloha shirt, feeling for the Type 28 NSP usually there, only to realize that it was still in his duffel bag, stowed (most likely) in his quarters by now. So he settled for bristling in a most intimidating manner.

Once he realized it was Abeck, however, he almost immediately calmed down a bit. "Well, that's understandable." Noboru said bluntly. "The last time most of these guys have had a drink was when I closed down my stills before leaving for vacation." The Yamataian grimaced. "You won't tell Montreal I have a still set up, right? I'd probably end up thrown into the engines as punishment."
 
Deacon looked first to Keziah, admiring her ease in the water. Then he would flick his ears and look passed her towards the al fresca dining area, then over to where his companion pointed their race would end.

"Fair enough. But a race for pride is not what I think we both would enjoy. Why don't we say first one to the wall has the loser treat them to a drink. There."

The Kohanian smiled and pointed to the thatch roof bar. And just as he was readying to speak, a wave hit him, causing him to sputter slightly and spit up about a mouthful of salty seawater. He would nod, however, rocking his large head one way, then the other, the muted pops and crackks of his neck showing he was ready for whatever the cybernetically enhanced woman would do.

"Do you agree, Mistress Kez?"
 
Looking down at her jacket, which was busy watering the lobby floor, Tweak pondered the offer. She really just wanted to go hide somewhere...but she was already rain-soaked. Her book wasn't, though, and she wanted to keep it that way. Her eyes moved from the jacket to the bag in her hands.

"My book will get wet."
 
George raised his eyebrow a bit as the book came back into discussion. She did have the upper hand of the argument, though George wasn't going to let his invitation go that simply.

"You...uh...got your key, right? Maybe you could just leave it in your room...maybe?"
 
Tweak pulled the bag up and hugged it again, shaking her head.

"Would you leave your brain in your room?" she murmured, half to herself, before looking at the Nepleslian from under her brow. "Find a way to waterproof it and I will go. Alright?" Then she looked puzzled. "Key?"
 
She would've laughed as the wave crashed down on Deacon, but the same thing happened to her. Keziah dipped below the surface as the wake passed, then popped back up, pushing hair out of her eyes as she grinned at him.

"I like that wager. But," she held up her finger, "first thing's first. I'm just Keziah. Or Kez. No mistress."

Then she smiled, and swam so she was right next to him. The lights made it easy to spot the resort's arm, so there wasn't any real chance of being swept out to ocean or something awful like that. Still, she had no idea how the winds or tides worked on this planet, so maybe...

She shut off that part of her brain, then looked to Deacon, grinning and clearly enjoying herself. "On three.

"One. Two.

"Three!" And she bolted, straight as an arrow, through the water.
 
Deacon cackled as she was pulled under, doing his best to stop and give her an innocent grin when she came back up. At her words about what she preferred to be called, he nodded.

And then the count began, and she took off.

"Keziah it is then..."

And then he too joined the fun, dipping his head into the water and paddling hard in a strong butterfly style. He was not moving quite as fast as Kez, but he was slowly closing the distance, and he was pacing himself for the run outside of the water.
 
Keziah was cutting through the water cleanly, almost effortlessly. But she was slowing down, and it was clear she didn't mean to. She popped up for breath, sputtering and almost slowing to a stop, before she dipped back down beneath the surface to resume the race. That had cost her most of the lead, leaving her feet level with his neck.

The ache in her side was exploding now, and she knew this was a really, really stupid idea.
 
Deacon saw the sputtering, keeping it in mind as he switched to a freestyle motion, making up a little more ground against the femme. Being the gentleman he was though, he would not press his luck. He would never be able to live with himself if he really pressed his improved position, take a lead, and then have Keziah drown.

Plus, he thought it would be a good way to meet someone new if he were to lose, and bought the femme a drink and got some conversation going.

So for now, Deacon just got his head up to about her mid torso, and then acted as if winded, keeping that position beside her.
 
Well, at least Keziah was having fun. He had thought that he was at least part of the problem. But seeing Kaz frolicking in the waves, Cyril found that that didn't really bother him as much as he would have thought. He'd take a friend laughing and pissed at him then crying and confideing in him.

After a few minutes, Cyril realized that, buried or no, the chair he was on was beginning to move out to sea. Scrambling off, Cyril splashed into sea water up to his ankles. Holding the sunchair in place, Cyril quickly untied the oddly fitted clothing that could only belong to Deacon. After a few seconds of basking in his triumph, Cyril realized that something else was yearning for the big blue and barely managed to snag Keziah's jacket before her sunchair headed out to join her in the race.

By now, the chair he was holding onto had pulled him out to waist deep water so Cyril let it go as a lost cause. He thought about letting the two racers know that he had their stuff, but they looked like they were having too much fun. Noboru would have to wait, at least until Kaz and Deacon finished swimming.

Looking around the beach for somewhere to stand that was slightly less wet then the surf, Cyril spotted the lit up cabana bar. Slogging his way through the surf and the sand rapidly turning into mud Cyril made his way over, sliding into the bar next to the two intrepid bar flys already there. Claiming another two bar stools with the sodden clothing he was carrying, Cyril nodded hello to the other two without really seeing them and waved down the bar tender. "Could I get a glass o' water an two o' something refreshing an' religious fer me mates out there?"
 
The shore was close. She didn't care about getting a free drink from Deacon, she just wanted to get out of the water now. Rest for a bit, let the wound shut up, and then maybe find something to eat. Or, more likely, figure out how to get a medical patch without going up into orbit. That'll be the tricky part.

Well, at least she felt better, pain aside.

Keziah pushed herself the last bit of the way, bringing herself out of the water gasping, hands on her knees as she bit back a wave of nausea. Either from the waves, the pain, or a combination of numerous things, she didn't have it in her to go any further.

She stepped further up the beach, away from the water, but still well shy of the target, and sat down on the sand, breathing deeply.
 
Deacon came out of the water like a shot. Whether it was the fact he didn't have to compete with injury, his natural ability, or the fact that his culture took advantage of times like this to be active any chance they got, the hyena bolted from the water and landed on all four paws. He sprinted across the beach like a wild hound, the only clothing he wore were black skin tight shorts.

He was near the wall when he came to a skidding halt and pulled a U turn. He trotted back to the now seated woman, and with that crazy laugh, attempted to scoop her up off the beach.

If successful, he would walk through the deluge towards the wall again.

If unsuccessful, he would just flop down next to Kez and watch the ocean, goofy grin on his muzzle.
 
"Leave my what where now?" George pondered out loud, having only caught a short quip of Tweak's reply. Again with the book...George was starting to move from mildly curious to dangerously obsessively curious with so many worries popping up about it. What the Nepleslian had spied from his makeshift roost wasn't all that impressive...scribbles and scrawls, stuff too tiny and too foreign to read. Despite all of this, George remained in high hopes; if he could find a way to keep a book dry in a record-breaking rainstorm, then his overall goal for the evening would be completed with bonus.

The short, shifty Nepleslian began flitting his head to the sides, searching for something...anything to hopefully meet Tweak's terms. In truth, however, he didn't exactly know what to be looking for. A plastic bag of some sort, or a waterproof hat...none of these things jumping out at him from where he stood. Finally, however, George caught a glimpse of something, standing silently outside of the first of the stores along the Sunny Sands side of the resort. The establishment in question was a simple swim gear shop, and if further inspection inside of the store was made, something along with what Tweak required could have been found. George, however, had his attention on front of the store itself, rather than its contents. Outside of the store, in front of the large glass display windows, stood a small wooden sign, displaying a simple 'SALE' description vertically. Tied to the sign were a handful of large, white balloons, also inscribed with the same enticing word in bold black letters.

A sly smile crossed George's face, narrowing his eyes on the prize. "Wait here a sec," he told Tweak and Lenny before casually slinking his way through the thinning crowd towards the display. The Nepleslian stood outside the shop for a moment, casually looking inside of the store while occasionally glancing down the hallways, edging closer to the bunch of balloons with each moment. After one last look to make sure he wasn't being watched by any unsavory store owners, George grasped one of the strings holding a balloon softly and reached into the pocket of his trunks with the other hand. A flash of steel glinted in the Nepleslian's hand as he skillfully produced a small switchblade, quickly slicing through the thin restraint and replacing the knife into his pocket before anyone was the wiser.

With prize in hand, George trotted back to Lenny and Tweak, proudly displaying the product of his impressive skills in the theft of insignificant objects.

"Eh? Eh?" George said, nodding shortly the the piece of rubber floating above their heads (save for Lenny; it was actually at his chin). "Pretty good, huh?"

---

Once inside the cabana bar, Cyril could see that the bartender, a fine looking lady with dark, short-cut blue hair, had apparently been expecting him for quite some time. After all, he and the other two on the beach were her sole prospective customers. The young woman gave Cyril a tired smile as he sat down. Apparently, she wasn't so happy about being on there, but realized she had her blessings to count; her long-sleeved tender uniform was dry, and she had something to do other than stare the small television in the upper corner of the cabana.

"So...three waters then, Mr. Religious?"

---

Abeck laughed, a small hint of nervousness present. "No, I don't think I will," he answered Noboru as he thumbed at his nose a bit. "You don't belong to my squad...I just hope your captain realizes what kind of trouble he could get in for not reporting it. I'm surprised you were able to make one without the Head Administrator find out in the first place...you think it's really worth keeping around, though?" The Guard Captain asked again, their drinks still a long time in the making.
 
"Presumably, yes." Noboru said, smiling a bit. "The paycheck's about the same as the Star Army or the UOCPF, so what's a little on the side if nobody notices the hows or the where?" He actually chuckled at the next statement. "Besides, how else would we actually manage to stay sane on that station without a little bootleg alcohol involved?"
 
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