RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 9] The Silver Lining

Kokuten sighed, his explanation made moot by the truth. He was surprised, Tweak had worded that rather well despite the shakiness of her voice. The Doctor smiled at her, and pointed off to the circle of comfortable couches and love-seats that the familiar Cirrus Security Agent was sitting at.

"While they prep our coffee, we should go take a seat." said Kokuten, turning to Blake, still pointing off towards Max. "They like to bring the cups to you."

Tweak noticed that Kokuten was intending to sit near the Nervous Man (as she had mentally labeled him), but had no reason to refuse. If the man was nervous around her and her friends, then this would either make him leave or allow Tweak to get a positive ID on him.

So she lead the way to an empty couch and took a seat at the one o'clock position relative to him, setting her shopping bag down on the floor next to her. Smoothing her skirt out of reflex as she sat, Tweak briefly looked over at Max while waiting Kokuten and Morris did whatever they were going to do next.

Tweak's eyes seemed to change from looking at Max to looking past him. She assumed her squadmates were going to sit too, but they might not, one could never tell. Kokuten might stand, and Morris...well, she couldn't really make any guesses at what Morris might do.

Taking a cue from Tweak, Blake conducted himself to the couch alongside her and sat silently down near her. He noticed for the first time the shuddering mass of Security Officer he'd walked past twice by now. Blake was a little worried about the guy, so he ducked underneath the table and joined him. Their faces were very close as the young Morris whispered to him, "Are you hiding from someone? Do you need help?"

Max almost bashed his face on the table in frustration when the Squad 35 group turned to come sit over by him. Bad enough that they were in here in the first place, but now they were coming to sit by him? Just great. He really didn't need anyone reporting to Cassefin that he was down here, especially since he was so new to this amazingly cushy (so far as he could tell) duty. He quickly but quietly started to gather his things, trying to avoid eye contact with any of the security team, so he could hopefully just head out now and hope that they didn't notice him enough to think anything of it.

His near faceplanting repeated when Blake came over to him and talked to him, completely spoiling any possible plans he had of escape. Wasn't the first time he'd lost a gamble though, and he'd had plenty of experience in working back from situations like this, so he put on a calmer face, and looked up at Morris, shaking his head. "Hmmm? Oh, no, I'm fine. Just a bit preoccupied is all."

Kokuten strolled on over at last while the other two of his friends sat down at the couch. The Captain took a seat by himself between the two sides, sort of sitting at the 'head' of the rounded coffee table. He crossed his arms and leaned back in the love-seat he had found himself. For a moment, his eyes squinted towards closing, taking in the feel of the leather against his back, and cushioning to his body. He let out a lazy sigh. Before look across the table and then under it.

"Oh hello! No wonder Morris went under the table." went Kokuten, acting rather unperceptive for his usually omniscient-like(for a Nepleslian) sight. He smiled, "What are you doing here?" The Captain asked, pointing at the floor, but in a way that couldn't discerned whether he meant the planet, or under the table.

Blake shot up quickly at Kokuten's comment, sacking his head on the Table on his way up. "Captain, do you know this man?" He asked. He was trying his best to ignore the growing red bump on the side of his head.

Ow...that sounded like it hurt.

Pressing her lips together, Tweak tried not to smile but amusement showed through her eyes anyway. She looked down, hoping the edge of her hood hid it until she thought it was back under control. "Are you okay?" she asked, mentally adding Did you hurt the table? but refrained from saying that part aloud. Where had it come from, anyway?

Maximillian shrugged, not sure what had brought on this congregation under the table. "I thought I dropped something, that's all. And, ah, I do not believe I have met any of you before now. At least, not very recently." He pushed himself back up onto his seat, settling in since his plans for a quick escape were pretty much ruined at this point.

"You know, now that I look at you..." Kokuten's eyes glowed brightly for a moment as he seemed to process the thought. The Captain brought a hand to his chin, stroking his trimmed beard. Now that Max had come out into the somewhat brighter light in the open air, the features seem to sing of someone familiar. "... You look like one of the guys in Wilke's squad. Squad 88? I could bet my eyes I've seen your face before! We go by that squad every time we ride down to planet."

At that, the BADASS BEANS attendant come over, setting two cups of coffee in front of Kokuten, effectively interrupting the conversation.

"Here you go." she said, before looking over at the large lump on Blake's bald head. "Uh... I'll get you a bag of ice for that, I'll bring it out with your coffee and milk. After we get done mixing it up, of course." Then, her sunglassed gaze switched to Max, "Is there anything else I can get you?"

Kokuten leaned forward and slid the Mocha cup towards Tweak with a gentle smile. He then leaned back and took a sip of his own, bouncing his brow in response to the flavor. Ooh! That's good.

The cup sat there a moment as the 'Spacer neko looked at it, trying to pick out its particular smell from the ambient smell of the shop to determine what was in it. Then she mentally shook her head. No...I'll just try it. Knowing what was in it wouldn't give her the actual experience, that was just a way for her to stall and put off trying it.

Tweak picked up the cup, pausing as she tested the temperature through the cup material, then she took a short sip.

Chocolate, or its flavor, was definitely there. Dark, it seemed. But there was also milk, which was the main ingredient, and then the coffee. She was right, she didn't like the coffee. At least, not on its own. In this, the taste was...muted. Not as bitter as she guessed it would be, though it definitely could have been if what she smelled from Kokuten's drink was any indication. There was some bitter taste from both the coffee and the chocolate, but somehow it was manageable.

Must be the milk. Tweak's eyes crossed a little as she looked into the cup, blowing a little over the surface of the drink before taking a second sip, then she nodded. "Better than I thought," she said under her breath while looking over at Kokuten before glancing at Morris and Max. She would have said it aloud, but the subject of the conversation had changed to this person who apparently was of another team on the station...what was he doing here?

"I thought we were the only squad here," Tweak noted, taking a third sip.

Blake nodded along with Tweak's words. "That's right. Isn't that what Administrator Montreal said back in the shuttle on the way here? Maybe he just got a lucky break in the system. You know how stuff can get mixed up." He suggested. The young Marine was genuinely interested in meeting a co-worker that wasn't on his squad, as he was made to understand that his squad was especially taxed and the other squads had an easier time of everything.

"So, what's it like under Captain Wilke?" He began, "I've heard the people say that we're a lot more hard-pressed over here in this squad, because Administrator Montreal gives us the 'stupid' assignments. Do you think that's true?"

Max nodded quickly, spreading his hands in a placating manner. "Yes, I am from Squad 88, yes, you are the only 'squad' down here, and though I'm fairly new myself, yes, I have heard stories about how you guys get all the worst assignments. My squad has it easy, from what I can tell, but I'm the only one down right now. I, ah, got permission to come down ahead of time alone, the rest of the squad isn't due down for a good bit of time." He hoped he was talking fast enough that they might just skip over the fact that he was here and his squad wasn't, but he doubted he'd get that lucky.

Kokuten gave a nodding smile at Tweak as she took her first sip, and the following sips. He was glad she enjoyed the cup, because he wasn't looking forward to two extreme doses of BADASS BEANS coffee. That usually accompanied the shakes and other negative effects from drinking more than one cup an hour. He would've done it, but he was more glad that it was something she could enjoy.

"You were allowed to go down ahead of your squad?" Kokuten's brow arched rather high before taking another sip of coffee. He sat the cup down and looked at Blake and Tweak. "That doesn't quite sound like Head Administrator Cassefin, does it? Or is she just that cruel with us?"

Tweak shrugged. There was another possibility, though.

"Maybe she wants to transfer him to our squad?" she ventured. "Meeting during down-time would allow personal relationships to develop, creating a shorter period after matriculation before the new addition is adequately assimilated into the team dynamic..." Her voice trailed off and she looked around at the three before looking at her drink again. "I...um...was reading up on...on your social practices. That's all..."

She took a hesitant sip, trying to stop herself from talking any more. Mmm... The drink was good, but only in small portions. That sip was too much. The coffee flavor took over quickly then.

Shifting her posture so she was sitting with her knees together, Tweak rested her forearms on her lap and the drink between both hands, slouching forward a bit. She was talking too easily. Was there something in the drink? No, nothing out of the ordinary, but she was feeling a a bit more relaxed than usual, even with the strange surroundings.

Get a hold of yourself. You may be around friendlies, but watch what you say! The disguised neko took a slow breath through her nose with a small hitch in it as she was hit again with the strong smells nearby, but she was able to put the distractions out of her mind for now. Why was she here? Oh yeah, to organize her thoughts. Instead of organizing them, though, she was letting them go, relaxing too much and not thinking before she spoke. Tweak closed her eyes. With her head down as it was, the edge of the hood covered her face enough that it appeared she was staring into her cup.

Part of the problem was that there was too much to process. Even passively, her tactical system was throwing a river of information her way. There's too much going on, she thought, sighing silently. Let's try...this.

Data filtering engaged.

Threat prioritization raised: Immediate only.
Rule exception list compiling... ... ...
Complete. List applied.

She mentally nodded to herself, the process taking a few moments as the data flow lowered to a trickle. With the filter in place, she had no active tracking, no lists of components for the things around her, just her own thoughts. Less material, less to process...easier to organize and stay calm.

It was definitely real chocolate, not flavoring. Her eyes still closed, Tweak allowed herself yet another smile for today. This "mocha" wasn't...well, she didn't know what her favorite food or drink would be, but she could think of ways to make this better. But this still tasted good. And...and...

And...another sip would be nice.

"That's a marvelous idea, Tweak!" Blake agreed enthusiastically. "I bet you're right, because Administrator Montreal is very concerned with protocol; both social and physical... and bureaucratic."

After his input, Blake stopped conversing for the moment and returned to his former task of ascertaining his coffee's location. He turned around in the couch and stood up on his knees, peering over the back of the couch with dangling arms in front of him. Next to him, Evan mimicked the action, the younger cat's feet hanging haphazardly from his frame perched on the back of the couch. The cat's tail twitched in time with the music as it wormed its way around on his back.

Max shrugged, spreading his fingers. "I honestly have no idea. All I know is I'm down here without my squad, for one reason or another. I wasn't expecting to meet up with anyone else though, to be fair." He wasn't sure what to make of the trio in front of him. The 'leader' of the group seemed to be more or less normal (comparatively speaking), with only his cybernetics setting him apart (though that arm looked like it was designed to do nasty things of some sort). The other two... well, he wasn't even sure where to start his assessment of the other two. He was usually considered an oddity in Nepleslian territory with his slight build, but these two made him seem like the standard in comparison. The fact he couldn't place the origin of the girl was bugging him; he was normally very good at that kind of thing, out of necessity.

"If Cassefin truly cared about a group dynamic, she would've picked a proper leader for Squad 35. I'm a doctor, more suited as a medical sentry, rather than the commander's position." commented Kokuten, his glowing LED's looking between Lam and Tweak. He rested his chin on his glowing, left hand. The lights, indicating the level of voltage within the circuits, pulsed every now and then with an absent-minded flex of the arm. One of Kokuten's eyes rolled in Mike's direction. "You know, not wanting to sound suspicious, but who cleared your request? I know the only one who can approve off station transit is one of the Administrators, and even Captain Abeck clears any requests by Head Administrator Montreal before giving the green to someone below him."

Once again, as if to provide Max with the proper time to think of a way to properly word his way out. Their BADASS BEANS barrista returned with a bowl of milk and the carefully mixed cup of coffee for Blake. She set the bowl down on the table, and put the cup next to it.

"Is there anything else I can get you?" asked the young lady, pulling her beret off for a moment to scratch her curly, sandy blonde hair.

Blake tenderly sipped the warm drink in his hand and sighed with the relief of having a well-made coffee-cocktail at hand. It was truly sedative, and it brought a wave of calm over the young marine. He abused this calm by quickly replying to the server, "Yes, there is one thing. I would like your phone number, if you don't mind. I find you very attractive and you've brought me the best coffee I've had in some time. Also, here is twenty DA to cover the drinks."

In one hand, Blake offered up the bill with Admiral Davis' smiling face emblazoned upon it. In the other, he ushered Evan towards the cream that Hotohori was already hungrily sipping away at.

Max frowned. He was really disappointed that they felt the need to question him this far, especially since he was supposed to be keeping his purpose more or less quiet. He sighed, looked at his hands, which he'd just placed back into his lap, and looked back up at them. "Okay, look, can you keep this a bit quiet? I'm not supposed to be talking about this to anyone."

Tweak glanced up at Max, then at Morris and Kokuten. She hadn't asked. She even gave a possible reason for Max to be here, but that had just been refused. Oh well. If the others wanted to hear it, that didn't matter to her.

Her attention was drawn by the sound of the espresso machine whirring again and she added the device to her "exceptions" list just so she could get a little more information from the sounds it was making on how it worked. Do we have one back at Cirrus? I wonder how it works. Could I build one?