After the tram incident...
After returning to the barracks, Tweak turned in her uniform and armor plating. It was barely used, really, but it was protocol.
She was wearing long shorts and a tee under the uniform, along with her customary knit cap over her head, hiding her ears. The sleeves on the shirt reaching her elbows so the heat sinks on her arms were well-concealed, not that anyone was around to see her. Most of the team was still being debriefed; her session was finished earlier because she had little to tell, having arrived at the tail end of the debacle.
Hopping up to her bunk, Tweak grabbed her over-sized bomber jacket and her journal along with her writing stuff, then paused as she started to exit her bunk.
Ahhhh... What a day... thought Kokuten as he dumped in armor into the Pneumo. His body ached, and he could feel that his arms were in need of a tune-up after all the rough and tumble. Though, it wasn't him to just collapse and pout, so he strolled on off to his bunk and collapsed there instead, letting off a small groan. For a few seconds he just stared upwards, trying to decide on whether to take a nap or assemble a report based on the debriefing session earlier. His eyes flickered on and off, and he slowly began to close his eyes.
That report's going to bite me in the ass later, I know it. was a thought that shook the man awake again. He opened his eyes and scratched his chest, which was adorned with green tank that had MARINE emblazoned across the chest. He fiddled with his double strap belt, which rested over some large cargos. He pulled his datajockey out, and with his bare feet hanging off the bunk, began tacking a report away.
Tweak's head tilted a bit as she shifted vision modes to watch Kokuten. He didn't seem to know she was there, or care that anyone else was in the barracks. Not entirely surprising, considering how many people shared the small, cramped space. So she stayed quiet, waiting for him to do what he was going to do. When he lay down she frowned, wanting to get out of the room before everyone else returned.
She watched him for a minute or two, then decded to go and hope he didn't care. She silently dropped to the floor and headed for the door, the only sound of her exit being the whoosh of the door opening and closing. Her pencil dropped out of the pouch she carried her utensils in, the sound dampened as the door closed before it hit the deck.
Kokuten's eyes brightened a moment as he was made aware of someone's presence. He sat up at an angle, not to hit the bunk above him and caught the sight of someone leaving the barracks. At the time, he wasn't necessarily bothered by it, though it was strange how someone kept so quiet. He shrugged, and was about to lay back down until he noticed a small pencil rolling across the floor, away from the door. The Medic stared at it as it moved, idly gliding over the flat space, as if it had no care in the world.
Hm, looks as if they dropped something... Kokuten thought, his eyes brightening up to show a renewed vigour within him. He slid off his bunk and jogged over to the writing stick, picked it up and shuffled through the door. Might as well give it back...
That's when he spotted Tweak, as he stepped out. Of course! Who else except the reclusive Freespacer would slip past Kokuten's awareness? Though, the fact that he hadn't seen her also nagged at him, not seeing one of his own squad.
"Tweak!" Kokuten called out to her, a metal hand cupping the side of his mouth.
The LEDs around the crown of Tweak's cap twinkled as she moved down the hallway, moving with amazing silence in the thick-soled work shoes she wore when out of uniform. She was almost out of range of the door when Kokuten's shout made her stop.
"Ah! You dropped something!" The Captain jogged over to the halted Spacer, pencil in hand. He was glad had been able to catch her, and as he stopped in front of her, he offered up the item to her, his usual closed-mouth smile decorating his face. If she caught it, she might have noticed that one of his eyes left the focus of the other to look up at her hat, then promptly rejoined the other eye on her.
Tweak mechanically took the pencil from him. For some reason she wasn't looking at him. Instead, she nodded her head toward him while mouthing a thank-you before walking away, tucking the pencil into its pouch. Beneath the fringe of green hair that was pressed against her forehead by her hat, her eyes were wide as she tried to keep from bolting. This was a sharp contrast to her on-task behavior during the tram incident and a lot more like the nervous neko he had originally met on the Alliance over a year ago.
Kokuten stared for a moment, not truly understanding why she seemed so reserved. On the tram, she was eight times more talkative that she was now, and definately more active. Though, what scratched at him the most was she seemed almost afraid, as if...
"Ah..." The Captain started, shuffling one of his feet, his eyes dying from a green to a greenish-blue, "You're not holding that incident on the Alliance against me, are you?" He ran a hand through his hair, almost feeling at fault for the reactions of both sides during that event. The first meeting between the Neps and the Spacers had been a shaky, and Tweak had gotten the shakiest end of it, if Kokuten had been remembering correctly. "If it means anything, Miss Tweak, I'm sorry for how that turned out for you, and your friends."
The Alliance? Her brain ran a search, which was slowed slightly by the process of using an external information source. Meanwhile she shook her head. "I don't," she said quietly. NSS Alliance...keyword found...Incident, First Contact, Freespacers and Nepleslians. There wasn't much detail to the record, and it ended with a note that more was stored on the crystalline tags on the cord around her neck, with a caution tag on it. Of course, cautions without reasons are just buttons asking to be pressed.
But not here. She continued walking, looking for somewhere to break off. But then she mentally frowned and stopped again, her nervous look fading into a thoughtful one. Wait, maybe this was an opportunity...
Her response seemed a little by the wayside, to Kokuten, as if she only said it to rid herself of him. While the man would have usually turned away and given her peace, he could only find himself standing there, staring. A confused look sprawled on his face as he tried to think of something to say, not wanting this dead air to remain.
"Is that truly how you feel?" Kokuten took a shot in the dark, "If you have any resentments, I'd like to hear them."
"It...I..." The question inturrupted her line of thought. She couldn't have any resentments. There was nothing to resent. Was there? For some reason, her Tactical mind began making a temporal model of resenting something after learning of it, and trying to logic out why everything could be fine before learning of something even though that something was being apologized for and/or already fine...
As it was doing that, Tweak was stuck on another problem. Her journal said no one knew of her species except Dream (the Freespacer she had met earlier that morning, but apparently was good friends with long before then), Deacon (who she had helped earlier), an artificial intelligence named "Kess" and another named "Mimi", and...and...She stopped that line, moving to another. Of those, Dream and the AIs knew of her memory condition. But, while her journal warned of telling anyone about what she was, there was nothing saying Tweak shouldn't tell about her memory, or lack of.
Why should I? If I tell the wrong person, they may try to manipulate me. On the other hand, if he really does know, then this could fill in what I don't know. Finally she reached a compromise. "I really don't remember much about it."
"You don't?" Kokuten's eyes blanched white with surprise, not expecting that answer whatsoever, especially after that long pause. He had expected her to perhaps explode on him, or run away, but to just push it in the back of her mind like it was nothing? That took strong mental resolve. He gained a look of concern as he went further. "How could you not? That had to be a traumatizing experience for you! But I do admire your ability to cope with such a thing. I half-expected you to hate all of us as a result."
"Hate...you?" This pushed Tweak's curiosity about the data on the tags even higher. Why would she be hiding information from herself, but still feel the need to record it at all? To Kokuten, she looked caught between startled, worried, and a little scared. "You have given me no reason to hate you since you joined the Squad-" That much was true, as far as her most recent records went. "-so...so consider yourself redeemed." Why was he worried about this now, anyway? "If I had a problem with you, I would have brought it up earlier." Now thoroughly confused and slightly paranoid, the neko turned to walk away again, but again stopped. She needed to make sure of something before leaving him. But what would be a safe place? "Follow me." She looked up at him, trying to hide her mixed thoughts as well as the conflict of wanting to get away from this situation while needing to continue the conversation a little longer. A little longer. Then I can be alone again.
"Ah... Okay!" Kokuten said in comforming tone, holding his hands up to enhance the message. He trailed behind the Freespacer, wondering exactly what she had in mind. Her responses seemed to have him extremely confused, despite the fact that she had said herself, it truly seemed as if she had no recollection whatsoever. Then again, it always seemed odd how the Freespacer always kept to herself, and never really responded all that much. To him, it always seemed she lived for the moment, especially in these tense situations the Squad had found themselves in. "If you don't mind me asking, where are we going?"
"Here." The two had arrived at a door that opened to the Freespacer shrine that Dream had created. It was the only place Tweak felt anything resembling safe, and where she knew there were no cameras or surveillance. Here they could talk. She took him by the wrist and pulled him inside, noting that Dream was gone and Flower was inactive (sleeping?) in a corner on a pile of items that may or may not have been junk. Once the door had shut behind them, Tweak turned and looked at Kokuten.
"What do you know about me?" she asked. Whether that question would be taken as an inquiry of curiosity or because the asker really didn't know was up to the Sergeant.
"You are Gearhead Tweak Three Seven." Kokuten started, looking up for a moment, his green eyes appeared to considering the ceiling as he tried to recollect a few things. He realized that the room was lacking the nearly omnipresent security cameras and figured that was why he was brought here. Since Cassefin wasn't watching, he wouldn't have to watch much of what he was saying. "We met in passing, a few times. First was when you appeared in front us when the away party first dispatched to your ship. It was quite suprising, mind you, we weren't expecting something like that. Later, I met again when you were heaving up some rather heavy weights with ease in a Neplelsian Recreation Room on the Alliance. I simply recommended you put it down as most of the Marines saw you as a threat." He chuckled a short moment, running his fingers through his hair again.
"You basically ignored me though." He shrugged with a weak smile, and started chuckling a little bit, "I wouldn't have blamed you though, Rico was about to shove a gun in your face. Though, later, you escaped off into the ship, causing mass-panic, especially when you attacked the AIR escort assigned to you."
She blinked at him. That fit with what she had, mostly. Some of it wasn't mentioned, but he hadn't shown any reason for her to distrust him. "Why did they see me as a threat? Why did--" She stopped herself and looked like she just wanted an answer to the first question.
"By the burning hand, you don't remember anything, do you?" Kokuten said in shock, his eyes brightening back up into that white color again. He looked away from her for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. One of his eyes would look in her direction before rejoining the other again. Was this amnesia? Some Freespacer condition? Did they scar her so horribly that she totally dumped that part of her life? The thought of it made a pit fall heavily in his stomach.
"Well... it was because... you looked like... a Neko." Kokuten said finally, able to look her straight in the face. His expression was a tad pained, his shy tone only making him appear much more uncomfortable.
So he does know. Tweak knew what she was, in detail, thanks to the file retrieval Dream had triggered that morning. She knew very little of the background of the species and culture that created her, though. But, if her kind really were mass-produced as soldiers, then they would be the only enemy that the Nepleslians would know, wouldn't they? If she had a gut, it would have been making its own knots. "The weapon has no intestines, her digestive system is hemotech-based, inside the DSR Organ, and thus she has a wide range of fuels she may choose to consume." In place of that, though, she simply felt tense.
Well, if he knew that, then he may as well know it all. And he seemed to genuinely feel bad. Tweak took a breath and let it out in a short sigh.
"No. I don't remember anything. I have never been able to remember anything, at least as long as I've been with the Freespacers," she said. Her voice was resigned, almost tired. "I don't remember the events you've described. I don't remember the ship that rescued me. I don't even remember yesterday. All I have is what I write down." A little hesitant, she held up her journal. "This is my memory," she said quietly.
That revelation silenced the Captain, such an explanation was unexpected, just because it seemed so... sad. Kokuten's eyes followed her journal for a moment before shaking his head. He shoved his face into his metal palm, the coolness of the material relaxing his facial muscles, until he ran his fingers through his hair once again. His hand pushed his head back, so he would face the ceiling with a heavy sigh. Well, Kokuten, don't you feel like a shit? Heh heh heh. he imagined Adrian saying to him.
"I..." the Staff Sergeant didn't seem to have much in the way of words, "This... must seem..." God dammit, why couldn't he think of something? He was always eloquent enough to people who had guns to his face, but when he gets a journal in his face, he floundered! "I am very sorry. I shouldn't have brought this up." Kokuten finally worked out, kow-towing slightly to the Spacer.
Tweak lowered the book. She hadn't intended him to take it, just to show it to him. "It's alright," she said slowly, watching him. For some reason seeing the staff sergeant flustered was amusing, but she kept a straight face. "You didn't...I think." The neko looked down at the ground a moment, then remembered why she wanted to bring him in here. "No one else here knows, though," she said quickly, then slowed herself down. "I mean, few do. Dream does. She's the druidess who made this shrine." She gestured at the room, which was decorated in a way only a Freespacer could concieve of. "I think a couple of the SavTechs know. Um...Mimi does, and another one named Kess, I think. Deacon knows I'm a neko, but not about my memory thing." Tweak looked up at Kokuten. "The first thing I was told this morning was to not tell anyone...which you already knew, so you don't count...because I will be in very deep trouble if Cassefin finds out. And I don't think anyone else here likes nekos, either." She looked down again, remembering reading about the Prilisa Four mission and the sentiments that had brought out.
"Well, you've nothing to fear for from me." Kokuten said, in a more reassured tone, he had finally gained more gumption to speak. "To me, you are a Gearhead of the Freespacers, not some thing you have little part of. Though you may not remember this, if anyone has a say otherwise, then I will support you. You don't deserve the scathing looks of others, you didn't deserve it on the Alliance, either." The Captain looked away again, swallowing deeply, and then heaving a sigh. To him, he really had no place saying such a thing, as he had done little to hold back his brothers on the Alliance when she had experienced this the first time.
"Duely noted." Tweak looked up at the medic and hazarded a smile before hugging her book to her chest. "Though I'll have to ask you forgive me if I don't remember," she added in an attempt at a wry joke to lighten the mood. Suddenly she felt shy again and looked down briefly before trying to meet his eyes again. "Well...I guess I have some writing to do," she said quietly. "Today's been rather busy."
"It has." Kokuten smiled, his green eyes recovering what brightness they had lost in the previous discussion. It made him glad he had cleared this whole mess up, even if it was something he had caused in the first place. The Staff Sergeant gave Tweak a short salute, before stepping off to the door, "You have a wonderful day, Miss Tweak."
Returning the salute, Tweak smiled and nodded. "You too, sir."
After returning to the barracks, Tweak turned in her uniform and armor plating. It was barely used, really, but it was protocol.
She was wearing long shorts and a tee under the uniform, along with her customary knit cap over her head, hiding her ears. The sleeves on the shirt reaching her elbows so the heat sinks on her arms were well-concealed, not that anyone was around to see her. Most of the team was still being debriefed; her session was finished earlier because she had little to tell, having arrived at the tail end of the debacle.
Hopping up to her bunk, Tweak grabbed her over-sized bomber jacket and her journal along with her writing stuff, then paused as she started to exit her bunk.
Ahhhh... What a day... thought Kokuten as he dumped in armor into the Pneumo. His body ached, and he could feel that his arms were in need of a tune-up after all the rough and tumble. Though, it wasn't him to just collapse and pout, so he strolled on off to his bunk and collapsed there instead, letting off a small groan. For a few seconds he just stared upwards, trying to decide on whether to take a nap or assemble a report based on the debriefing session earlier. His eyes flickered on and off, and he slowly began to close his eyes.
That report's going to bite me in the ass later, I know it. was a thought that shook the man awake again. He opened his eyes and scratched his chest, which was adorned with green tank that had MARINE emblazoned across the chest. He fiddled with his double strap belt, which rested over some large cargos. He pulled his datajockey out, and with his bare feet hanging off the bunk, began tacking a report away.
Tweak's head tilted a bit as she shifted vision modes to watch Kokuten. He didn't seem to know she was there, or care that anyone else was in the barracks. Not entirely surprising, considering how many people shared the small, cramped space. So she stayed quiet, waiting for him to do what he was going to do. When he lay down she frowned, wanting to get out of the room before everyone else returned.
She watched him for a minute or two, then decded to go and hope he didn't care. She silently dropped to the floor and headed for the door, the only sound of her exit being the whoosh of the door opening and closing. Her pencil dropped out of the pouch she carried her utensils in, the sound dampened as the door closed before it hit the deck.
Kokuten's eyes brightened a moment as he was made aware of someone's presence. He sat up at an angle, not to hit the bunk above him and caught the sight of someone leaving the barracks. At the time, he wasn't necessarily bothered by it, though it was strange how someone kept so quiet. He shrugged, and was about to lay back down until he noticed a small pencil rolling across the floor, away from the door. The Medic stared at it as it moved, idly gliding over the flat space, as if it had no care in the world.
Hm, looks as if they dropped something... Kokuten thought, his eyes brightening up to show a renewed vigour within him. He slid off his bunk and jogged over to the writing stick, picked it up and shuffled through the door. Might as well give it back...
That's when he spotted Tweak, as he stepped out. Of course! Who else except the reclusive Freespacer would slip past Kokuten's awareness? Though, the fact that he hadn't seen her also nagged at him, not seeing one of his own squad.
"Tweak!" Kokuten called out to her, a metal hand cupping the side of his mouth.
The LEDs around the crown of Tweak's cap twinkled as she moved down the hallway, moving with amazing silence in the thick-soled work shoes she wore when out of uniform. She was almost out of range of the door when Kokuten's shout made her stop.
"Ah! You dropped something!" The Captain jogged over to the halted Spacer, pencil in hand. He was glad had been able to catch her, and as he stopped in front of her, he offered up the item to her, his usual closed-mouth smile decorating his face. If she caught it, she might have noticed that one of his eyes left the focus of the other to look up at her hat, then promptly rejoined the other eye on her.
Tweak mechanically took the pencil from him. For some reason she wasn't looking at him. Instead, she nodded her head toward him while mouthing a thank-you before walking away, tucking the pencil into its pouch. Beneath the fringe of green hair that was pressed against her forehead by her hat, her eyes were wide as she tried to keep from bolting. This was a sharp contrast to her on-task behavior during the tram incident and a lot more like the nervous neko he had originally met on the Alliance over a year ago.
Kokuten stared for a moment, not truly understanding why she seemed so reserved. On the tram, she was eight times more talkative that she was now, and definately more active. Though, what scratched at him the most was she seemed almost afraid, as if...
"Ah..." The Captain started, shuffling one of his feet, his eyes dying from a green to a greenish-blue, "You're not holding that incident on the Alliance against me, are you?" He ran a hand through his hair, almost feeling at fault for the reactions of both sides during that event. The first meeting between the Neps and the Spacers had been a shaky, and Tweak had gotten the shakiest end of it, if Kokuten had been remembering correctly. "If it means anything, Miss Tweak, I'm sorry for how that turned out for you, and your friends."
The Alliance? Her brain ran a search, which was slowed slightly by the process of using an external information source. Meanwhile she shook her head. "I don't," she said quietly. NSS Alliance...keyword found...Incident, First Contact, Freespacers and Nepleslians. There wasn't much detail to the record, and it ended with a note that more was stored on the crystalline tags on the cord around her neck, with a caution tag on it. Of course, cautions without reasons are just buttons asking to be pressed.
But not here. She continued walking, looking for somewhere to break off. But then she mentally frowned and stopped again, her nervous look fading into a thoughtful one. Wait, maybe this was an opportunity...
Her response seemed a little by the wayside, to Kokuten, as if she only said it to rid herself of him. While the man would have usually turned away and given her peace, he could only find himself standing there, staring. A confused look sprawled on his face as he tried to think of something to say, not wanting this dead air to remain.
"Is that truly how you feel?" Kokuten took a shot in the dark, "If you have any resentments, I'd like to hear them."
"It...I..." The question inturrupted her line of thought. She couldn't have any resentments. There was nothing to resent. Was there? For some reason, her Tactical mind began making a temporal model of resenting something after learning of it, and trying to logic out why everything could be fine before learning of something even though that something was being apologized for and/or already fine...
As it was doing that, Tweak was stuck on another problem. Her journal said no one knew of her species except Dream (the Freespacer she had met earlier that morning, but apparently was good friends with long before then), Deacon (who she had helped earlier), an artificial intelligence named "Kess" and another named "Mimi", and...and...She stopped that line, moving to another. Of those, Dream and the AIs knew of her memory condition. But, while her journal warned of telling anyone about what she was, there was nothing saying Tweak shouldn't tell about her memory, or lack of.
Why should I? If I tell the wrong person, they may try to manipulate me. On the other hand, if he really does know, then this could fill in what I don't know. Finally she reached a compromise. "I really don't remember much about it."
"You don't?" Kokuten's eyes blanched white with surprise, not expecting that answer whatsoever, especially after that long pause. He had expected her to perhaps explode on him, or run away, but to just push it in the back of her mind like it was nothing? That took strong mental resolve. He gained a look of concern as he went further. "How could you not? That had to be a traumatizing experience for you! But I do admire your ability to cope with such a thing. I half-expected you to hate all of us as a result."
"Hate...you?" This pushed Tweak's curiosity about the data on the tags even higher. Why would she be hiding information from herself, but still feel the need to record it at all? To Kokuten, she looked caught between startled, worried, and a little scared. "You have given me no reason to hate you since you joined the Squad-" That much was true, as far as her most recent records went. "-so...so consider yourself redeemed." Why was he worried about this now, anyway? "If I had a problem with you, I would have brought it up earlier." Now thoroughly confused and slightly paranoid, the neko turned to walk away again, but again stopped. She needed to make sure of something before leaving him. But what would be a safe place? "Follow me." She looked up at him, trying to hide her mixed thoughts as well as the conflict of wanting to get away from this situation while needing to continue the conversation a little longer. A little longer. Then I can be alone again.
"Ah... Okay!" Kokuten said in comforming tone, holding his hands up to enhance the message. He trailed behind the Freespacer, wondering exactly what she had in mind. Her responses seemed to have him extremely confused, despite the fact that she had said herself, it truly seemed as if she had no recollection whatsoever. Then again, it always seemed odd how the Freespacer always kept to herself, and never really responded all that much. To him, it always seemed she lived for the moment, especially in these tense situations the Squad had found themselves in. "If you don't mind me asking, where are we going?"
"Here." The two had arrived at a door that opened to the Freespacer shrine that Dream had created. It was the only place Tweak felt anything resembling safe, and where she knew there were no cameras or surveillance. Here they could talk. She took him by the wrist and pulled him inside, noting that Dream was gone and Flower was inactive (sleeping?) in a corner on a pile of items that may or may not have been junk. Once the door had shut behind them, Tweak turned and looked at Kokuten.
"What do you know about me?" she asked. Whether that question would be taken as an inquiry of curiosity or because the asker really didn't know was up to the Sergeant.
"You are Gearhead Tweak Three Seven." Kokuten started, looking up for a moment, his green eyes appeared to considering the ceiling as he tried to recollect a few things. He realized that the room was lacking the nearly omnipresent security cameras and figured that was why he was brought here. Since Cassefin wasn't watching, he wouldn't have to watch much of what he was saying. "We met in passing, a few times. First was when you appeared in front us when the away party first dispatched to your ship. It was quite suprising, mind you, we weren't expecting something like that. Later, I met again when you were heaving up some rather heavy weights with ease in a Neplelsian Recreation Room on the Alliance. I simply recommended you put it down as most of the Marines saw you as a threat." He chuckled a short moment, running his fingers through his hair again.
"You basically ignored me though." He shrugged with a weak smile, and started chuckling a little bit, "I wouldn't have blamed you though, Rico was about to shove a gun in your face. Though, later, you escaped off into the ship, causing mass-panic, especially when you attacked the AIR escort assigned to you."
She blinked at him. That fit with what she had, mostly. Some of it wasn't mentioned, but he hadn't shown any reason for her to distrust him. "Why did they see me as a threat? Why did--" She stopped herself and looked like she just wanted an answer to the first question.
"By the burning hand, you don't remember anything, do you?" Kokuten said in shock, his eyes brightening back up into that white color again. He looked away from her for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. One of his eyes would look in her direction before rejoining the other again. Was this amnesia? Some Freespacer condition? Did they scar her so horribly that she totally dumped that part of her life? The thought of it made a pit fall heavily in his stomach.
"Well... it was because... you looked like... a Neko." Kokuten said finally, able to look her straight in the face. His expression was a tad pained, his shy tone only making him appear much more uncomfortable.
So he does know. Tweak knew what she was, in detail, thanks to the file retrieval Dream had triggered that morning. She knew very little of the background of the species and culture that created her, though. But, if her kind really were mass-produced as soldiers, then they would be the only enemy that the Nepleslians would know, wouldn't they? If she had a gut, it would have been making its own knots. "The weapon has no intestines, her digestive system is hemotech-based, inside the DSR Organ, and thus she has a wide range of fuels she may choose to consume." In place of that, though, she simply felt tense.
Well, if he knew that, then he may as well know it all. And he seemed to genuinely feel bad. Tweak took a breath and let it out in a short sigh.
"No. I don't remember anything. I have never been able to remember anything, at least as long as I've been with the Freespacers," she said. Her voice was resigned, almost tired. "I don't remember the events you've described. I don't remember the ship that rescued me. I don't even remember yesterday. All I have is what I write down." A little hesitant, she held up her journal. "This is my memory," she said quietly.
That revelation silenced the Captain, such an explanation was unexpected, just because it seemed so... sad. Kokuten's eyes followed her journal for a moment before shaking his head. He shoved his face into his metal palm, the coolness of the material relaxing his facial muscles, until he ran his fingers through his hair once again. His hand pushed his head back, so he would face the ceiling with a heavy sigh. Well, Kokuten, don't you feel like a shit? Heh heh heh. he imagined Adrian saying to him.
"I..." the Staff Sergeant didn't seem to have much in the way of words, "This... must seem..." God dammit, why couldn't he think of something? He was always eloquent enough to people who had guns to his face, but when he gets a journal in his face, he floundered! "I am very sorry. I shouldn't have brought this up." Kokuten finally worked out, kow-towing slightly to the Spacer.
Tweak lowered the book. She hadn't intended him to take it, just to show it to him. "It's alright," she said slowly, watching him. For some reason seeing the staff sergeant flustered was amusing, but she kept a straight face. "You didn't...I think." The neko looked down at the ground a moment, then remembered why she wanted to bring him in here. "No one else here knows, though," she said quickly, then slowed herself down. "I mean, few do. Dream does. She's the druidess who made this shrine." She gestured at the room, which was decorated in a way only a Freespacer could concieve of. "I think a couple of the SavTechs know. Um...Mimi does, and another one named Kess, I think. Deacon knows I'm a neko, but not about my memory thing." Tweak looked up at Kokuten. "The first thing I was told this morning was to not tell anyone...which you already knew, so you don't count...because I will be in very deep trouble if Cassefin finds out. And I don't think anyone else here likes nekos, either." She looked down again, remembering reading about the Prilisa Four mission and the sentiments that had brought out.
"Well, you've nothing to fear for from me." Kokuten said, in a more reassured tone, he had finally gained more gumption to speak. "To me, you are a Gearhead of the Freespacers, not some thing you have little part of. Though you may not remember this, if anyone has a say otherwise, then I will support you. You don't deserve the scathing looks of others, you didn't deserve it on the Alliance, either." The Captain looked away again, swallowing deeply, and then heaving a sigh. To him, he really had no place saying such a thing, as he had done little to hold back his brothers on the Alliance when she had experienced this the first time.
"Duely noted." Tweak looked up at the medic and hazarded a smile before hugging her book to her chest. "Though I'll have to ask you forgive me if I don't remember," she added in an attempt at a wry joke to lighten the mood. Suddenly she felt shy again and looked down briefly before trying to meet his eyes again. "Well...I guess I have some writing to do," she said quietly. "Today's been rather busy."
"It has." Kokuten smiled, his green eyes recovering what brightness they had lost in the previous discussion. It made him glad he had cleared this whole mess up, even if it was something he had caused in the first place. The Staff Sergeant gave Tweak a short salute, before stepping off to the door, "You have a wonderful day, Miss Tweak."
Returning the salute, Tweak smiled and nodded. "You too, sir."
