RP: NSS Acadia [Mission 1, Briefing] The Dust Devil Cometh

Autumn ate her meal without too much complaint and wondered what this new mission would bring. She wondered if it'd only be as easy as her losing an arm again or if it would be the amount of evilness as her... departure from the flesh. She leaned back in her chair and watched the marines in the Mess Hall around her, what was it, she wondered, that caused them all to want to fight? Her own reasons were not very noble and seemed like a better place to experience new people....

But why the hell wasn't she getting to the experiencing new people part? She had some fun with the Chief but why was it so hard to find another flavor of the week, as it were? She figured that she just wasn't really trying hard enough to make any more progress with anyone else or she must've been confusing people with her openness. So she just decided to sit there and watch her fellow Marines with an expression of profound confusion as to what she really wanted out of her second chance at life.

Did she want to settle down and have a family and some kids? Did she need to transfer to the colonization projects to get herself out of combat? Was she really ready to turn over a new life and switch over to a life of eternal monogamy? These things weighed heavily in her mind but she didn't really get the impression that any of them were options for her, Autumn Wilde, for other people maybe, but no, not Autumn. It wasn't in her blood and she definately didn't know anyone that was truly happy locked into place and she doubted she could continue being open to new people in an actual relationship, at least not with consent from her partner.

My god, she thought, am I going to turn into a lesbian or have some sort of profound religious experience now that I am even considering it? The confusion in her eyes deepened as she leaned forward in her chair with her left arm propped up on the table in front of her supporting her chin as she watched everyone. "Must be taking this thing a little too hard.... unless I got knocked on the head during leave.. I still have my cash card so I most not have been jacked while I was out," she muttered softly to herself.

Although there was a steady, low din of chatter, it was all background noise to Viktor. He wasn't really an active part of the little world around him, and it was starting to weigh on his mentality. He needed something to work himself out of this; his eyes landed on Autumn, who looked equally uncomfortable. Curiosity got the better of him, and he approached her. With no idea how best to open the question, he simply went for it. "If you don't mind my asking, ma'am, what was it like coming back? I overheard you talking to other marines about it, and I was just curious. Forgive me if it's an intrusive question; I'll leave you be." He waited tentatively for an answer.

"What was it like?" Autumn repeated the question softly, uncertain of how to answer it. She thought it over for a few moments, lightly pressing her lips together in thoughtful contemplation. "I guess... it was like all my memories were put into a blender. Physically, it was a little disorienting, it took a little while for my body to kick back on... I don't really remember how I bought it but I heard I had a date with a mortar round or something." She made an explosion gesture with her hands, and had a soft, thoughtful smile on her face.

"I'm still trying to figure it all out, it really makes ya think about everything but I think I like to keep being who I was before the boom. I just know, I woke up all gooey from the vat and found out a few of my friends decided to get themselves assigned to a desk and left without saying goodbye."

After some fast-talking and general avoidance of any and all personnel aboard the shuttle, Rico and Carina had made it on-bard the Dust Devil relatively unscathed. "Common...sugar, we gotta find the captain," Rico said, still at a loss for remembering Carina's name as he surveyed the halls for the mess. The unexpected father and daughter hit a spot of luck, however; Rico recognized the captain’s tags and uniform on the oncoming woman he had spotted further down the hall. Rico spent the short walking distance silently firing himself up for some serious sweet-talking…because it was going to take a lot of fibbing-juice to get this plan across.

When the two reached Esther, Rico stopped and saluted her. “Captain Belmonte?”

Meanwhile, throughout the whole ordeal, Carina strode along with her father in relative silence. She maybe five years old, but growing up where she had fromm Funky City to Los Apagos and even Fortuna taught her how to keep her lips shut when it was necessary. However...when Rico stopped in front of the woman he called a ...Captain...and saluted she hid behind his legs, peeping out from the side and at the tall woman with an odd sense of curiosity.

"...!" Previously deep in thought, Esther snapped to attention, but having been an informal captain far longer than one of the military, did not have the instinctual reaction to salute. She did however, give the marine a slight nod, and proceed to read his tag before replying. It might have taken a second or two for her to reply. "Oh, Sergeant... Sanroma. Glad to have you on board, is there anything I can help you with?"

Despite being a rather attractive woman, if there was one thing Rico enjoyed more than the fairer (very debatable) sex, it was getting promoted…and to be promoted meant getting on your superiors best side. Rico continued to hold the firm salute, despite the small knot forming in his throat as he felt the little girl behind him skitter away behind his legs. “Ma’am!” Rico spoke firmly. “Requesting a short talk with ya, ma’am.”

Carina meanwhile just chose to remain silent.

"Of course, Sergeant." The captain said happily as she gave him another appraising look, and something seemed to tick in her head. She vaguely remembered something in one of the letters Mireille had sent home a few months ago, about some dashing Latin Sergeant who had somehow gotten her to almost swallow a bottle and later managed to steal a kiss from her. But it couldn't be this guy, could it? There were many, many suave military types with strong arms and easy smiles. It couldn't hurt to ask, she reasoned to herself. "Say... Sergeant Sanroma. Do you remember a girl with spider hands and shiny art deco eyes?" She asked, wary that she was asking the wrong guy.

“Can’t say that I do, ma’am. Friend of yours?” Rico said, letting his salute fall away as he relaxed a bit.

Carina fidgetd a little from behind Rico... it was more a combination of her muscles becoming strained from staying in place a time, and simple anxiousness...

"Something like that. My sister mentionned a caper with some suave Sergeant, almost gagging on a bottle while he snatched some cash. That girl really does do some silly things sometimes..." Esther answered wistfully, almost drifting into thought again. But she remembered the issue at hand that the man was bringing up. "But don't let me bore you with family troubles. You wanted to discuss something?"

“Uhh…oh! Right, yeah,” Rico reached behind him and abruptly pulled Carina around, setting her in front of him with an empathetic grin. “Alright ma’am…in a nutshell, my. . . c-cousin here is in a mess a’ trouble,” Rico lied through his teeth, rubbing Carina’s shoulders as if somehow hoping that the idea would transfer from his palms directly into her brain.

“See, her folks were killed down here on Fortuna, an’ I need to get her to my place in Nepleslia…but the goddamn CPS agency here won’ allow any fella but me to take her,” Rico explained. “So…I was wonderin’ if she could, like, bunk up with one a’ the kitchen girls ‘till we get back to Nepleslia, yannow?”

Carina blinked as she was scurried forward, her cheeks flushed embarrassed and shy at meeting this new person. It wasn't until Rico called her his cousin that she looked a little distraught. "But Papi....I'm not your cousin...I'm your daughter..." She said, and sniffled going teary eyed. "Papi doesn't like me...?" She asked in a strained voice that came out as a cute little squeak.

"... Ten seconds. The truth. NOW, Sergeant." Esther barked, facing the marine directly, while extending a hand to pat the girl on the head.

Carina continued to sniffle under Esther's hand, her tiny body jerking with each sob as she stood ramrod straight, tears trickling down her cheeks...her heart suddenly breaking into small pieces.

’SHIT, BUSTED!?’ Rico panicked silently as he quickly exchanged his glance between the two females. He smiled sheepishly as he tugged at his suddenly-oh-so-tight-collar. “W-well. Okay, so the CPS said she *might* be my kid. BUT they aren’t sure, which is why I wanna get her to my folks in Los Apagos an’ get some real results.”

"Well... here's a crazy idea. How about you go down to medbay with Adrian and run a quick blood test to see if it's a positive match. If she actually is your kid, and not you trying to smuggle some kid onto a SMODIN starship to do what I can only pretend to not know about, I'll let her stay until we're in port and we have somewhere save to leave her." Esther said, her eyes grim and focused with a sort of maternal protective instinct she barely knew she had in her, albeit over a child that wasn't even hers. And yet, almost a second later, she crouched down and still patting the small girl on the head, smiled. "Say... Carina, right? Do you like candy? I have a small stash in my luggage whenever for whenever I feel sad... but you look like you need it more than me."

While Fian Vel Steyr disapproved of Ran's hard drinking and bravado, the Chief was endearing to him because he was a good soldier who also looked out for the other men. Feeling that the stop-gap toast was already digested, he placed a light breakfast of mostly greens, oats and a small bowl of half boiled eggs. While the former two he never really liked, he couldn't afford to over-feed himself and feel sleepy later in this important day. He took a seat opposite Ran and edged the bowl of eggs over.

"Eat that man, it helps. Don't talk if your head hurts." He said, concerned.

Ran managed to lift his head up to face Fian as he sat in front of him. Holding up a palm to refuse the eggs, the Chief leaned back a little in his seat, taking another sip of his special coffee. "No thanks, I hate eating too many things so early." The Chief pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, and had soon began exhaling the smoke away from Fian, off to the side. "So looks like you're back."

What Trey might have immediately noticed was a knife stab into the padded bulkhead a scant foot from his face, followed by the sound of bickering. Inside were two caretakers, likely the Dust Devil's permanent kitchen staff, arguing in what sounded like a blend of spices, seasoning, and percussive swearing befitting any Nepleslian marine.

Based on uniforms and the layout of their cybernetics, one of them, a pallid man with a missing forearm, which seemed to have been replaced with an egg whisker, was telling his Savtech JANE she had a shoddy sense of taste. Conversely, the android woman was telling him that he was consistently deviating from the recipe and causing unpredictable changes in the overall meal.

And they both turned to the marine and spoke to him in unison. "What the fuck are you doing in my kitchen?!? Your kitchen!?! The captain said he would promote me to ship chef and stick you on menial duty!!! Right, like he'd say the same thing to both of us?!? Do you think this is a joke!?!

...

You! Marine. GET OUT!!!"

Upon seeing just how roasted Rico was by his superiors for his bad behaviour, Henry considered that he had bigger things to worry about, and finding out a talent at voicecraft and possibly having a one-night stand was the least of his worries, and may even be blessings in disguise.

"Ye..." Henry strained to Harrison as he observed what went on, "You're right. Should, I call - her now?"

“Ah…medical check-up, ma’am?” Rico asked, instantly bringing up Adrian Decanes personal profile in that special folder of Rico’s brain. Outwardly, Rico smiled and saluted rigidly. “Yes ma’am, I’ll get right on that an’ meet back with ya with the results. Were, ah, can I meet ya afterwards?”

Carina meanwhile, due to Esther's kind demeanor towards her stopped crying, and merely sniffled a little.

"That would depend." Esther continued her protective scowl as she spoke to Rico, but seemed to switch to an unusually happy face when she glanced down again to face his 'daughter'. "Carina, have you had breakfast yet?"

The girl shook her head slowly. "No...the big man with the scar on his face, and the rolly polly man who brought me to my Papi didn't feed me this morning. They thought he would." Carina said as she looked up to Rico now, her eyes still slightly watery, and a little puffy from the tears, and her pawing at them.

“A-a-and I will!” Rico spat out nervously. ‘This runt is gonna get me fuckin’ shot!’ he thought as he laughed nervously, gripping down lightly onto Carina’s shoulders. “Right after we get this lil’ test done, aight? And then we’ll meet the Cap’n in the, uh…mess?” Rico asked Esther, trying his best to keep his cool.

"Don't take too long down there. Just go to medbay, have a blood sample taken so we can reference it with her file at the Agency. Tell the medtech you're there on my orders." Esther answered, pausing for a moment as she briefly considered her contingencies. "I'm pretty sure we have clearance for it already, but if we don't, I might have to call in a favor from a friend who works in intelligence. Or... just bring Carina down there if you have any difficulties."

Carina meanwhile, not understanding what was being said, sniffled once, and stared at the two grown ups. Rico, over her shoulder, and Esther, in front of her with a look of curiosity upon her features.

Rico didn’t really catch the tail end of Esther’s explanation; he was ready to bolt from that talk the moment it started…even a fetching captain couldn’t alleviate Rico’s mind from the strains of his forced fatherhood. “Awright then!” Rico said behind his smile, turning Carina around and quickly strutting out of sight. “I’ll get back wit’ ya as soon as we’re through, ma’am!”

"..." Esther gaped for a moment, unsure of there was any one word in the entire Nepleslian language she could use to describe the unrivaled feeling of regret when she allowed the man to transfer onto her crew. He might have very well be her undoing, after dealing with cutthroats, pirates, rival merchants and an attack by the Reds that killed her entire crew. He would drive her to a slow death from drinking her liver into a fine, rich pate like that which her father often bought in bulk and sold to the wealthy plutocrats of Funky City. "...I'll see you in the Mess Hall. Dismissed."

---

When the two turned the corner, however, Rico breathed an enormous sigh and halted his advance, leaning against the wall as he took off his beret. The Nepleslian gentleman ran his empty hand through his hair mindlessly, pausing a moment or two the shake the mass his scalp. “Phew…jeezamaneez.”

Carina trotted along as she was led until Rico stopped, and seemed to be taking a breather. The girl was obviously concerned over his look of distress, as well as how he acted when Esther was around. "Papi...are you...ok?" She asked him, looking up at the man with her big hazel eyes filled with concern, and worry.

“Huh? Oh, yeah yeah, I’m good…uh…” Rico paused, yet again unable to recall the name with which his child had been given. Ever since birth, Rico had *never* been good at remembering faces, let alone names belonging to those talking heads. It never really bothered Rico until just recently…if this little girl was going to be hanging around him often, he needed her as un-upset as possible. If that meant actually learning her name… “What was yer name, again?”

Carina blinked at the question, looking at Rico funny. "It is Carina, Papi..." She answered slowly.

”Again with the Papi stuff…” Rico mumbled under his breath. He sat still for a moment, thinking about the conversation that had just taken place. ’Go see Adrian for a blood sample? Shit, fuck that nonsense, I can draw some juice without that fucker’s help. I’ll just gotta blow some time before I get back…’ Rico turned back to Carina at his feet. “Aight Carina…we gonna need some ground rules set. You, ah, know what rules are right?”

Carina nodded. "Mommy made me follow rules. She told me so... She also told me I can't break the neighboor kid's nose anymore for calling her bad names. She said he was only hurting himself." She recited in a happy, sing song voice.

“Oh, fuck that,” Rico said in all earnestly. “If some lil’ shit is givin’ you a hard time, you tock that loser in the nose, you hear me? That’s how ya get respect, and ya want all a’ that you can get, got it?”

Carina looked down at her shoes before looking back up at Rico, and nodding vigorously.

"Alright now...this whole...'daddy/Papi' thing," Rico said, bring his index finger up in contemplative thought. "Cool it wit' callin' me that around other people, aight? I'm kinda new at this shit an'...well, it creeps me out a lil'. You get what I'm sayin'?"

Carina stared at Rico like he'd said something incredibly funny. "But Papi...what do I call you? I'm s'pose to call you that, because that is what you are." She said adamantly before she looked a little sad. "Is it because you don't like me?" Carina asked, sounding hurt again.

Rico couldn’t very well tell her that he would’ve been a lot happier this morning if he had been a few minutes earlier getting out of bed. However, even a bastard like Rico didn’t feel very up to breaking a little girl’s heart. “Naw, naw!” Rico replied hastily, waving his hands out in front of him. “It’s just…well, there are like…hmm…” He had to think about that one for a moment or two. “This bring me to my next rule; your daddy is smart,” Rico said, smug little smile rolling across his face. “Ol’ Papi knows a lot, don’t ya think?”

Carina, like most children held her parents in high esteem at that age. Until when they got older, and could understand the complexities of human behavior better. The little girl nodded along with his statement.

Rico was practically beaming at Carina’s answer. Praise of any kind, even that of a child, was still praise…and oh did Rico love being praised. “That’s right! Rule number 2 is that Daddy is always right, got it? So you just gotta trust me when I tell ya to not call me ‘Papi’ or ‘Daddy’ when we’re ‘round other folks…call me ‘Rico’. But when it’s jus’ you and me, ya can call me whatever. An’ in return…I’ll call ya whatever you wanna be called, alone or aroun’ the other guys.”

Although to most it would seem that Rico was making this up as he went along, the truth was that it was quite the contrary. In fact, when he was about Carina’s age, his own father Mario Sanroma sat young Rico down and gave him a similar talk. And, in true like-father-like-son nature, the matured Rico Sanroma was passing on the precious information word for word…he even found himself enjoying it, even if only a little bit, at the very end. When he finished his explanation, he squatted down to Carina’s level and extended his hand outward slightly in a professional handshake gesture. “We got a deal, Carina?”

Carina looked at the pre-offered hand a moment. The girl certainly knew the gesture quite well. However, she extended her own smaller hand into his, and firmly shook it before initiating a hug in which she wrapped her arms about his neck, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Deal, Papi." She said affectionately.

“GAH!” Rico jerked back in surprise at the sudden rush of movement…he didn’t recall his talk with HIS father ending like this. Rico wasn’t prepared for THIS level of active parenthood. He was quick to pry her off of him after she laid that wet one on his cheek and set her down in front of him, laughing nervously. “H-Heh…riiiiight…let’s try an’ keep that shit to a minimum, aight?”

" 'Kay." Carina said wearing a coy smile at her father's distress. She rather enjoyed this...

"Oh, how I looove... drugs and -ow, goddamnit- alcohol, drugs and alcohol, drugs and alcohol...shit this hurts."

Adrian sang softly to himself, interrupted by the occasional profane exclamation of pain. The medic was serving himself some rather nasty looking food, although a rather small portion. Of the three pieces of flatware he carried, only the plate had food on it, and a rather small amount. The two bowls, however, were filled to the brim with Vodka.

Decane continued humming to himself as he headed to the table occupied by Ran and Fian, sitting down next to the lower ranking officer. "Oi sirs. Good to see you back, Vel Steyr." He picked what looked to be a horror movie prop up from his plate, examined it for several moments, and frowned. This did not bode well for his health. The medic thought for a moment, then remembered his main course of the meal. He swilled down one of the bowls of clear liquor before looking at the horrible... thing on his plate.

Adrian picked it up, looked it over again, and thanks to alcohol, decided he might try it. He quickly decided it tasted like rancid Bacon covered in rat excrement and, furthermore, that the cooks were obviously dangerous psychotics. He dropped the rest of it on the plate and looked to his superiors, listening to their conversation.

"Well I certainly feel out of place then. Am I the only one that doesn't habitually drink?" Amelia strode into the room a couple minutes after Adrian did. Her uniform was obsessively cared for as usual and her VIAL weapon tapped her thigh with each step. Listening to the cooks fight, she shook her head. "Seems like no one is in a good mood this morning. Tis a shame."

Amelia looked down at the somewhat unappetizing food. She had ate before she got on the shuttle so she wasn't that hungry and this food made her even less so. She opted to not have a seat and instead walked around the table a bit, looking over her teammates with a hint of boredom in her eyes. As she passed Ran, she nodded to him. "Morning, chief."

After dodging the Knife, Trey grabbed it out of the wall, because it was a rather good knife and, if he were going to make a real breakfast, he'd need it. Somehow unperturbed by the bickering cooks, Trey strolled farther into the room, answering their shout.
"Not until we get some good food out to my squadmates. You don't cook breakfast semi-professionally for five years to just let an abomination like that stuff get eaten. Now, Where's the cooking supplies, I need to get to work." The Yamataian-bodied Nepleslian Said calmly, expertly stabbing the knife into a wooden cutting board on his way. These cooks would learn some manners and maybe a few new recipes by the time Trey was through with them. "Just like a bunch a kids." He mumbled, shaking his head at them.

Now what is that... Trey guy doing? Fian had a pause in thought trying to remember the marine's name, even though it was mentioned to him just last night. He lowered his head above the din of the caffeteria to observe the new host of people gathered around him and the Cheif.

"No thanks, I hate eating too many things so early."

Click to expand...

"Oh, so do I actually." The Vel Steyr remarked while retreiving the bowl of half boiled eggs from across the table "Miss me?". As he monitored his arm performing this delicate mannuver to avoid spilling some of the yolk, he noticed the contents of Adrian's bowls.

What the hell is that thing? You would think that somene in the medical line would know how to take care of his health. He also looked at the transparent liquid in the two bowls and concluded, for the sake of Adrian, that it was water regardless the oddity of using a bowl instead of a cup. For all the quirkyness of Adrian Decane and the little episode on the Alliance that Fian could not forget, he harboured no hostility for this fellow soldier and in fact, looked forward to sortie with him again.

"So... What is that?" He pointed at the strange piece of meat.

"I'll put it this way: I missed you one hell of a lot more than I'll miss this shit they're trying to kill us with," Adrian replied to his superior. He lifted what he had initially thought was toast to eye level, giving it the stink eye. He dropped it after it felt like whatever liquid was seeping out of it might be melting his flesh.

When the question was raised as to the mystery meat/ horror movie prop, the medic looked back down at it. He now noticed the fact that there was some sort of coating on it that he had mistaken for the actual meat beforehand. He blinked and examined it closer. "Sir... I... er... I don't think you want to know." He gave his sentence a nice period by lifting the second bowl of vodka and downing in a succession of quick gulps.

When he had finished drinking, he lowered the bowl back to his tray. "Either of you know if we have any other medics on the ship? I think I might need one pretty soon."

"There's no time like the present, Henry." Harrison said, taking a nearby seat. "I'm waiting in the wings if you need any advice."

Rico and Carina arrived at the Dust Devil’s cargo by without much interference. Luckily for them, it was mostly empty…most of the crew were probably already done with the loading procedures and joining the rest of the crowd in the mess. The Red Hill’s cargo bay was fairly large, seeing as it was a transport vessel, but Rico was certain the ship would be transporting medical supplies to the NSS Acadia. All he would need to do is find out where they were keeping said medical supplies and find a blood testing doohickey…and Rico didn’t need some asshat medic to do that.

“Aight Carina,” Rico said in a hushed voice as they both entered the cargo bay. Most of the room was occupied with storage crates and the like, a few small pathways in-between the goods for traversing purposes. “I’m gonna look for somethin’ to do this test with, you stand next t’ that door there an’ tell me if anyone’s comin’.”

Carina nodded, knowing full well what they were doing. She'd done similar things in the past, in the city, and on Nepleslia. The girl trotted over to the door, pressing herself against the side, but close enough to peek out.

Rico double-checked to make sure Carina was in position before skulking through the mess of boxes and canisters. Before long, he was able to spot some metal containers labeled with that crazy little red cross…and after a few minutes of rummaging, Rico pulled out his well-earned reward; a blood test doohickey…or at least what Rico THOUGHT to be a blood test doohickey.

The mechanism was little more than a syringe system attached to a hand-gripped injection apparatus. The syringe was empty, and the whole device came attached to a small case of replacement vials. Rico gave it a once-over…no blood stains from previous use, and since the syringe was empty it meant that he wasn’t going to be shooting himself with any strange chemicals. ‘…unless it’s like some…invisible drug or some shit…’ Rico thought grimly, swallowing hard as he shook the device to make sure there really wasn’t anything in there.

“…anyone comin’ baby?” Rico whispered, not daring to take his eyes off the blood sampler.

Carina meanwhile peeked out of the corner, and out of the door. A pair of men walked by, talking loudly to each other, and in general just "having a good time" as they joked. One of them however let out a rather large belch as he passed. "Shouldn'ta ate that damn food they made, looked like shit on a plate..." He muttered, his friend roaring laughing as the rushed sound of boots hitting metal deck plate could be heard as the man with the stomach issues ran towards the latrine. Thankfully, Carina had made a shooing gesture to Rico during this, and the girl hid behind the bulkhead.

Rico immediately hit the floor when he saw Carina’s gesture. In the hurried process, he knocked his head on the corner of one of the cargo containers. ”Fffffffffffffffffffffffff!” Rico hissed, wincing and holding his forehead with his free hand, belly-down on the cold deck.

"Just two big men walked by, papi...one got sick and ran...the other followed him. They're gone now." Carina whispered, still using the fatherly honorific on Rico as she looked to him, then peeked back out.

“Yeah…great…” Rico groaned as he sat up, rubbing the afflicted area of his head vigorously. After a minute or two Rico moved out of sight behind some crates and hopped up onto one of the larger ones, out of sight from the front of the room near the bulkhead doors. “Aight sweetheart, over here, we’ll do this quick an’ get the hell outta here,” Rico called Carina softly from his lofted position.

The girl blinked slightly at her father's acrobatics, but nodded along to his command. After all, it was one of the rules he'd said to follow, and to trust him on. Carina soon peeked around the door again, seeing no one, she promptly trotted towards his position, careful to keep her footfalls as silent as possible until she came up on where Rico was. She was...well, short, standing at a mere four feet, and some odd inches, and held her arms out for him to lift her up.

Rico stared down blankly at her…he had no idea what she was doing. “…what? What’s that mean?” he said, eyes narrowed inquisitively.

Carina couldn't believe her father didn't know. The girl repeated the gesture, and whispered. "Lift me up."

“Ooooohhhhh…” Rico said, nodding slightly at the realization. Instead of doing as she asked, however, Rico grinned down at her slyly. “Try an’ get up here yourself. Common.”

Carina made a sound of small protest at this. She gave her father a slight pout, but nodded glumly. The girl looked around her, noting all the cargo containers around her father were taller then she was. The girl frowned at this, and looked behind her, finding a small plastic container. Carina walked over to it, and scooted it over to one of the cargo containers, and climbed on top, and having to "hop" to get a leg up on one of the containers, and managed to climb up on one, then one of the lower ones until she managed to get to her father's side.

’Heh, it’s like havin’ a pet that actually does what I say,’ Rico mused silently to himself, grinning widely as he watched Carina’s antics. “Alriiiiight, now,” Rico said, holding up the blood drawing device. “Hold out yer arm, gotta get a bit a’ your blood for the pretty captain.”

Carina looked at the needle, her eyes rather wide. It wasn't so much the whole syringe, but that pointy metal bit...oh, she knew it hurt, and had the child's fear of it. Carina shrinked back a little from it and made a little sound of protest. "But...I don't like those papi...they hurt..." She said nervously.

“Hmm…” Rico said, leaning back a bit as he watched his daughters reaction. Her reaction was expected, in a sense; Rico, like any little boy at her age, had the same fear of syringes…but over time he had grown calloused against the fear. “Yep, needles do kinda suck,” Rico said before quickly reaching out without warning, grasped her arm, set the needle in and hit the trigger. Almost immediately, the syringe began filling with the crimson fluid. After the container was half-full, Rico pulled back and snapped the device off again.

Carina had not been fast enough to react, and bucked as the needle pierced her tanned skin, making her squeal in panic, fear, and the pain. After it was over, she cradled her arm to her, making little sounds as she drew ragged breaths due to being so surprised and scared at the same time.

Rico flicked the little glass vial, the small red payload jiggling behind its confines with each strike. He hoped that this would be enough, while simultaneously hoping that there was still some food left at the mess. “Well, wasn’t so bad, right sugar?” Rico said, hopping down from the elevated cargo container, landing with a heavy thud against the metal deck with a grunt. After carefully removing the vial, Rico haphazardly tossed the syringe device back into the canister and turned back around, lightly tossing the small crimson-covered glass in one hand as she smiled back up at Carina. “Aight then, ya hungry sweet cheeks? Let’s bounce.”

Carina just looked at the man warily as she nursed her arm, but nodded. "Can you pick me up and put me down, papi? Please?" She asked.

That sly little grin slinked back onto Rico’s face upon hearing Carina’s request. The suave Nepleslia quickly stuck out his foot and scooted the little plastic box Carina had used to get up onto the crate out of the way and stepped back a few paces. “Ya got up there, you can get down.”

Carina huffed. "You stuck me in my arm, and scared me." She said puffing out her cheeks, and giving her father a stern look and pout as she brought these things up in a retort. She did however keep cradling her arm for emphasis, and her knees still shook slightly from the surprise and fear.

Rico simply crossed his arms and started tapping his foot. “Better hurry up or I’ll leave without ya,” he joked with a falsely stern glare.

"Miss Esther would be mad if you did." Carina countered with a huff as she tried to get down, and nearly slipped due having the one arm to use, the other ached something fierce, before catching herself, and was still standing up there.

Rico’s actions came naturally, for the most part; most of his childhood was spent fending for himself anyway, and he turned out alright for the most part. The Nepleslian sergeant started to walk slowly towards the cargo bay door. “Alright then, I’ll catch ya later Carina,” he said casually, keeping his ears wide open for her next amusing (to himself, perhaps) reaction.

Carina huffed again. "I'll tell Miss Esther on you!" She said, in a loud, intentional voice.

By this time, Rico had reached the doorway, but seeing as Carina’s view of the entrance itself was blocked by more freight containers, Rico didn’t actually leave the room…simply ducked out of sight. “Bye bye, Carinaaaa…” Rico let his voice fade as if he were actually leaving into the hall, trying his hardest to resist the enormous snicker he had building up.

Naturally, the girl thought Rico owed her this much, after all, he had stuck her in the arm, made her scared, and was mean about it. So, she merely sat there, her legs hanging off the side of the container, moving back and forth as they made little 'bang bang bang' sounds that reverberated in the cargo bay.

Rico, perched silently just out of sight, waited with anticipation at what the little girl would do. ’Probably start cryin’ or some shit,’ Rico thought, obviously enjoying the mean-spirited game he had started. However, he heard no crying or so much as a whimper…just little taps against the side of the crate. Rico decided to wait a little longer.

Soon, the little taps progressed into louder "bangs" that reverberated in the cargo bay, making loud echoes.

The seargent, after another minute or two of listening to the soft tapping amplify itself around the cargo room, finally slinked up to the side of the crate and peeked around. Sure enough, the sound was coming from a very calm and obviously very bored Carina. At first, Rico was a bit disappointed; that wasn’t the reaction he was anticipating at all. As far as he knew, all little girls did was cry…and yet, at the same time, Rico realized that her stubbornness in itself was something he could relate to. After all…he was pretty stubborn himself. At first, he had actually considered leaving her…but then, he recalled her last few words…

"Miss Esther would be mad if you did."

Click to expand...

"I'll tell Miss Esther on you!"

Click to expand...

Rico had to admit it; the kid made some very valid threats. He had to keep this little twerp entertained long enough to have her dropped off onto Nepleslia…and getting told on wasn’t going to help that at all. Perhaps it was time to sweeten the deal and make sure these little threats were forgotten. Just for now, anyway.

Quietly, Rico squatted and snuck silently against the large crate Carina was perched on, hoping that her attention was elsewhere in the room. He continued to creep along the side of the container until he was directly below Carina’s tiny feet, watching them bang harshly against the crate with a slick, conniving grin.

Carina continued to sit there, her feet banging against the container, her eyes looking at one dead ahead labeled "Flammable Materials" which, more then likely contained contraband of some sort. She didn't notice her father down below her at the time.

“CHOOOOOOOAAAAAHHHH!” Rico yelled nonsensically, and in one quick motion, leaped up and twisted to face Carina, plucking her up from underneath her arms. When the two hit the ground again, Rico raised her back up and twirled her around in circles…but in such a closed confined space, this action was not without its faults. After a few spins, a small container struck him in the shin. Rico’s face immediately lit back up in a wince, and he quickly set Carina down, knelt over and began rigorously rubbing his lower leg, hissing the same “FFFFFFFFFfffffffffffffffff…” as from before.

Carina, had once again been surprised by her father, and gave a startled squeak at being so suddenly picked up, and at the sound. When he twirled her around, she felt dizzy yes...but it was, well...fun to her so, she giggled as her father then hit his shin and was now rubbing his leg she giggled again, and smiled at him. "I knew you wouldn't leave me, papi." She said, going from how she'd acted earlier to more like her affectionate self, as the girl spoke those words it was obvious she believed them.

Rico looked up from his bruised shin (only slightly trumping his bruised ego) and met Carina on an eye-to-eye level and breathed a short little laugh. “Yeeeah, Daddy ain’t so good at leavin’ a young lady in distress. I, uh, guess this lil’ knick here,” Rico said, rubbing his shin again. “…makes us even?”

Carina looked from where she'd been perched, to where she was now, and Rico having stuck her in the arm, and now his shin being bruised. To her, it was a slight bonus, even more so since he'd actually been playing with her, by spinning her about. "Yeah Papi, we're even now..." She said before giving him a light hug, remembering his past distress.

“Hell yeah,” Rico said as he stood back up and ruffled Carina’s hair while attentively running his other hand through his own. “Let’s go get some slop, I’m fuckin’ starved.”

"Could say that." Ran said in response to Fian's question, if it indeed was meant for him. "Where did you go, anyway? I was wondering where you and...whats his name, Rico, was during the Kennewes Offensive." Ran took this opportunity to take a long drag of his cigarette, letting the smoke collect and burn in his throat, and slowly releasing it through his nostrils. "You missed a real trip last mission." Ran looked to the side to see Adrian sit down next to him, prompting him to start exhaling his cigarette smoke to the other side.

"Adrian here, as well as a couple others, got pretty fucked up as I recall." Ran looked down to take another drag from his cigarette, and found the burning end to be well past his pointer and middle finger, leaving a dark smudge on his metallic fingers.

"Fucking caretakers. I can't believe that the military pays these fucks to make that slop." The Chief then went back to his whiskey/coffee, aiming to get a little buzzed before this next mission starts.

((Writing a novel, are we?))

Viktor had little he could say to that, but listened with interest and an ever-burning curiosity. He had to admit that he truly wished to experience the effects first-hand; however, he wasn't interested in the least to put himself in front of a hail of bullets just to do it. For now, here's to hoping I DON'T experience it...

When Autumn finished her explanation, Viktor merely nodded. "Well that shouldn't be too hard, should it? After all, the only things they had to change were physical, correct? And... sorry about your friends." Then again, what did Viktor know of psychology or any of those fields? It was certainly possible that she couldn't "become herself" again... At least, it seemed feasible. Maybe Viktor was just an ignorant soldier, despite his efforts to bury his nose in the books.

He certainly was ignorant of people. Why? I read too damn much; I don't talk... much; and I certainly don't get out.

"Mate, I don't recall anything about last night. Except something about..." Adrian scratched his chin, thinking. "Something about pants. Well, clothes in general, really. There was yelling, and some girl, or a cop, or something... Maybe both. I think you were there, Chief."

Autumn leaned forward in her seat as she looked at Viktor as he asked his questions. She hadn't expected this line of questioning but she was never opposed to any sort of conversation. "Hmm... I guess you could say that. It's weird to be whole again, to hear my own voice and shit, to be a virgin again. It's all things I have to get used to and remedy," she said rather calmly with a smile. "I truthfully, kinda miss my scars, I thought of them like souvenirs of my childhood."