RP: YSS Eucharis [Post Mission 20] Back on Hanako's World

Passageway

Kale gave one last low glare at the quartermaster before dashing off after the science officer. "Chi-san I think you forgot our other colleague in red." he commented with a smile as he caught up with her. He wondered where the other technician was, time was starting to drag on a little and it was coming up to a quarter hour past the meeting time. Inwardly he shrugged. She would get there when she got there.

He stopped and glanced back at the meeting point. Still no technician.

Passageway

Chieko landed on the bottom of the passageway with a pinging clop, just in time to get Natsumi's message. She nodded in confirmation - though the theoretical intended recipient wouldn't have seen it - then looked up to see Kale on his way down.

"It seems Yamashiro-Hei has the situation under control," the scientist called back to him, "As for Lansky-san, I'm not leaving without her - that would be incredibly rude. Had the Joto-Hei not been able to keep Sienna from getting lost, my worry would be to help track her down, not leaving for the mall without everyone."

The academic smiled as her target made it down to her level, "So, shall we go check on her?"

Cargo Bay

"I feel guilty taking something from you when you have so little left. It is not necessary to give me anything in return for transporting you," Hanako politely protested to the Che merchant. Nevertheless, Hanako's culture dictated that to turn down a gift was rude and she accepted the meat with both hands. Hanako then took a moment to direct one of her her crew. "Victory, could you please hitch the cart to the light utility truck?" Turning back to Haka, she asked the merchant, "How shall we prepare this Shing?"

Victory used some chains to rig the cart up to the sling-load rings on the back of the light truck so it could be towed.

Between parking and the Eucharis.

With a nod Misato started walking towards the ship, she at least knew what stance she needed to have when dealing with this situation. Not that she wanted to deal with it, but with rank came responsibility. As she approached the cargo ramp she took a deep breath and started up it. She asked Charisma where Mitsuko was. Once she had the answer she made her way there leading Takeyu.

Cargo Bay

Mitsuko felt she had given it enough time. She continued on her way, heading to exit through the Cargo Bay. It was strange, seeing it so empty. The wide open space was unsettling. It also made it easy for her to spot Hanako, Victory and the alien, although she did her best to give them room to work. Heading for the ramp, she found Misato and Takeyu heading her way in return. Her initial reaction was to smile at the sight of her roommate, almost giggling at her outfit, before she composed herself. Giving a slight bow to the two officers, she came to a halt, waiting to hear what they wanted to say.

Cargo Bay

Takeyu had followed Misato and had decided that for now to let her take over to see how she handled things; when he noticed Hanako he only gave the Shosho a curt bow of the head - which was out of character for him considering he's always given Hanako a full bow out of respect both for her rank and her position but also due to who she was.

The Taii stepped off to the side and looked at Misato.

Cargo Bay.

Misato wasn't smiling when she saw Mitsuko, just the opposite. "We have a problem. i watched a bit of footage of what you did to and said to Sienna Shelton. What were you thinking? Do you realize that you not only made your self look bad but the Sho'sho', the ship and the Empire?" She stood there staring at Mitsuko wishing she could have done this in privet. She could have used a bit harsher and descriptive language she had picked up from Bors over the past few years.

Cabin 5

Alone in her cabin, Deziarra considered the possibilities. She took some time looking over her belonging. Her mind began to wander. Thoughts about past, present, and future came to her one right after the other keeping her focus away from the actual time and what she needed to do. Suddenly, she realized the time. As she ran out of her cabin, she did not even have time to look at Kale's message, much less reply to it.


Passageway

Deziarra came running up, out of breath. After Chieko and Kale allowed her to accompany them, she had let them down. She was disappointed with herself.

"Sorry about that," she stammered.

She looked at Kale's message with further embarrassment.

Cargo Bay

Mitsuko was frowning too, after that. "I just told her she'd like it here, she'd fit in here. Better than on the ship."

Cargo Bay

Misato was dumbfounded. "Yeah you did in one of the rudest manners available to you. On top of that the way you acted when you were talking to Yamashiro Pushing Miss. Shelton out of the way and then trying to exclude her. I understand you don't like her but keep it to yourself." She stood there trying to make clear what was wrong with all of this. "She is a guest of the ship, the Shosho gave her Asylum on this ship. And has as much right to be here as you or I, well even more so, her invitation was from the Shosho not from personnel."

With a sigh she continued "Did you not realize that Yamashiro were friends with Miss. Shelton. She has been trying to make her feel like she belonged, and you went and tried to destroy all of that for both of them. How would you like it if Shelton did that to you and or me?" She frowned at herself realizing that maybe Mitsuko did do it to the two of them. There was now a wedge between them, rank and now this conversation. It truly hurt her deeply, and Misato fought tooth and nail to keep from tearing up.

Cargo Bay

Mitsuko's frown evolved into a full on pout as Misato continued to rebuke her. "I didn't push her," she grumbled quietly. "I don't know why Yamashiro-Hei would want to be friends with her." It simply didn't make any sense to her. "And she's already trying to turn us against each other. See? On top of her....her...heckling." The Neko had to search for a term to describe Sienna's frequent Wardroom remarks.

Cargo Bay

Takeyu caught the slight movement of Misato's face and decided to speak up, he didn't want her to get anymore upset. "Joto Hei," The Taii spoke up, his arms folded and glancing briefly over at the far wall before glancing back at Mitsuko. "Her heckling is an issue, but its something that can be ignored. She's a civilian and doesn't understand how we do things, but she's also a guest onboard the ship and we should never make a guest feel uncomfortable."

Passage

"Uhh sorry Chi-san. Didn't mean to presume." Kale said scratching the back of his neck."

Hearing the incoming human shaped projectile he turned around.

"Hey Zi" Kale greeted giving a wave and a grin. As the other tech jogged up to the pair.

Noticing the other technicians expression and catching her apology, his smile faded somewhat as he wondered what she was apologising for. It took several seconds for the other shoe to drop. "Oh not to worry, not to worry. Looks like we will be having liberal amounts of time on our hands before long. Come on I took a little look on the local network. Seems this area has some good views and one hell of a mall. You can get anything from clothes to guns to sushi there."

Kale brought up a map on his datapad and showed it to the girls. There were several scenic spots highlighted in yellow. The mall entrance was marked with red and a little arrow showed their current position

"So, where to first?"

Passage

"It doesn't matter to me," said Deziarra taking some deep breaths until she started breathing normally again.

Despite being born as a young adult, she did not have as much life experience as the Minkans. Perhaps later she would pick a place she wanted to go, but for the time being she would let them show her what life had to offer. After all she could not form an opinion about things she did not know about.

In Front of the Hotel

Sienna was again struck dumb by the overwhelming luxury and seemingly excessive service at the hotel that Hanako had provided for the crew. She didn't even have to open her own cab door; a fit-looking Yamataian youth had scrambled from the ornate glass doors at the front of the towering, majestic hotel building and quickly had opened it for her with a deep bow, as if afraid she'd kick him in the teeth if he wasn't fast enough. Another one was at her side no later than her feet even touched the pavement of the road that even looked polished to a reflective shine. Before she realized what was happening, the second one was trying to take her backpack from her, impeded by the death grip she maintained on it, and only backed off when she gave him an icy stare that dared him to challenge her.

From what Sienna could tell, Natsumi seemed rather at ease with the hotel staff and servants fawning over them, but the whole production was making her uncomfortable. Even if Hanako was a local celebrity whose name was on the bill, she still wasn't sure how to react to all of the attention that she was receiving, and she knew it had to be obvious. Walking around the cab, she quickly caught up to Natsumi and stayed near her, giving all of the servants who bowed to her an obligatory, tight-lipped smile, hugging her meager belongings tightly to her abdomen in a guarded, viselike grip, and sternly refusing any who insisted on helping her carry it.

Following Natsumi through the big glass doors, she was awestruck by the glittering majesty of the entryway; no words she had could describe what she saw, nor could she imagine in her wildest dreams how she had been fortunate enough to land in the lap of such wasteful, excessive decadence.

Hotel

Natsumi grinned as they got into the hotel. The place was beyond anything she had expected. She was as shocked to see what hotel they were going to be staying in as Sienna was, though she managed to contain it a bit better since she had at least seen places like this before. She lead them over to the front desk and checked them in, the reservations were on file as expected and soon they were on their way up to their rooms.

Natsumi giggled a little at Sienna's protectiveness of her backpack. She understood why she was so protective of it and knew the bellhop must have been finding it a bit frustrating not to be able to carry it for Sienna, though Natsumi had been more than happy to turn over her own rolling case.

Their rooms were not far apart from each others and soon Natsumi had her keycard in hand and deposited her rolling case in hers. The place was big, comfortable and had an ocean view. The neko grinned and looked out on the sea beyond. How much fun it would be to go hit the beach, but she needed to get something nice to wear for Sune's dinner, which would be coming up soon enough. She tucked away her keycard with her KS card and locked her room as she left. She had her NSP tucked away under her dress too and decided she needed a purse or something to carry everything.

A moment later she was at Sienna's door and knocked. "Hey, Sienna. Want to go shopping and get nice things to wear to dinner tonight?" she asked through the closed wooden door.

Passageway

Chieko smiled when she heard Deziarra arrive; it was nice to see the party gather so quickly, even in light of the small incident. She looked over at Kales datapad and highlighted two of the places: one a small shopping centre a short distance from the base, the other a mall closer to the hotel.

"Those two were the ones I was primarily looking into, though your highly rated one looks interesting," the academic began pulling up the information in her field of view, "Getting us started may be the best thing to do with the less than six hours we have left. Perhaps we should do one of the two nearest us or our destination for the time being, then have our main course at the larger one tomorrow when we have the full day.

"Sound unreasonable?" the young woman asked with a smile.

Hotel

As Bors walked out of his room he noticed his normal roommate down the hall knocking on someone else's door.

"I was wondering when everyone would start showing up." He said as he casually made his way towards her. "You got a hot date already? Need someone to kick down this door for ya?"

Cargo Bay

"It is not difficult. I prefer using a hungi, but it may be cooked as though it were a steak, seared too." The alien replied, releasing the package to her.

It reached back into its cart and gently placed a second package on top. "You may coat or marinade it with this, or something else of your liking. It is a receptive meat."

With that the alien turned to the sprite fiddling with the front of its cart. "Please be careful with that."

Hotel - Sienna's Room

As the door gently swung closed on its own behind her, Sienna stood staring stupefied in the entrance to what was apparently her own hotel suite. Her jaw hung slack open, and her hand involuntarily relaxed, letting the bag holding everything she owned fall to the floor with a dull thud.

Inside the room just beyond the entryway, the ceiling rose high enough to easily accommodate three of her workshops on Urtullan stacked top to bottom. The light fixtures alone, each of them inlaid with glittering metals that could only be silver, looked like they were worth ten times what Sune had given her. Thick, rich-colored carpet spread from corner to corner throughout the room, and the furniture, constructed of sturdy, rich colored wood looked as if it had taken a team of twenty men to bring inside. One of the walls was a gigantic window that offered a breathtaking view of the ocean and its brilliant white beach, accented by the pure white clouds floating in an azure sky.

The bed in the center of the room was positively gargantuan, large enough for her and at least six other people to sleep comfortably and never even touch one another, and covered a thick, velvety comforter and more fluffy pillows than she had ever seen in one place. There was a nightstand on either side topped with ornate glass lamps, and a dresser that was taller than she was sat against the near wall.
To her right, through a short alcove, she noticed a bathroom of such splendor that it could only have been designed for a palace. An enormous bathtub inlaid with strategically placed water jets was in the center of the marble room, and mirrors lined the walls on all sides above a wrap-around cabinet complete with a funny looking dip that looked like some kind of desk, with a four-legged stool pushed up beneath it. Two deep sinks were set in the counter across from the door and ninety degrees around the room to the left, and a chandelier hung from the center of the ceiling inside.

And the palatial space expanding before her was reserved entirely for her.

Unable to contain herself any longer, a giddy, girlish squeak escaped from her as she literally jumped for joy. Bolting from the door, she sprinted across the room and leaped onto the bed face first, extending her arms to either side as the huge mattress gently cushioned her fall, oscillating her up and down a few times before finally bringing her to rest.

Rolling onto her back, she found herself laughing excitedly, and cuddled into the dozens of pillows that now surrounded her. She wrapped one of them up in her arms and squeezed it against her, taking a long, indulgent whiff of its laundered and perfumed fragrance. Now she knew how the other half lived.

She had only been revelling in her luxurious room for a moment when she heard a knock at the door, and Natsumi's voice calling from the other side. Part of her wanted to ignore her and just savor her unbelievable fortune, but somehow she felt like the best part of her stay here still laid ahead. Excitedly she bounced up from the bed, no doubt glowing on the inside and out, and almost found herself skipping along back to answer the door with a spring in her step.

When she pulled the door open, Natsumi would find her grinning from ear to ear, her hair slightly disshevelled and partially obscuring her eyes from rolling around in the covers and pillows. She didn't have to say anything to make it obvious that she was more than willing to see what else Natsumi had to show her.