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  • 📅 December 2024 is YE 46.9 in the RP.

RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 9] The Silver Lining

"Ah! Yes, ma'am." Blake smiled at the barrista with the most endearing grin he could offer in his current state. He leaned forward in his seat to be slightly closer, but not uncomfortably so, to the woman before he specified what exactly he wanted, "I was wondering if you might spare me your contact information. You're quite an attractive woman, and you've made me the best coffee I've had in some time-- I believe that's grounds for me to like you considerably for the short time we've been in each others presence."

As if to sell himself to her, he made another point, "I'm in the military, and I'm looking for a pen-pal." There was a pause before he emphasized 'pen-pal' in a peculiar manner, as if he didn't want to be presumptuous; yet he retained his smile, a slight nervousness showing as he scratched the back of his head.
 
The Barista said:
"Did you guys need something?"
Click to expand...
Tweak glanced up at the woman, then shook her head "no" while looking back down at her cup. She realized she was fidgeting though, stopping her spinning of the single remaining coffee drop and considering setting the empty drink container on the table, but that would leave her hands empty...

Morris said:
"...I believe that's grounds for me to like you considerably for the short time we've been in each others presence."
Click to expand...
Her coffee is grounds for liking her. Tweak stifled a smile, pulling her lips in between her teeth for a moment before getting control of the urge. The joke wasn't even that funny, really.

Maybe.

Actually, now that she thought about it, Tweak was still kinda thirsty. But Morris was talking.

She could wait.
 
"Eh..." went the barrista girl incredulously, her sunglasses falling forward a bit onto her nose to reveal her coffee brown eyes. She looked at Tweak, then at Kokuten, and then finally Maximillian. It seemed she didn't know what to think about the man, much less the sudden offer. Her lips pursed as she took a step back, away from him. "Uh... Pen pal? I don't... Uhm..." she seemed a little flustered but receiving such a nice gesture from such a strange person.

"Ah... aren't you already with someone?" she deflected his question, pointing at Tweak, who was sitting next to Morris, if not a few feet apart from him. She looked around to Kokuten or Max for assistance, but the Captain seemed to be watching the situation rather plainly, a small smile curling on his face. So, she looked to Max.
 
Max put his hands up defensively. "Hey, don't look at me. I more or less just met them." He wasn't sure if they were a couple or not (they were both weird enough to go together at least), but he wasn't going to chance risking pissing people who could expose him off. He turned to look at them too though, interested in the answer, just for the sake of knowing.
 
Tweak was busy staring at the coffee drop again, tilting the container one way, then another, tracing designs on the bottom with the remnant liquid. When the barista asked if Morris was "with someone" Tweak didn't pay any mind to the question, leaving what it implied about Morris' love life (or dating life, if there was a difference) and the barista's gesture unnoticed and the 'Spacer neko without the connection between the question and her proximity to her squadmate.

Particulate count: 1289
Distribution (droplet, trail, dry): 542, 122, 625
Particulate composition ratio (water:coffee:other): 10:5:4

Coffee makes me thirsty. How does a drink make someone thirsty?

She glanced up to see Max looking at her, Kokuten looking bemused, and Morris looking at the barista who looked flustered. This confused her. She didn't miss anything, but Tweak still got the feeling that she was missing something. What did being in their group have to do with being pen-pals?

"Um..." Did they want her to make a decision about something? Tweak looked back down at her cup. "I won't mind it if you want to join us," she said, trying hard not to mumble.
 
Blake may have jumped a little at Tweak's input, maybe a little closer; or maybe just farther away. He swallowed hard. To him, She was insinuating something incredibly unlikely for her: that the young Blake wasn't as disgusting to her as he might think. He searched his memory for any evidence that he and Tweak were 'together' in the way the barrista suggested, and further that Tweak was just as open-minded as he as. His search turned up no results, so he pressed the issue. "M-m-m-Miss Tweak?! I w-wasn't aware of our status? Did I propose this to you before I passed out?!"

He turned back to the barrista just to cover his bases, "If she's not just kidding around for some reason... You are, in fact, welcome to join us... Not that I know what that entails." A small frown slinked across his face as he started to feel the situation unravel in his fingers.
 
"Hey now, I'm not that kind of girl! I don't do threesomes whether it's sex or relationships." the barrista girl threw her hands up in her defense. She seemed outright offended, and a squirming, disgusted frown spread on her face as she took a step back. "And I'm not interested in your offer. At all. I know this is a coffee shop, and we're pretty open to views but... Jesus..." She shook her head and stomped off. Kokuten set his cup back down on the table, letting it tink against the smoothed surface of the table.

"I think you may have unsettled her slightly." understated the Captain.
 
Morris said:
"M-m-m-Miss Tweak?! I w-wasn't aware of our status? Did I propose this to you before I passed out?!"
Click to expand...
The astonished sound of Morris' reply confused Tweak. She looked over at him again with an expression that said as much, but before she could say anything he continued on.

Morris said:
He turned back to the barrista just to cover his bases, "If she's not just kidding around for some reason... You are, in fact, welcome to join us... Not that I know what that entails." A small frown slinked across his face as he started to feel the situation unravel in his fingers.
Click to expand...
What was he flustered for? Maybe he was shy? Given what he had been like before now, though, Tweak knew Morris was anything but shy, which confused her even more. "But..." Tweak started before she was interrupted by the barista.

Kokuten said:
"Hey now, I'm not that kind of girl! I don't do threesomes whether it's sex or relationships." the barrista girl threw her hands up in her defense. She seemed outright offended, and a squirming, disgusted frown spread on her face as she took a step back. "And I'm not interested in your offer. At all. I know this is a coffee shop, and we're pretty open to views but... Jesus..." She shook her head and stomped off. Kokuten set his cup back down on the table, letting it tink against the smoothed surface of the table.

"I think you may have unsettled her slightly." understated the Captain.
Click to expand...
?!?!?!

Sex? Relationships? Tweak's mouth hung open in horror as she watched the barista leave before looking over at Morris, then Kokuten when the Captain spoke up.

What just happened?! Thought slowly resumed function and Tweak tried to comprehend where the recent exchange had gone wrong. Somehow, she thought, this was her fault. Eventually she managed to get a sentence together.

"I-I-I...you asked her to join us...to sit down?" The rest of what had been said filtered through and she realized where her mistake came from...and then, where Morris had just said he was fine going with it. Her eyes widened more than they already had. So, what she had said...they thought meant...

Flushing something terrible while calmly setting the cup down on the table, Tweak got up and walked to the nearest place with the fewest people. The restroom door closed behind her a few seconds later, a female stick figure standing guard on it like a symbol of warding.
 
Blake threw his beret down in frustration towards the series of events which transpired, just as he'd predicted, in a convoluted fall from between his fingers. What he saw was a complete lack of control of the situation. He had no idea what had happened right before his recent blur of unconsciousness, much less what the hell a Jesus was. Whatever it was, it sounded Elysian.... or something.

"I've had enough." he explained, shoving Evan from his lap, "I'm going up to the roof, and I'm going to paint. I have no idea what's ever going on in this stupid squad, and nobody ever wants to tell me!"

An effeminate 'Humph!' escaped from his larynx and the young marine stood and gathered his art supplies, leaving the table in a huff. His hat lie on the ground, crumpled and misshapen in front of where he'd sat. As an afterthought he barged back over to the table and added, "And this has NOTHING to do with sex!" before going off once again towards the elevator, this time lighting a cigarette he wouldn't put out.
 
Max sat back, a slightly surprised look on his face. He ran his hand over his face really quickly, assuming the same bored expression he usually had before sitting back forward and looking over at Kokuten, a quizzical turn to his mouth. "Do I even want to know if there's actually anything there or not?" He was almost certain he knew the answer, but it couldn't hurt to ask. Or to make friends, since he really didn't need anyone going out of their way to tell Cassefin that he had been down here if she didn't already know.
 
"Mm." mumbled Kokuten to himself as the situation began to unravel more and more by the second. Blake was escaping off to the roof to paint, but doing so with frustration. Tweak had locked sealed herself away in the women's restroom in embarrassment. While it sounded rather presumptuous, the Captain didn't trust either of them by themselves, not in this regal monstrosity. Though, at the very least, Blake had solid memory and a general grasp of social standards. His worries were mostly of Tweak and her awkward social graces. The situation needed to be rectified, and with a rather judging stare of Maximilian, Kokuten felt he had what he needed for an attempt.

"Do I even want to know if there's actually anything there or not?"
Click to expand...

"No, my friend." said Kokuten as he was looking over his should to see the Barrista furiously tending to some coffee as the red tint on her face began to subside. "It's all just a big misunderstanding."

The Captain reached into the back of his pocket and pulled out two, twenty DA bills and stood up to lean towards Max, holding the two bills in front of his face.

"You're a winsome fellow, right? I need you to do something for me." said Kokuten as he set down the bills in front of him onto the table. "I need you to talk to that coffee girl and convince her to talk my pearl-skinned friend out of the restroom. Give her twenty for the bill and twenty for her tip. Can you do this for me?" He patted Max on the shoulder, and didn't give him a chance, "Good man. I'm going to go to talk to my bald friend."

And then, without another word, Kokuten spun around and began hustling after Blake.

"Morris! One second!" said Kokuten as he tried to catch up with his smoking friend. "Hold on!"
 
Blake was almost to the stairwell when Kokuten caught up to him. He turned slowly to face the man. His face was stern, like a mother looking down her nose at a misbehaving child. "What is it, Captain? I'm still going to report for duty as expected tomorrow morning, so you don't have to worry about that."
 
Max shook his head, having to resist the urge to plant his face on the table and just leave it there. He wasn't quite sure what in hell was wrong with these people, but they made him look completely normal. He rubbed his eyes with one hand, and stood up, picking up the two bills in the process. He sighed, looked over at the barista, and shook his head again, He wasn't suite sure what she thought was going on (or what he thought was going on with those three), but he guessed the money would be enough to at least get her to cooperate for long enough to get the odd girl out of the bathroom so her boss could take care of her somehow.

He walked up, and caught her attention once he got the chance, showing her the bills. "I'm paying up for the others, apparently. And the other bill... well, the lady in their group is in the bathroom, and the boss wanted to get her back out so they can get going, but none of us can go in to talk her out. Any chance you'd do it as a favor for me?"
 
"I know that, Morris." said Kokuten waving his hand dismissivly at the thought of Blake deserting. He also noticed the heightened air that the bakd man seemed to regard him with. Still, not the time to feel belittled. "You don't really need to leave, do you? It was just an terrible misunderstanding on her part, and it got Tweak off balance as well. The coffee girl was just acting a little presumptious, that's all. I can understand if you need to fume a bit from such a faux pas, but wouldn't be better to stay around your friends?"

----

"Oh, what the hell." grumbled the barrista girl as Maximillian approached her with his offer. "Your boss? You mean that suit with the glowing green eyes?" She gave the gambling man a questioning glare, before letting her mouth fall agape in shock. "Y-y-yeah! Of course! Just tell your boss I didn't mean any trouble." She bowed a little apologetically, "I thought you guys were dressed a little too well... And a twenty DA tip..."

She shifted a little bit when she saw her co-worker give her a strange look. In response, she mouthed what seemed to be the word syndicate to him and he quickly got back to his own work.

"I'll do it." she said, taking her glasses off to reveal a pair of deep brown eyes. Shebthen grabbed Max's hand pulled him towards the women's restroom. "But you're coming with me. No offense to your friend, but her face creeps me out." She pushed her way past the door and into the nice smelling restroom, looking for Tweak.
 
"Well of course I don't need to leave, Captain. I'm choosing to go up there so that I can just wile away that precious free time." Blake was speaking in such a peculiar fashion, a hint of sarcasm in his tone despite making statements which didn't seem possibly sarcastic at all. It was almost like he was a detective figuring out the mystery at the end of the story. He was still talking an awful lot, as usual.

"It's not just this little fox-pause foil-grause nonsense that's got me so frustrated. If it were, I'd be over it already. I've got a big problem with the way this whole set-up has been going.", he blah'd and blah'd on, "There's a lot of little secrets floating around here. Squad 35 is like this tight-knit little family, and everybody's got this big teamwork attitude where they all work together and have a knack for what the others need or want, and there's this big ball of trust rolling around the squad. I don't fit into that. I can dig that, I wasn't here for the heavy stuff. I must've missed a lot, because there are so many looks I just don't get. My point is Captain, that no matter how nice and friendly I'm going to be to anyone-- I've got to wait for it to take. And I'm tired. And covered in my own vomit. I should just face it: all the friends I've ever made have either been artsy fakes or know-it-alls or people using me for my money."
 
Kokuten gave Blake a good long stare. His green lit eyes began to go up in down in value, as if clouds were passing over his eyes. The Captain had made a point that a lot of the details concerning Yu-Cranker were off limits for vacation. Still, Kokuten was willing to make an exception to that rule for Blake.

"Do you want to hear the truth behind the Yu-Cranker incident?" said Kokuten aloud, his cloudy eyes still on the bald artist.
 
The restrooms were small, being part of a small shop; both restroom doors had latches, but no locks. Beyond those doors both restrooms featured a trio of stalls (one of each trio featuring an oversized space for customers of larger-than-average overall physical dimensions) and a pair of sinks with all normal bathroom stuffs present and accounted for.

The embarrassed neko had almost gone into a stall and locked herself there, but realized there would be nowhere to sit as none of the toilets had any lids, just seats. So she covered her still-reddened face with her hands and rested her back against the wall and faced the mirror over the sinks with the door she had entered by on her left. If anyone entered, the door would hide her until it closed.

It was a misunderstanding. That's all. Telling herself that eased her nerves a little, but the incident still replayed itself several times in Tweak's mind while she mentally kicked herself for not paying attention. Her, the one with the instant-replay brain!

There was nothing that could be done about it now. She sighed and let her hands drop to her sides, her eyes turning toward the mirror hanging over the sink in front of her and looking at her reflection from under the brim of her her hoodie's namesake hood. They'll understand...right? Kokuten would, Tweak was fairly sure about that. Morris...might. But he still agreed, she thought as a frown tugged at the corner of her mouth.

Or had he?

Memory Replay said:
Morris said:
You are, in fact, welcome to join us... Not that I know what that entails." A small frown slinked across his face [...].
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Was he as confused as I was? Her frown appeared in earnest, but was repurposed from anger to suspicion.

It was true that she could have checked the context of the situation before answering, but it was as much his fault, if not more. He never waited for Tweak's answer when he assumed she was "with him" in any "way", and never asked to find out "what that entails" before saying yes to the barista, so...so...the whole thing was his fault! Nevermind that she had done basically the same thing, he started it! Tweak set her jaw and looked down at the tiled floor.

Fantastic, now she had to calm down all over again.
 
"Ah, hey?" said the barrista as Tweak shifted her eyes downcast to the floor. With Squad 35's new friend in tow, she stepped just in view of the mirror and gave a short wave to the Freespacer. The girl leaned over to Max and whispered, "What's her name?"
 
Tweak kept her eyes on the floor as the restroom door opened. It only took a moment or two before she realized it wasn't going to stop until it met the wall and slid out of the way, keeping her back to the wall and stopping in front of the door to the first stall.

Kokuten said:
"Ah, hey?" said the barrista as Tweak shifted her eyes downcast to the floor. With Squad 35's new friend in tow, she stepped just in view of the mirror and gave a short wave to the Freespacer. The girl leaned over to Max and whispered, "What's her name?"
Click to expand...

Why is she asking him? Tweak stopped that line of thought before she could get irritated and refocused on relaxing. That was more important. She had to get her bearings again before she left. The door opening had let in a fresh wave of coffee and coffee-related smells, which helped the process. The stuff might be bitter, but in combination with everything there was to add to the drink...it was rather calming.

She took a slow, nearly silent but deep, breath through her nose, then let it out the same way it had come in while savoring the scent. The tiny bit of whatever perfume the barista was wearing and some of Max's smell was mixed in with the rest. But those were easily ignored.
 
Blake kept his eyes fixed on Kokuten's and nodded slightly. He wasn't just going to be satisfied with that. "I'm tired of being confused, Captain. I know it brings you pain-- but I've been told twice that I'd learn about that after the particular sortie we were in ended. The first time, no one told me. The second time, I had to get fed up to find out about it. So, yes I'd like to know. I'd also like to know the meaning of this!"

Blake removed the canvas from under his arm and uncovered it, exposing Tweak's dancing form amongst fire-breathing fish and flying cats and Kokuten's multi-colored fire/ice eyes. "What was happening when I painted this? Also, can I just be let into the secret club now, so this doesn't happen anymore? I'm not interested in gossip-- I just don't want to be 'the stupid one' anymore. I'd like to be the 'artistic one', if that's not a problem."

The young artist looked away from Kokuten at 'if that's not a problem' and focused on the cigarette in his free hand while he returned the painting to its proper place.
 
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