RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 9] The Silver Lining

Kokuten nodded his head rather respectfully at that, offering no more words than Cassefin would choose to speak at the moment. Besides, he didn't want to run the risk of saying something unacceptable to the other side. Whatever defaming he might've done by accident, would be paid back to on purpose once they returned to the Cirrus. So he reserved himself to be little more quiet, and nodding his head back down.

That was when he caught sight of Tweak's little device. His eye switched over to a more yellowish green color, before looking at her, and pointing at the object.

----

Fidela tensed at the word shooting, and looked up at Stovaa warily, and then went back to eying elsewhere. Her fists had clutched tightly in her lap, and she was already nervously regarding most the people in the room as subtly as she could, non-stop.

"Stovaa." she whispered weakly, "What are they talking about shooting? Why does she want to apologize for shooting someone?"

Maximillian blinked at that response to his suggestion, mind quickly shifting gears as several things clicked into place for him. His observant eyes caught Kokuten's shift in focus, still running through several possibilities on what to say. "Well, I wouldn't work up courage for too long, it looks like someone else may beat you to it if you don't hurry."

It took Tweak a moment to notice Kokuten's interest in what she was doing, only half paying attention to the conversations and goings-on around her, trusting her TacOpSys to keep tabs on potential threats. Noticing Kokuten's finger move, pointing, Tweak glanced up at the captain. But all she could do was shrug at the implied question of "what is it?"

"I'd guess she shot someone? No idea when though. Maybe she shot someone from one of the other squads? I really don't know..."

Stovaa tried his best to remain totally clueless. He did a pretty good job too.

"Why? Idea of someone being shot got you all nervous? Not like it's a big deal. Remind me to show you my scars tonight..."

The Id-Sol threw a glance towards Odette. Odd that she seemed to know some of the team, yet he had no idea who she was. And she was clearly tight in with Laj. The enemy! This was a lot more than it seemed. Something odd was going to happen, he could taste it. The tang on his tongue. Danger. Action. Punching women in their whore faces. Damn he loved his job.

He slyly placed his hand over Fidela's tightly wrought together in her lap, trying to comfort her a bit.

"Don't worry, there's not much shooting goes on in the labs..."

Kokuten eyes twirled a little in his eye-sockets as he observed the curious object. Seeing as Tweak wasn't too sure herself, the Captain simply chuckled and smiled, turning his attention back to the table. His metal fist turned into a little thumbs up, almost in an approving fashion, before speaking further. A certain uncomfortable air seemed to waft around, and speaking openly became a little more appealing.

"Ah, well Miss Swann, at that." said Kokuten, turning his head to properly look upon the woman, his eyes switching color to a darker green as he spoke the name. "I am responsible for the actions of my subordinates, since they act directly under my orders. So, with that said, I myself must apologize for the splitting around, Noboru's rampant action, and the general secrecy. At the time I was at no liberty to reveal the nature of our search for Administrator Montreal's own safety, and Administrator Popjoy's as well. The Head Administrator likes keeps a very tight censor on the lips of her security staff, since it is their nature to protect, not know." The Captain raised a hand, spinning it on the wrist.

"As a Marine, more specifically one assigned under Administrator Montreal's watchful eye, I did the best to my ability to coordinate and assist you and your fellow Uniques with what restrictions were in place. I do hope that it was worth Miss Nell's appreciation, and yours."

----

Despite the cheesy lines, Fidela did feel a little more safe with Stovaa's relaxing words. His cluelessness to the situation helped her feel less alienated to the situation, but Kokuten appeared know exactly what was going on. The Doctor unsettled her slightly, more so than the woman across from him, who brought up shooting people in the first place. At any rate, the physicist wrapped her fingers around Stovaa's hand and held it tightly.

"How exactly am I supposed to make an impression with this kinda' subject?" asked the young Jacinto, looking up at Stovaa with those big brown eyes.

Tweak rotated a piece here and twisted a cloth there, tilting her head a little as she tried to keep the movements quiet and the clicking to a minimum. The last thing she needed was anyone thinking she was building a weapon, but at the same time she was bored. Were they going to eat soon? She smiled a little at an amusing idea that she decided to act on, reforming the device with something in mind for once, every once in a while glancing at the forks, spoons, knives, and other eating tools around her.

"Aww, y'did fine enough," Nell threw a casual dismissive wave in Kokuten's direction before going back to blatantly admiring Blake and his fascination with the music exploits of the live band. Odette nodded along humbly with Nell's reply and opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Laj proceeded with his own words of gratitude.

"I have no doubt you have their gratitude, but you should know that you also have not only Vinross Yu-Cranker Incorporated's thanks, but my own personal gratitude as well," Laj started as he leaned into the table a bit, cupping a balled fist into the palm of his other hand and he propped his elbows on the glass tabletop. "Miss Sarahs told me that you and your squad were actually instrumental in helping her solve the problem in our assembly plant offices," Laj's smiling face began to turn a bit more serious as he spoke. "Ted Brennen and his crew down there have had it tough; I hired most of the Sinkstrip employees from the colony settlements around here, before Fortuna had really developed. Their experience with the land was much more valuable to me than a few degrees from FC Tech and references from my corporate offices."

"I was relieved to hear that they survived the assault; those Green War fanatics must've had this planned pretty far in advance, because they blew past all of our security systems in place," Laj continued, leaning back a bit into his seat as he glanced over Squad 35 and their Administrator. "I do appreciate it; not a lot of people around Nepleslia would stick out their necks for their fellow man. So, you have my gratitude, captain."

---

George spied on through narrowed eyes as Kokuten and Tweak made silent exchanges to one another. Not only was Kokuten apparently good friends with Tweak, but they were close enough to read each others body language? The shifty Neplesilan turned his head back around towards Max with a short sigh, idly scratching at the roots of his bangs in slight agitation.

"Man, what is the deal?" George murmured under his breath, mostly to himself but partially towards Max just to have someone's input. "The captain never even looked at her before a while ago, and now she's all over him? Great. Perfect." George ranted on to his unwitting audience.

Max shrugged, and decided he had nothing to do anyway, so he might as well work this situation for a bit. "It could be nothing, just him avoiding having to deal with talking to the important people. Or he could feel like she's uncomfortable, and just happened to beat you to trying to get her to open up." He cocked his head to the side, a musing thought on his face. "Honestly though, I have no clue. I've only ever seen you guys from a distance before earlier today. I don't know either of them well enough, though the sergeant seemed like a decent enough guy."

"If serving in the 1st Fleet taught me anything, it was that every person doesn't get a chance to live out their lives. Just because one with great influence has a problem with another, does not mean that ten other people need to die for it. Nor do the people who rely on those who die need to suffer. Your people were just doing their jobs, they didn't deserve to be the targets of such a pointed attack. As dedicated of a soldier as I am, I joined this Military to protect the hard-working people of this nation." said Kokuten, feeling strongly about that last point, and how double-edged the subject seemed to be at that. The Captain's eyes altered in color again with his tone, and he rubbed his hands together at that, giving a short sigh.

"But, that's much appreciated, Senator Vinross-Yu. Those sort of situations aren't usually our M.O. It's rather tame compared to powered armor action in the 1st, but our team isn't entirely Marines, nor power armor pilots. A thank you goes a long way after a poor day." went the Captain, nodding his head to Laj, respectfully. He let the air hang for a moment, before taking a small leap. "Though, while I do have your interest for the moment, Senator, and if you'll forgive me if I'm too forward... I was wondering, where are you from? When I saw advertisements and announcements to your election, I saw some include Vinross, and then some Vinross-Yu. That kind of mistake, I would guess, pertains to the uniqueness of an origin that a name like that comes from."

The anticipation welled in Blake as he watched the members of the band lead up to his requested segment. He put his worries of being sneezed upon into the back of his mind for the moment and just tried to enjoy the show as best as he could, hygienic threats aside. Besides Nell wasn't all that bad, just a little mucus wouldn't hurt him.

He just hoped it would actually be a small amount of mucus in the end.

"I'd guess just wait and bide your time. If nothing comes up, I'll talk to her after dinner." His eyes strayed from Fidela and back across to follow the exchange between their hosts and the team. 'So she shot someone, which would imply she's a Unique? Doesn't look that hot shit out of the costume. Wonder what training they have... he mused to himself. His mind ran back over the mission, trying to pick out the details he needed. He remember a lot of people getting shot and some awesome shit being done with wall panels. But details like "who shot first" eluded him.

He nodded solemnly in agreement with Kokuten. Serving, protecting yadda yadda yadda. Really, all he wanted to do was tell Laj to blow it out his ass, but there'd be absolutely no point raising that idea now.

He turned back to Fidela, resolving to leave the politics to the brains and leave the breasts to the brawn.

"...I'm sure they'll stop talking about this sometime before dessert..."

George tossed a sideways glance towards Kokuten as Maximilian gave him a small set of compliments. He was correct; the captain always seemed to be a pretty straightforward gentleman. However, given the circumstances, George was starting to see some rather glaring flaws in Kokuten's personality, and was gather more by the minute. "... he looks like a putz in that get-up," George mumbled back with a dissatisfied scowl across his face. "I mean, look at him, just sittin' up there, flirting around with the Head Administrator AND Tweak. Real piece of work, that guy."

---

"Ah yes..." Laj leaned back into his seat as the smile returned to his face. The gentleman took a breath and looked back up at the captain, his expression making it obvious that he had expected such a question at some point during the night. "It's a very common misconception and a mistake many not fluent of Delsaurian society make; Delsaurian surnames aren't really given much exposure in the Imperium's education systems."

"My official, full name is Laj Varant Vinross Yu," Laj continued on, the three of his own entourage looking on towards him as he spoke. Even Cassefin kept a steady gaze of interest, leaning forward slightly in her seat as she listened to the man. "Laj is my name. Vinross is my families name. Yu is my clan name. You see, in addition to family names, much of Delsauria's population belong to large groups of families that comprise our clans. When a family is accepted into a clan, they take on the clan name beyond their last name, as a sign of respect. Many people and organizations outside of Delauria either do not respect the clan portion of our names, or simply do not realize the importance it carries."

"The Yu clan is a very old one, from before Delsauria was even discovered by Nepleslia, back when we were still a part of Yamatai," Laj continued to educate the table as a single waiter came into their little cordoned-off area wielding a tray containing several tall wine glasses filled with ice and water. As he set one of the glasses down, Laj Vinross Yu quickly nodded and thanked him before starting again as the waiter went around the table, placing down glasses of water to each participant. "My great grandfather and his family migrated to Delsauria when it was made known that they were beginning to accept our efforts of integration into their society. Working with the native Delsaurians to weather the first few years of settlement was very difficult... Delsauria's natural ecosystem is very harsh and inhospitable, especially so for Nepleslians. Never the less, the Vinross family stuck through with the Yu clan and eventually the Yu clan elders believed they had earned the honor of acceptance into the clan itself."

Odette took a small sip from her glass of water as Laj finished, setting it down delicately in front of her when she had finished. "Master Laj is the third generation of Vinross Yu."

Laj merely grinned at the statement. "Indeed I am. Alive and kicking."

"Fascinating!" praised Kokuten as he raised the wine-glass of water up to Laj. "I'm surprised, even with Delsauria being represented in the Senate, that there's not a larger public awareness of their culture. Though, I'm sure that will change in a few years, the Democratic Imperium is still consolidating itself and it's planets." The Captain sipped lightly of his own water, and set it down onto the table. He couldn't help but feel a hostile presence in the room, though. It wasn't murderous, but it was definitely unfriendly, and caused him to dip his head a bit. Surprisingly enough, he didn't seem to feel it off of Cassefin.

Speaking of, he turned his head to look down at the Head Administrator. She was awfully quiet, despite being the boss of their side of the table. A little concern showed on his face and he spoke quietly to her, barely mouthing the words, "How do you feel?"

Tweak's eyes scrunched shut as she completely aborted a sneeze, holding a hand up over her face as containing the pressure contorted it; the process looked somewhat painful and nearly bumping into the waiter as he reached past her to set down a glass of water. Blinking, she slowly lowered her hand and tried to pretend like nothing happened, quietly continuing with what she was doing as Laj began his soliloquy on the history of his inherited name.

Mentally, she frowned in confusion. Her TacOps system had picked up her name being spoken during its passive monitoring, resulting in the sneeze attempt...she had no idea why that particular alert method had been chosen, aside from a very, very vague reference to a superstition in one of her databases that popped up when the question crossed her mind. The 'Spacer neko glanced sideways at George, the unknowing perpetrator of her embarrassment. Why was he muttering about her? A quick review of the transcripts of George's audio (arranged in reverse order by timestamp, sections cut into individual clips by sentence) from her TacOpSys almost made her laugh...then her cheeks felt hot. George thought Kokuten was flirting with her? And with Cassifin? Well, that was possible, if that was true at all. From what she knew of Kokuten, he was just that way by nature. He was flirting? Was he flirting?

Who was George talking to? Some of the audio sounded like replies to another speaker. The only person over there within whispering range was the new guy, Max, so Tweak ran a search on his vocal pattern, pulling up the other half of the conversation, or part of it. Some of the words had been half-covered by the rest of the ambient noises and conversations, needing reconstructing to get the whole thing and was why Tweak apparently missed the first mention of her name. His comments seemed simply concerned about her boredom -- she wasn't sure whether to smile, knowing someone cared, or feel embarrassed, knowing someone had noticed -- and in the end Tweak mentally shrugged and went back to considering what to do about George.

Her hands went into semi-autopilot, finishing up her next reassembly of her little puzzle device while her mind skimmed whatever she could dig up from her notes and records on George. The Nepleslian seemed interested in her, for one reason or another, always trying to stay nearby when they were in the same group. He always seemed so disappointed when they had to part ways, too. Near as Tweak could tell, from her perspective, she and George were on that edge between acquaintances and friends. Written notes on the Sunny Side resort incident confirmed it, more or less. She certainly hadn't made it easy for him to get even that far, that was certain...

What am I going to do about that now, though? That brought up another question: Did she want a relationship at all? She let out a puff of air through her nose, silently slipping the last piece of her device into place. Formal dinners are not the time to be thinking about that stuff, Tweak thought, stopping that line before it got going. She just wanted to get through the night without something exploding. Yes, that was a good goal. She frowned slightly, apparently at her device. Something didn't feel right. Finally noticing the water in the wineglass, Tweak looked at it for a moment, but do anything with it.

Max shrugged, not even really noticing that Tweak was listening in on them. "Even if he is flirting with them both, I really do think it's more of a situation thing than any real intent. It certainly didn't seem like there was any intent when we were at a coffee shop earlier. Friends, maybe, but I wouldn't guess there was anything more there." He went right ahead and ignored the comment about Kokuten's appearance, deciding that one, at least, wasn't worth arguing over.

"Tch, yeah," George mumbled dismissively as she shrank back into his seat, lightly sipping at his glass of water. "I'll believe it when I see it."

---

Cassefin seemed lost in her own thoughts for the few short moments after Kokuten had whispered to her. The administrator was watching Laj and Marissa with inquisitive eyes, idly running the fingertips of her right hand across her straightened hair that fell down on her shoulder. When the realization of Kokuten spoken words registered with her, she gave a soft "Hm?" and turned slightly towards Kokuten, looking a bit surprised. "Oh... no, I'm fine. It's just..." Cassefin stopped for a moment before glancing across the table at Laj and the rest of the group seated around their extravagant settings. "He seems so normal. I'm doing my best to see how these individuals could have done what you've said they have, but so far..." Cassefin allowed her voice to trail off a bit, leaving her glass of water untouched for the moment as she turned back to the corporation CEOs and gave them a small, slightly forced reassuring smile as her eyes hopped from person to person, before landing on Odette. The raven-haired woman continued to sit peacefully on her side of the table, seemingly just happy to be included.

"... why do you think she keeps calling him 'Master Laj', Chiaki?" Cassefin queried Kokuten under her breath. "Marissa and Nell don't address him in such a way."

---

Not to be ignored for too long, Nell Sarahs grew a little tired of listening to the band at Blake's behest; in truth the classical tones were not her preferred choice of music and she was quickly becoming bored. In an attempt to curb her interests up again, the short, silver-haired woman drew a bit closer to the gentleman on her right. "Soooo, where'd ya pick up ya taste in tunes, big guy?"

So that was it, Cassefin was actually taking their own stories to mind. She was actually putting a little faith in them. The realization caused Kokuten's eyes to flicker to a greenish white color, before settling back into a sage green. Maybe Administrator held them with more weight than he though. Still, that wasn't the issue at the moment, and as much as he would've liked to comment on her line on Laj, the issue of the other Captain seemed much more curious.

"Perhaps she's like myself. A Captain in armor, and a respectful, refined person in formal dress." reasoned Kokuten in whisper, before continuing, "Captain Swann seems to be a very polite woman in this setting, and perhaps she recognizes Laj for the status he is. Though, considering how she seemed to venerate him once-while ago, you could say it runs deeper than status. It's likely a mixture of admiration, respect, duty, and most of all, class. She is a Captain, and long service breeds strong ties to one's superiors." Kokuten looked at his wine glass for a moment, his eyes focusing the reflective sheen as to not seem too suspicious. Then, a thought crossed his mind, and a little chuckle escaped his lips quietly. "Are you wanting me to call you, Mistress Montreal?"

There it was again, that feeling of faint breeze. It was her breath on Blake's neck. Her sneezy, gross, mucus-filled throat was nearing him. He could see it now, her sternutatory reflex just waiting to be triggered all over him and his nice suit and innocent face. The tension mounted inside his head and back muscles. His eyes darted around behind his dark glasses, invisibly searching the area for something. "If I could just garauntee she'd cover her mouth, I'd probably be more grateful she was showing interest." He thought, glancing over at her with a weak smile. "There's nothing left to do but keep my hand close to hers so I can force it when she sneezes. Yeah! That's gotta work!"

And so, trying not to raise any suspicion, Blake turned back to the woman and lowered his glasses again, flashing his eyes as he said with a stronger smile, "Well, I love all sorts of music and art. My favorite thing in the whole galaxy is the theatre! Whether it's the extra-long Delsaurian desert-travel saga or the rantings of an ancient Yamataian warrior poet, I love it all the same. Mostly, my music tastes are developed from there. But I like other stuff too! I'm really into the electronic sound of Abwheran music and the urban Nepleslian stuff, too. What kind of music do you like? I've probably listened to it."

As he talked, Blake slipped his hand slowly over to his glass of water. He briefly picked up the glass and swirled ice mid-paragraph, then trying to seem idle, arranged his silverware. When he reach the far edge of his place-setting, Blake let his hand rest there, close to Nell's. It took every bit of discipline he had to keep his fingers from twitching every time she took a breath. He was ready to be quick on the draw and shove her own hand into her face when the inevitable discharge came his way.

Now it was time to play the waiting game.

Kokuten said:

"Are you wanting me to call you, Mistress Montreal?"

Click to expand...

Almost at once, a hesitant smile rippled its way across Cassefin's mouth. Before long, she had to raise a single gloved hand to her mouth to stifle the small fit of giggles his little joke had given her. It was the first time anyone around the table would witness Cassefin laughing in actual earnest. As quickly as it came, however, the red-headed woman regained control of her composure and settled herself back down, clearing her throat to excuse herself from her little outburst. "I don't know... I kind of like the way it catches the ear. Mistress Montreal," Cassefin replied back under her breath, accentuating the final phrase with a bit of flair. "I could get used to that."