YSS Imperator
Port-side Recreational Pyramid restaurant "Kagome"
28日 6月 YE 39
While the multiple galleys and wardrooms on the mighty battleship could feed the crew normally, even their food got monotonous. At the very top of both of Imperator's recreational pyramids were two resturants designed after high class bar-and-grille venues of the capital world. Leaving no corner untouched, these two resturants were popular for personal meetings, one-off parties, and especially date nights.
Taisa Sutoikku Kaede stood wearing his full dress uniform, his ribbons adorning his left breast as well as his aging sidearm resting in its holster. His arm was locked with his companion, the cheif engineer of the ship Araena Seraphine clad in a somewhat less regulated, but still incredibly formal black dress with white embroidering tracing patterns diagonally upwards across her whole body. Underneath the dullish semi-transparent layer was a material which irregularly reflected light, giving an impression of a sighttime sky with moderate lighting. The skirt had abandoned the outer, light-absorbing layer and reached down to just below the woman's knees, swishing quietly with her steps.
As the two walked up to the hostess' podium at the metallic doors to the restaurant, the Taisa made a quiet comment, "You look beautiful."
"You're quite the looker yourself, Kaede. I'm surprised you..." Her message swapped from vocalization to telepathy as they approached the earshot of the small gathering of to-be patrons; a couple Nekos and Minkans, as well as what appeared to be a human and a plebian were awaiting their call; by the time the new couple had arrived the human was called off with a Neko to an empty table, a young-looking waiter feverishly wiping away accrued food and particles from tables after they were set free, keeping pace as best he could through the busy hall.
Kaede began lightly rubbing Araena's hand's back side as they waited, and their wait was quickly over once the hostess realized that amidst the crowd of low ranking enlisted and small officers, the Captain himself was in line. After calling out their names as if they had a reservation, Kaede led Araena out of the line and down to a table near the back left of the resturant square, with a volumetric window covering the entire slated wall to give the effect of there being no wall at all.
With courtesy in mind, Kaede walked over to the far side of the table first and with his free hand motioned for her to take a seat at her leisure.
With a simple "Thanky you" directed towards the hostess; with a bend at the knee, the ash-winged female took the seat Kaede has presented to her so kindly, glancing towards the display with a subtle smile-an effective, efficient, and overall excellent design. She chuckled with a smile as the man took his own seat. "Planning ahead, I see."
"I've been around a while, it pays well to pay heed." Kaede smiled before looking out into space. The ships in the division were visible at their distances, with only small amount of light giving them away. Some of the cruisers far enough away to be confused as close stars of small size.
After a while, a waitress came over to their table, smiling comfortably before speaking, "Good evening, what can I get you to drink?" Kaede looked to Araena as if giving her the right to go ahead.
Ever the one to go on what may be considered the boring side, Araena lifted a menu towards herself as she responded, "A glass of water, please."
Kaede looked at the waitress and quietly and warmly answered, "Red wine."
The waitress nodded before walking off to get their drinks. In the meantime, Kaede turned his eyes to meet Araena's during the wait.
"Sooo..." Her speech danced through the air amidst the literally stellar backdrop. "Quite the place, isn't it. Certainly a much more varied venue than just the wardroom." She reached back to retrieve Kaede's hand, hers softer than normal on account of preparing a bit more for this date.
Kaede met her's halfway, resuming its calm rubbing of the back of her hand. "I thought we could come up here instead of just reusing a wardroom for something a bit more special. We are fortunate to have such a large ship with such amenities. When I first came around we never dreamed of having these on our warships."
The woman's thumb mimiced her man's, bust somewhat more slowly. "Things do change quite quickly in Yamatai, I've seen; I didn't think I'd ever see a view like this when i first signed up, myself." She chuckled a bit quietly to herself-what she dais could be referring to the Taisa, or the display itself. The sector may never know...
The waitress quietly returned, placing Araena's glass of water down first, then Kaede's red wine in front of him. She gave a quiet nod before asking, "Do you both know what you want to have?"
"The salmon skewer sounds like a nice choice-I would like an order of that please." Setting the menu down, Araena smiled poiltely at the waitress. Kaede simply added, "Same here, it does sound appealing."
The waitress nodded before walking off again, leaving the two to themselves again. Kaede leveled his warm eyes and expression to Araena, gazing deeply into her eyes.
Serphine traced Kaede's jawline with her eyes slowly, the glowing garnet pair cooly sliding steadily upward. She squeezed their held hand playfully with a matching smile upon her lips, the couple's eyes finally locking together. "It looks like we finally did get things together, though!" She indicated to the points of light with her free hand-the rest of the fleet.
"Yeah, we let the Plumerias loose so they could do what they do best and in exchange we get two more battleships. What a wonderful exchange. Though the head of the chain gave me a report after we arrived telling me that I had to select an XO from my cadres or put someone in from somewhere else. Deciding I wasn't going to break anything up, I decided to do a little 'soul searching' through our own ranks."
"Soul searching, you say? As in-" She held her tongue momentarily, then chuckled. "You mean you already had an idea a month ago, then." There was that playful smile again, her eyes twinkling. "Sheesh, it's been a month already? Wow..."
"Time flies," The Taisa briefly moved his left hand to his pants' left pocket, taking out an all to familiar case, the same kind that rank pins came in, and placing it next to their hands, "And so do good people." His left hand moved to take a light sip from his wine while his eyes stayed gently locked on hers.
The case wasn't important-okay, it actually was, but it wasn't at the same time. Araena squeezed Kaede's hand tightly with a smile, speaking softly, "Are you trying to compliment me?" She leaned in close to Kaede, kissing him softly on the lips. "It's working." Her eyes shone softly, reflecting his own in red.
"You'll have to start your retraining tomorrow, your replacement is already going to start the crossover period as well." He was trying to hide his blushing by talking, but it was completely failing to hide it. He took a light sip of his wine before giving a warm smile to the Elysian, he was happy to see her so overjoyed compared to the usual drab of day to day duty.
"Sounds like I'll be busy, then." There it was, another squeeze of the hand. "That puts us without an engineer and without an executive officer both for a few days-here's to hoping that neither of them are needed for then." Even as she spoke, the woman didn't appear to be fazed-in fact, there was a very subtle injection of a challenge into her voice, as if she was preparing to face off against such an event.
Sensing this, Kaede grinned, "Well, you'll need to learn quickly." He found himself staring deep into her eyes again, almost as if getting lost in them and making no attempt to find a way out. The glowing, magma-like iris contracted slightly around the depthly pupil as she met his gaze once more with a smile.
"It's all part of the job anyways. We've gone this far from what we can learn; let's push a bit more."
Kaede was about to say something, but was interrupted by the waitress placing their dishes in front of them. She seemed to come out of nowhere. She spoke up in her giddy little way as she looked between the two, "Alrighty, if there is anything I can do just let me know!" She then scurried away to continue her work.
The Taisa looked to his own food then Araena's, raising a satisfied eyebrow at the look of the plates and their food, they looked swell.
The Elysian suppressed a chuckle. Isn't there a restaurant where the waitress is supposed to sneak up on us? The little message, wrapped in warmth permeated the man's brain. She followed through with verbal conversing, "Ah, salmon is one of my favorite fish. Actually-what is yours, to eat?"
"I honestly don't know. I never thought of it." Kaede looked down to his Salmon skewers, seeming to being running it through his mind. He didn't want to let go of Araena's hand, and was going to let her do so if she wished.
The Elysian did indeed set free Kaede's hand-after one last squeeze. "Ah, well that's alright. Some people don't choose favorites at all, some have too many things to call their favorite!" She closed her eyes with a polite laugh. "Although salmon I've noticed does chill quite quickly; we should enjoy the meal while it is hot and its best."
Kaede nodded and picked up one of his skewers. He took a bite out of one of the dolled-up bits of meat, chewing it for a second before swallowing. It tasted rather well to him. His eyes looked up again at hers as if to gauge her opinion.
Araena herself had bitten a small chunk from her first skewer, chewing the meat quickly and swallowing with a pleased little sound. The meat was like she expected-incredibly tender, and with some of the seasonings had already soaked inside without fully tainting all of it at once. She smirked lightly when she tried to do the same technique to Kaede only to realize he had the same idea, and faster.
Kaede gave a smile before beginning to eat regularly, only putting the skewer down to take a light sip of wine and to take an occasional breath. Every once in a while he would look up at Araena and just smile before continuing to eat. Soon, he was on his second and final skewer.
It seemed where she was slower to start, Araena could keep her overall dining pace on the faster side. Or maybe she just was loitering for a few moments in the beginning intentionally-nonetheless, the birb was happily nomming away at the remaining half of her second, a small amount of the verying herbs, spices, and liquid flavoring having smeared the area just around the center of her lips, and a portion of the fingers on her right hand. She paused when she finished that skewer, taking a few breaths as she measured a bit of water to keep her throat clear. A messy smile came around when their eyes met again.
Kaede gave a quiet laugh before light brushing his lip with his thumb as a signal. He finished his skewer a few seconds before she had, and had brushed off his mouth with a napkin and taken the final draw of wine from his glass.
He looked up into her eyes again, "Was it good?"
Araena took the napkin to her face gently and chuckled, wiping away the mess, before responding, "Very much so. You've enjoyed your own, I see." She raised half of her lip into a smile for a moment.
"Do you want anything else, angel?" Kaede was going to try the pet name thing that seemed so popular in the movies, she wasn't Neko so she couldn't call her 'kitty' so angel would have to do.
"Angel" laughed quietly, letting the name settle a little bit. "No, no I'm alright for tonight- thank you so much for this, Kaede..." She gently pushed down on the shirt of her dress, making sure the fabric had remained in a respectable position for when she would next stand. "What about you?"
"I'm fine, food was great and now I just want to see where the winds take us." He gave a wink before standing up and walking over next to where she sat. He extended his right hand in a gentlemanly fashion to take her hand again, allowing her to lift herself upwards politely.
"In the mood to wander, then? Then we shall!" The midnight-clad elysian, after quietly tucking the aforementioned case into the crook of her free arm, was led by the formally-dressed man out of Kagome, taking position by his side as they began to stroll happily.
Kaede led her down the stairwells to the main deck of the recreation pyramid. The ship's AI had set the faux lighting system to make it appear to be night time, coinciding with the ship's clock. Ahead of them was a small but beautifully lit Sakura garden surrounded by a small park. To their left and right was a few small shops, some of which were your usual Star Army stores while others seemed more hole-in-the-wall shops that you wouldn't expect immediately.
Kaede looked over to Araena, leaning in to steal a quick kiss before asking her, "So where do you want to go?"
"Good question, an excellent one, in fact..." The cardinal's silver hair bobbed slightly as she turned about the atrium-like room, her profile to the man changing as she turned for a few moments. "Perhaps the garden, then?"
Kaede led her into the garden. His mind floating between thinking of a place to sit down and the Elysian's curves. After mentally ignoring himself for a solid two seconds, Kaede walked her over to a bench deep within a small collection of trees all densely packed around. It looked absolutely stunning in the dimmed lights of the 'mall' around them.
Kaede extended his hand to let her sit on the bench and get comfortable for a moment before he would sit. That way he didn't end up sitting or pinning a wing to the bench.
With a little wiggle and a visual sigh, Serphine relaxed into the bench happily. When Kaede decided to finally join her, her eyes found his and smiled. Her pale palm rested itself upon his upper leg, upwards, the perfect position to take command of. "I like this, just... This." A small portion of the woman's already-minimal weight began to rest upon the man, the sound distortion and heat from behind meaking her wings had moved away from where they'd get pinched accidentally. From the right of the couple the gentle bubbling of a water feature could be heard, from ahead in the forest a murmur of excited and young voices. Araena smiled with a pleased hum, barely whispering out, "I love you, Kaede..."
Kaede intertwined his hand with hers, gently stroking the side of her hand with his thumb as he turned to kiss her cheek again, "I love you too Araena." He let himself relax, the tension of running a battleship beginning to run away from his mind, the warmth of Araena's presence replacing them.
For the first time in recent memory, he felt at peace and fulfilled. He felt loved.
Port-side Recreational Pyramid restaurant "Kagome"
28日 6月 YE 39
While the multiple galleys and wardrooms on the mighty battleship could feed the crew normally, even their food got monotonous. At the very top of both of Imperator's recreational pyramids were two resturants designed after high class bar-and-grille venues of the capital world. Leaving no corner untouched, these two resturants were popular for personal meetings, one-off parties, and especially date nights.
Taisa Sutoikku Kaede stood wearing his full dress uniform, his ribbons adorning his left breast as well as his aging sidearm resting in its holster. His arm was locked with his companion, the cheif engineer of the ship Araena Seraphine clad in a somewhat less regulated, but still incredibly formal black dress with white embroidering tracing patterns diagonally upwards across her whole body. Underneath the dullish semi-transparent layer was a material which irregularly reflected light, giving an impression of a sighttime sky with moderate lighting. The skirt had abandoned the outer, light-absorbing layer and reached down to just below the woman's knees, swishing quietly with her steps.
As the two walked up to the hostess' podium at the metallic doors to the restaurant, the Taisa made a quiet comment, "You look beautiful."
"You're quite the looker yourself, Kaede. I'm surprised you..." Her message swapped from vocalization to telepathy as they approached the earshot of the small gathering of to-be patrons; a couple Nekos and Minkans, as well as what appeared to be a human and a plebian were awaiting their call; by the time the new couple had arrived the human was called off with a Neko to an empty table, a young-looking waiter feverishly wiping away accrued food and particles from tables after they were set free, keeping pace as best he could through the busy hall.
Kaede began lightly rubbing Araena's hand's back side as they waited, and their wait was quickly over once the hostess realized that amidst the crowd of low ranking enlisted and small officers, the Captain himself was in line. After calling out their names as if they had a reservation, Kaede led Araena out of the line and down to a table near the back left of the resturant square, with a volumetric window covering the entire slated wall to give the effect of there being no wall at all.
With courtesy in mind, Kaede walked over to the far side of the table first and with his free hand motioned for her to take a seat at her leisure.
With a simple "Thanky you" directed towards the hostess; with a bend at the knee, the ash-winged female took the seat Kaede has presented to her so kindly, glancing towards the display with a subtle smile-an effective, efficient, and overall excellent design. She chuckled with a smile as the man took his own seat. "Planning ahead, I see."
"I've been around a while, it pays well to pay heed." Kaede smiled before looking out into space. The ships in the division were visible at their distances, with only small amount of light giving them away. Some of the cruisers far enough away to be confused as close stars of small size.
After a while, a waitress came over to their table, smiling comfortably before speaking, "Good evening, what can I get you to drink?" Kaede looked to Araena as if giving her the right to go ahead.
Ever the one to go on what may be considered the boring side, Araena lifted a menu towards herself as she responded, "A glass of water, please."
Kaede looked at the waitress and quietly and warmly answered, "Red wine."
The waitress nodded before walking off to get their drinks. In the meantime, Kaede turned his eyes to meet Araena's during the wait.
"Sooo..." Her speech danced through the air amidst the literally stellar backdrop. "Quite the place, isn't it. Certainly a much more varied venue than just the wardroom." She reached back to retrieve Kaede's hand, hers softer than normal on account of preparing a bit more for this date.
Kaede met her's halfway, resuming its calm rubbing of the back of her hand. "I thought we could come up here instead of just reusing a wardroom for something a bit more special. We are fortunate to have such a large ship with such amenities. When I first came around we never dreamed of having these on our warships."
The woman's thumb mimiced her man's, bust somewhat more slowly. "Things do change quite quickly in Yamatai, I've seen; I didn't think I'd ever see a view like this when i first signed up, myself." She chuckled a bit quietly to herself-what she dais could be referring to the Taisa, or the display itself. The sector may never know...
The waitress quietly returned, placing Araena's glass of water down first, then Kaede's red wine in front of him. She gave a quiet nod before asking, "Do you both know what you want to have?"
"The salmon skewer sounds like a nice choice-I would like an order of that please." Setting the menu down, Araena smiled poiltely at the waitress. Kaede simply added, "Same here, it does sound appealing."
The waitress nodded before walking off again, leaving the two to themselves again. Kaede leveled his warm eyes and expression to Araena, gazing deeply into her eyes.
Serphine traced Kaede's jawline with her eyes slowly, the glowing garnet pair cooly sliding steadily upward. She squeezed their held hand playfully with a matching smile upon her lips, the couple's eyes finally locking together. "It looks like we finally did get things together, though!" She indicated to the points of light with her free hand-the rest of the fleet.
"Yeah, we let the Plumerias loose so they could do what they do best and in exchange we get two more battleships. What a wonderful exchange. Though the head of the chain gave me a report after we arrived telling me that I had to select an XO from my cadres or put someone in from somewhere else. Deciding I wasn't going to break anything up, I decided to do a little 'soul searching' through our own ranks."
"Soul searching, you say? As in-" She held her tongue momentarily, then chuckled. "You mean you already had an idea a month ago, then." There was that playful smile again, her eyes twinkling. "Sheesh, it's been a month already? Wow..."
"Time flies," The Taisa briefly moved his left hand to his pants' left pocket, taking out an all to familiar case, the same kind that rank pins came in, and placing it next to their hands, "And so do good people." His left hand moved to take a light sip from his wine while his eyes stayed gently locked on hers.
The case wasn't important-okay, it actually was, but it wasn't at the same time. Araena squeezed Kaede's hand tightly with a smile, speaking softly, "Are you trying to compliment me?" She leaned in close to Kaede, kissing him softly on the lips. "It's working." Her eyes shone softly, reflecting his own in red.
"You'll have to start your retraining tomorrow, your replacement is already going to start the crossover period as well." He was trying to hide his blushing by talking, but it was completely failing to hide it. He took a light sip of his wine before giving a warm smile to the Elysian, he was happy to see her so overjoyed compared to the usual drab of day to day duty.
"Sounds like I'll be busy, then." There it was, another squeeze of the hand. "That puts us without an engineer and without an executive officer both for a few days-here's to hoping that neither of them are needed for then." Even as she spoke, the woman didn't appear to be fazed-in fact, there was a very subtle injection of a challenge into her voice, as if she was preparing to face off against such an event.
Sensing this, Kaede grinned, "Well, you'll need to learn quickly." He found himself staring deep into her eyes again, almost as if getting lost in them and making no attempt to find a way out. The glowing, magma-like iris contracted slightly around the depthly pupil as she met his gaze once more with a smile.
"It's all part of the job anyways. We've gone this far from what we can learn; let's push a bit more."
Kaede was about to say something, but was interrupted by the waitress placing their dishes in front of them. She seemed to come out of nowhere. She spoke up in her giddy little way as she looked between the two, "Alrighty, if there is anything I can do just let me know!" She then scurried away to continue her work.
The Taisa looked to his own food then Araena's, raising a satisfied eyebrow at the look of the plates and their food, they looked swell.
The Elysian suppressed a chuckle. Isn't there a restaurant where the waitress is supposed to sneak up on us? The little message, wrapped in warmth permeated the man's brain. She followed through with verbal conversing, "Ah, salmon is one of my favorite fish. Actually-what is yours, to eat?"
"I honestly don't know. I never thought of it." Kaede looked down to his Salmon skewers, seeming to being running it through his mind. He didn't want to let go of Araena's hand, and was going to let her do so if she wished.
The Elysian did indeed set free Kaede's hand-after one last squeeze. "Ah, well that's alright. Some people don't choose favorites at all, some have too many things to call their favorite!" She closed her eyes with a polite laugh. "Although salmon I've noticed does chill quite quickly; we should enjoy the meal while it is hot and its best."
Kaede nodded and picked up one of his skewers. He took a bite out of one of the dolled-up bits of meat, chewing it for a second before swallowing. It tasted rather well to him. His eyes looked up again at hers as if to gauge her opinion.
Araena herself had bitten a small chunk from her first skewer, chewing the meat quickly and swallowing with a pleased little sound. The meat was like she expected-incredibly tender, and with some of the seasonings had already soaked inside without fully tainting all of it at once. She smirked lightly when she tried to do the same technique to Kaede only to realize he had the same idea, and faster.
Kaede gave a smile before beginning to eat regularly, only putting the skewer down to take a light sip of wine and to take an occasional breath. Every once in a while he would look up at Araena and just smile before continuing to eat. Soon, he was on his second and final skewer.
It seemed where she was slower to start, Araena could keep her overall dining pace on the faster side. Or maybe she just was loitering for a few moments in the beginning intentionally-nonetheless, the birb was happily nomming away at the remaining half of her second, a small amount of the verying herbs, spices, and liquid flavoring having smeared the area just around the center of her lips, and a portion of the fingers on her right hand. She paused when she finished that skewer, taking a few breaths as she measured a bit of water to keep her throat clear. A messy smile came around when their eyes met again.
Kaede gave a quiet laugh before light brushing his lip with his thumb as a signal. He finished his skewer a few seconds before she had, and had brushed off his mouth with a napkin and taken the final draw of wine from his glass.
He looked up into her eyes again, "Was it good?"
Araena took the napkin to her face gently and chuckled, wiping away the mess, before responding, "Very much so. You've enjoyed your own, I see." She raised half of her lip into a smile for a moment.
"Do you want anything else, angel?" Kaede was going to try the pet name thing that seemed so popular in the movies, she wasn't Neko so she couldn't call her 'kitty' so angel would have to do.
"Angel" laughed quietly, letting the name settle a little bit. "No, no I'm alright for tonight- thank you so much for this, Kaede..." She gently pushed down on the shirt of her dress, making sure the fabric had remained in a respectable position for when she would next stand. "What about you?"
"I'm fine, food was great and now I just want to see where the winds take us." He gave a wink before standing up and walking over next to where she sat. He extended his right hand in a gentlemanly fashion to take her hand again, allowing her to lift herself upwards politely.
"In the mood to wander, then? Then we shall!" The midnight-clad elysian, after quietly tucking the aforementioned case into the crook of her free arm, was led by the formally-dressed man out of Kagome, taking position by his side as they began to stroll happily.
Kaede led her down the stairwells to the main deck of the recreation pyramid. The ship's AI had set the faux lighting system to make it appear to be night time, coinciding with the ship's clock. Ahead of them was a small but beautifully lit Sakura garden surrounded by a small park. To their left and right was a few small shops, some of which were your usual Star Army stores while others seemed more hole-in-the-wall shops that you wouldn't expect immediately.
Kaede looked over to Araena, leaning in to steal a quick kiss before asking her, "So where do you want to go?"
"Good question, an excellent one, in fact..." The cardinal's silver hair bobbed slightly as she turned about the atrium-like room, her profile to the man changing as she turned for a few moments. "Perhaps the garden, then?"
Kaede led her into the garden. His mind floating between thinking of a place to sit down and the Elysian's curves. After mentally ignoring himself for a solid two seconds, Kaede walked her over to a bench deep within a small collection of trees all densely packed around. It looked absolutely stunning in the dimmed lights of the 'mall' around them.
Kaede extended his hand to let her sit on the bench and get comfortable for a moment before he would sit. That way he didn't end up sitting or pinning a wing to the bench.
With a little wiggle and a visual sigh, Serphine relaxed into the bench happily. When Kaede decided to finally join her, her eyes found his and smiled. Her pale palm rested itself upon his upper leg, upwards, the perfect position to take command of. "I like this, just... This." A small portion of the woman's already-minimal weight began to rest upon the man, the sound distortion and heat from behind meaking her wings had moved away from where they'd get pinched accidentally. From the right of the couple the gentle bubbling of a water feature could be heard, from ahead in the forest a murmur of excited and young voices. Araena smiled with a pleased hum, barely whispering out, "I love you, Kaede..."
Kaede intertwined his hand with hers, gently stroking the side of her hand with his thumb as he turned to kiss her cheek again, "I love you too Araena." He let himself relax, the tension of running a battleship beginning to run away from his mind, the warmth of Araena's presence replacing them.
For the first time in recent memory, he felt at peace and fulfilled. He felt loved.
