RP: YSS Eucharis [Post-Mission 21] Kyoto Blues

Restaurant Table

Ayame smiled because if she was not smiling she would have had to point out exactly how distasteful her new crewmates were being. It was not like it was her fault she was so small in stature, she was exactly as she had been commissioned to be. She bowed to her new commanding officer again, using the time between the bow and the question to pretend that her new crewmates were not in fact crazy. “Thank you for your most gracious welcome, Ketsurui-shosho. This is, and I do beg your understanding and forgiveness, my permanent body until such a time as this body is deemed unsuitable for my duties.” She slowly descended to the table top, taking care to avoid anything on it as she bowed once more to the crew at large. “Please forgive my intrusion.”

And she did her level best to pretend this moment was not happening. She almost succeeded, what with all the shouting and leaping about and the almost choking these people engaged in. This was a real crew? Had they just… never seen a Nekovalkyrja her size before?

Ayame slid into an easy rest, hands folded delicately at her front as she looked about the table for somewhere feasible for her to sit. Perhaps she could ask someone to bring her a mug of some kind. A cheerful voice snapped her right out of that line of thought, and on instinct she bowed to that voice’s source. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Yamashiro-hei. I am… well. Thank you for asking. How are you upon this fine day?” Her voice was just as carefully controlled as always, calm and mellow in a way that hid her mood behind her placid smile. She spared a glance and another bow for the tall red Nekovalkyrja who forced her fellows back into their seats, grateful for the assist. “That is correct. I was manufactured as a Miniature Tennyo model.”

Restaurant Table

Aikiko sat down, having a slight smile on her face as the tiny Neko spoke with Yamashiro-hei. Eyes opened a bit wider than usual. This was very unusual that the Star Army had such or allowed something that small into the organization. Definitely anything that small wouldn’t be in the UOCPF. They had a minimum height allowance and she barely made it by 5 inches. And if what she had told the Shosho correctly that the tiny Neko was the ship’s Medic, no wonder why Yamatai made millions of the more normal sized Nekos.

Aikiko waved for a refill of the beverage she was drinking. It was definitely a good year for the beverage she had been drinking ever since she arrived here at the restaurant. Here she had thought ‘Big Loui” from her UOCPF days was talking BS about the tiny people of Yamatai…

Flashback :: UOCP Blue Flower ::

…Curled up in his lap on the dark bridge with lights coming from the control panels and stars as they waited to spring in action against the Pirates that operated in the sector they was patrolling. Wrapped up in four sets of arms, the big Abwehran voice rumbled in his chest as she listened to his tales of traveling the stars and meeting many interesting people.

“Oooo see Icki, In ‘amatai, they ad heese very very small wemen…” Holding up one of his big muscular arms and then demonstrating with his fingers the size of the tiny women. “… looking like ittle dollies oo collect an put onna shelf. But heese very very small wemen had magical powers tat all’wed tem to fly or float upon the winds…”

“Loui! Quit pulling my ears with such nonsense! If someone was that small, all you had to do is step on it and squish…Bet they didn’t survive long?” Aikiko looked up at the big Abwehran, snuggling in his arms.

“Oh I aint a lying, Icki!” He tilted his head down, with his eyes wide to look like he was telling the truth. “I wouldn’t iee like that! I’ve seen tem wit my own zwei eyes! I kanew this rich guy, He had 6 of them in a lass ‘age! He made heese ittle ouses for tem. All ‘ainted up in pretty colors.”

“Aweeee that is so sweet, Big Loui.” Aikiko leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss…

Current : Restaurant ::

Aikiko eyes twinkled as she squirmed a bit in her seat. Hurriedly grabbed her beverage and took a big drink. She wished she knew where he was at. She would send him a letter or maybe a video message telling him he was right.

Restaurant

"Oh, let me see..." Mitsuko nodded to Aikiko as she scanned through her fairly exhaustive mental notes of the area, along with the map and other helpful data she'd downloaded. She seemed slightly distracted by the work, but still giggled at Tsuguka's attempt at a joke. "I can carry my own bags. But, thank you for the offer." She smiled. "I'm afraid this is just how it works. Consider it an...unofficial training mission. Follow the directions to your destination, investigate the target thoroughly, acquire the specified items and return safely to your new post within the allotted time." She nodded again, her work finished. It only took a moment to peer at Aikiko, then Tsuguka, sending them the neatly packed bundle of data detailing where the ship and restaurant were in relation to some of the other businesses that had been mentioned.

Standing up, she moved her chair and bent over to retrieve her bags. Murakami would have to remember to fetch her umbrella as they left. Hopefully it was no longer pouring outside. Looking towards the entrance, the slightly stuffed Neko let out a squeak of surprise as the tiny new crew member appeared to make her introductions. It only took her a few moments to get over the shock, although some of the others didn't seem to be adjusting as smoothly. Hopefully Tsuguka could help defuse the situation smoothly. "Oh my..." She chewed her lip for a moment. "...she won't take up much space, but we're far past out of cabins now." Mitsuko shook her head at the thought of people sleeping in her cargo bay again.

Restaurant - Table

Sienna remained as she was for another moment or two, even forgetting to chew her bulging mouthful of food further as she continued to stare unabashedly at the doll-sized Neko. If she wasn't already convinced that Yamatai and its military made no sense, this was just the icing on the cake. What was even the point of making a clone-soldier that could be effectively fought with an oversized novelty flyswatter?

At last, she broke her statue-like stillness and chewed once, slowly lowering herself the inch or two back into her seat, then gradually picked up her pace of chewing until she eventually resumed eating at a normal, but significantly slowed pace. Swallowing the soggy lump of chicken she'd held in her mouth for too long, she shook her head again. Her plate was very nearly empty now, the crew was making preparations to leave, she was already visualizing the quickest path to the door.

Restaurant

"Nice to meet you, Santo Hei Umeki Ayame." Tsuguka immediately subdued her smile and made a return bow, hitting a rather exact thirty-five degree angle before returning to normal. Fortunately, her professionalism had stuck, and the macabre grin had been suppressed again for now. Her voice was, as before, concise and humorless. "I am Santo Hei Tsuguka Toyoe, Infantry. I look forward to making use of your services." -Not the best choice of words, but then again, medical personnel were a soldier's best friend. Even the Nepelsians ought to realize that soon enough.

The sharpish thing couldn't help but angle her head slightly, considering all sorts of weird tactical questions. Who had steadier hands? Their demolition expert Akiashiro, or a medic that was only a little bigger than the average hand-span herself?... Further investigation required.

"Have you eaten? It is not my intention to be rude, but we were about to move out." She added. "Logistics personnel Joto Hei Murakami has provided me with an off-the-record mission, and it is crucial that I complete this task in order to set up a basic friendship level. Such relationships are innately important to the effective operation of a team. I do not intend to fail her."

Restaurant

"I will not ask you to change bodies; but, would you be pleased to have a robotic assistant assigned to you?" Hanako asked Ayame. "I should be able to get one easily."

Hanako resumed her course towards Sienna, and offered her hand. "This is farewell," she simply stated.

Restaurant

Tony was confused at the appearance to the mini-neko. She slowly sat back down and looked over at Aikiko. "you wanna escort me to the range? I.. really don't think I want to go shoppin today." She smiled hoping it wasn't evident about her funds... And she had heard that Kyoto could get quite expensive. "If you let me try your NSP... I'll let you try my Wasp."

Restaurant

Aikiko looked at Antonia with interest as she listened to her. "I would love too, Tony." She guzzled her beverage down quickly. "Even your HHG?" Smiling a little more. "I'll even pay for replacement projectiles for it." Looking abit thoughtful scince they would have to go back to the ship. Hoping her stuff and gear been downloaded from the T7 Shuttle she came in on. Hopefully brought aboard the Eucharis. She wanted to clean and check her other firearm she kept from her earlier days.

Aikiko stood up, "Please excuse Cadet Stark and me. Thank you for the meal, Shosho Ketsurui. If we're done here, I can escort Cadet Stark to where she needs to go on the Base." Waiting for signal it was cleared to depart from the group.

Restaurant

Seeing Hanako's hand offered, Sienna sped up her chewing the last bite of her meal and dropped the utensil. Rising to her feet, she nodded down at the Shosho and firmly clasped her hand in return, giving it a slight shake. "Yeah, guess so," she replied around her mouthful of food, then seemed to realize what she'd done, and swallowed it sheepishly. "So, uh, good luck out there, and stuff," she continued as they released the handshake, and she put her palms on the back of her hips, apparently not quite sure how to end the conversation. Long farewells were never her thing. "And thanks for everything."

The sounds of carpet bombing sweeping across the land roared loudly in triumph as the war planes filled the sky and unleashed hell upon the military base beneath it. Off in the distance was the sight of tanks off in the distance as they rolled across the grassy plains with the small dots of infantry trailing behind them. From inside of a bomb shelter Sheila looked down at the map spread out along a table and the small red and green dots that were decorating it. The red outnumbered the green by more than five times their number as Sheila’s lavender gaze studied the meager defenses that they had against the superior forces. Her silvery, white face was scrunched slightly in concentration as her eyes narrowed, trying to figure out some sort of way to hold the superior forces off. The tip of an inky, black finger with a fingernail the same silvery white coloring of her traced her the defensive line as the sounds of the anti-air turrets tried desperately to defend against the bombardment meant to soften their forces.

Black lips pursed in an annoyed fashion as her fingers began to idly tap against the map, seeing no possible way to turn things over after having her supplies cut off and forces strangled ever since the middle of the war. “… I see why it is called insane difficulty.” Sheila said a defeated tone as she exited the gaming program only to open lavender her eyes to stare out at a library shelf, having been sitting in one of their chairs for the past hour and a half going playing through a war game and making a mental note in the process to stick within one level of the normal difficulties in the future.

For nearly a month she had been on standby within the base, awaiting further orders for a potential transfer while serving as a fill-in worker for any departments that required aid. Her days filled with the mundane tasks of assisting in paperwork, cleaning duties, manual labor, and so on until such a time that the transfers of various ships could be finalized. It wasn’t until she left the building and began to wander off towards the warehouses to find more work that the message alert going off in one of her programs caught her attention, having been filed under non-important despite being sent by one of the officers at the base.

Opening the message up while walking she blinked for a moment in mild surprise as to why the officer would have incorrectly labeled its importance, the information that it contained should at least have been sent with an interest tag to inform her of a ship docking at the base and undermanned. Even more so if it was a prestigious ship such as the YSS Eucharis, an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up. With a simple thought she sent a message to the workers at the warehouse that she wouldn’t be arriving and immediately changed her direction in mid step as she contacted the officer that had sent it for more information about where she could find its captain.


Restaurant

Clad in her duty uniform of light, blueish gray trousers and indigo jacket with the crimson red color of her profession decorated her body. Her lavender gaze idly scanning the people leaving the establishment as she waited for the captain’s departure, not wishing to be so rude as to interrupt her during a meal however not quite wishing to take the risk of missing her in case she had only come to drop off her transfers and pick up supplies. During the entire wait she kept her mind off of anything but her target, ignoring the subtle glances that were being thrown her way due to her appearance.

While the majority of the population looked roughly the same species wise, Sheila was most likely one of the few in the base that resembled another species altogether. With a coloration of silvery white for her front half of her body and an inky black for the back she was bound to catch a few glances from others, however what most likely kept their attention was the pair of elongated, S shaped horns jutting forward from her head with fang-like spikes protruding out from her head and eyebrows in place of hair that were the same silver color as the vast majority of her face, with only the darkness surrounding her eyes and black lips to taint the light coloration.

“Pardon me for interrupting your day off Captain Hanako” Sheila would say as soon as she would see Hanako leaving from the restaurant before giving her superior a low bow of respect as her hands held what seemed to be an electronic clipboard in front of her. “I was informed by one of the officers that your ship was scheduled to have several of your members transferred and was hoping to offer my services for as long as you would take me.” The android continued on in a polite tone before handing the clipboard containing her dossier towards the woman and her letters of recommendation from not only her initial leader of the expedition team but also various members of the base that she had assisted.

“I have been programed to serve primarily as a technician to repair not only starships and their systems, but other vehicles and equipment in order to get them into working order. My secondary programming is focused around vehicles operation and hacking into systems, in order to either gain access of enemy or restricted vehicles to pilot or to gain entrance into medium security locations. Should combat break out I am only considered average in my weaponry skills, capable of effectively using assault weapons and providing covering fire however my skills do not make me an outstanding soldier. Instead my main function is to use my medical skills in order to keep organics alive until they can get proper treatment or perform onsite surgery assuming the wounds are not too complex. My final programming deals with my capabilities to operate behind a desk, giving me a good understanding of paperwork and mathematics, allowing me to assist in the paperwork load of others due to my energy system allowing me to operate near indefinitely within a spaceship so long as I ensure my body is in working condition. This would allow me to continue working around the clock with little downtime should the need ever be required ma’am, something that those letters will assure that I am not only fully capable of doing am willing to do as well.”

Restaurant

Hanako gave Sienna a pat on the back before turning to go, only to be interrupted by the unusual-looking android. She stopped and returned the bow. Shiela hadn't introduced herself but on Yamatai everyone had a name tag over their heads in virtual space so she took a moment to silently verify Sheila's records. The name checked out but her story didn't. The only other officer on the Eucharis was Blackberry, and it was unlikely Blackberry was sending out calls for personnel; she wasn't first officer just yet. "We could use a technician," Hanako replied. The new crew continued to grow weirder. "What happened with your last assignment?" she asked.

Restaurant

Tsuguka was a little bit discouraged that Santo Hei Aikiko didn't take to Murakami's friendship mission with the same conviction as herself, but had already begun to scale up the woman visually and decide what types of garment the lithe neko might find advantageous. Explosive munitions were often either planted or defused in hard to reach locations, so it stood to reason that bulky, furry, or overly warm clothing was out of the question. Yet, most skin tight outfits or small dresses were unlikely to offer significant blast protection. If Aikiko was to become colder than recommended NH-33 body levels, it could also cause her hands to shake. Further research was required.

Suddenly bolting upright and punching a fist into the opposing palm, she made a pact with herself to increase friendship levels between all three of them by completing the mission solo. Victory was assured. The red neko would accept no prisoners in this task.

Enthusiastically bowing to her Shosho and opening her mouth to ask for her leave, the reddish thing was interrupted before she even made a noise. Looking up just a small amount, her eyes narrowed and her ears twitched, observing yet another new crew member. Some kind of alien-form android type with a lot of bodily spikes. Most perplexing. She sure hoped that this 'Sheila' came with a manual, otherwise she could be a maintenance nightmare in waiting herself.

Restaurant

Aikiko stood and moved away from the table after giving a respectful half bow to those at the table. She turned to face door when a very unusual mechanism appeared and started to speak with the Shosho.

She had to close her eyes and count to ten to regain her expression at seeing such being. At least the mini-neko was something she could relate to a lot better than the Andriod that escaped from another of those strange places called a Horror house? Or one of high thrillers… haunted movies?

Suddenly Aikiko wanted to just leave the restaurant. She once more bowed to the Shosho in passing as she buttoned up her raincoat and put on her hat as she exited the Restaurant with a mission that she only knew of.

Streets of Kyoto

Aikiko breathed in the damp air, coming to a stop a few feet from the door, letting the rain fall on her as she waited. ~~ I’mma going have to send an apology to Ayame ~~ She thought to herself as she watch people pass her by and the assortment of vehicles.

Restaurant

With yet another strange officer showing up Tony couldn't take it much more. She gave a salute before turning to head off to catch up with Aikiko.

Streets of Kyoto

It took a bit but Tony was able to catch up to her only seemingly ally on the crew. "Watcha up to? You ditched me back there... Thought you wanted to play with my toys..." She smiled as she fell into step with the Neko.

Streets of Kyoto

"I do," Aikiko softly spoke. "It was getting a bit too much." She looked at Tony, "I didn't mean to ditch ya. and I do want to... play as you put it, with your toys. I have a few of my own." She became serious, "I do apologize If you thought I ditched you."

Streets of Kyoto

With a shrug tony let the issue drop, "Yeah, haven't gotten a chance to play with you's Kittens toys before. I can't wait, plus I should put a few rounds down range before I start getting rusty. That just won't do." she walked for a bit longer in silence before speaking up again, "So why arn't you upset with me over everything like the rest of them?"

Streets of Kyoto

Aikiko walked along as she thought over many thing she could say. "You are you and I'm me. There is nothing I can do to change that." Then she softly spoke, just loud enough for Tony to hear. "I know what it is like to be lonely." Looks at Tony. "You know that question I asked before we return to the restaurant?"

The Mean dirty scary streets of Kyoto

"What? the one about if we were on Neplesia prime? see that one I really doubt you want to know the answer to it, cause honestly it's an answer that would make be cry myself to sleep on..." Antonia Stark couldn't look at Akikio in the eyes to save her life. Yeah she would have chased after her... but there it would have been with orders to shoot to kill. The simple fact was Nekos are just not allowed there.

With a heavy sigh she tried to make eye contact. "Yha I would love to believe though I would be a better person then that..."

Street of Kyoto

Aikiko gave a soft laugh at hearing that. "At least your honest. I can't fault you for that." She fell quiet, sticking her hands in the black coat she wore over her uniform. "Really? NH's aren't allowed in Nespleslai?"

Streets of Kyoto.

"It is true, enforceable with death... I'm not going to try to defend it, but it is because you all are pure weapons. It would be like if I was allowed to drive through here in a tank..." She frowned at the stupid allusion but it was all she had to lean against.

"I hope that some time that will be lifted, maybe with the new treaty that just went through." Tony shrugged and kicked at the ground as if there was a beer can there.