RP Put to Heel: And Other Green-Blooded Space Stories

[Ametheliana]

RP Date

YE 45

RP Location

NSS Episcopus

NSS Episcopus
Captain's Suite

Violetta's lilac eyes were obfuscated by the glare her square glasses cast as they sat above a grimacing expression. The flick of her pupils from one parcel of information to the next was uniform, as if facilitated by a metronome. The only irregularity in her person was the idle shift of her ankles and thighs towards and away from one another coupled with the movement of her hands to and from keys and controls on her computer.

Accompanied with a sharp tone, a pop-up window appeared on her screen and disappeared with a swift movement of the Admiral's hand to the less conspicuous option on the window. With a deep inhalation, Violetta closed the applications running on the computer and turned it off before pulling her glasses off of their three points of contact with her head. Her hands both lingered on her temples as her deep lavender eyes closed while she exhaled. She was exhausted, but willing to act on the desire to sleep during this critical time of operations only when an alarm prompted her to do so. The humor of being able to wake in a timely manner on her own and without external provocation while needing an alarm to remind her to sleep was lost on her, but the utility was not.

With another deep inhale, she pushed her hands from the slender frames to where they rested on the bridge of her nose. Her long, delicate fingers splayed over her eyes and dark brows and her fingertips began rubbing beneath her side swept black bangs. She kept one hand on her head, massaging, while her other palm pressed against the table to stand.

Another tone, duller than her alarm, chimed from the datajockey on the desk's mahogany surface beside her and when the Admiral picked it up with the hand previously on her forehead, she promptly sat down and pulled her glasses on before typing out a terse reply on the pad and punched the console's display awake with a swift haste. Before the terminal had come alive, the door in front of her had opened.

A Commandant entered, Leo Taylor of the Intel and Counter-Intel section of the IPG with a quick apology. He had been there years ago when De Luca and Barrett Valke had reformed the IPG—a dauntingly large task which Taylor had handled better than most could.

Leo began, "I apologize for the late hour. You advised all pertinent information be brought when it is known."

"That is what I said," Violetta said dryly. "What do you have?"

"One of our best sources of information is on board. We were able to move her across lines earlier tonight."

"Just one of the best, Commandant Taylor? Why isn't she the absolute best source we have?" Violetta asked as her eyes flicked to the screen of her console and her hands brought her rectangular glasses back to the bridge of her nose.

"The absolute best sources on this turned out to all be liars," the Commandant said. "We can count on them to tell us every and any answer but the truth. This one, she'll tell you what hurts."

"The truth hurts," Violetta said. "What have you gotten from her?"

"Best she tells you herself, Admiral. Rear Admiral McNao concurs, best if this is left spoken."

"So you've cracked open something that stings and you want me to pull it out, is that it?" Violetta's bright amethyst eyes curled into thin moons under the strain of her coy smile. "And here I was thinking the IPG was on my side, Taylor."

Leo closed his eyes briskly as a half smile raised. "It's late. Do you want to meet with her tomorrow?"

"Have her come in now, if you please." Violetta could see the informant was near enough in the ship that Leo Taylor had anticipated Violetta would want to pry open this puzzle with immediacy.

Taylor nodded, "I don't foresee any problems, Admiral."

"Thank you for what you do, Commandant," Violetta said before the IPG section head was out the door.

The Admiral took in a breath, then pressed her palm to the table and stood, walking in measured steps across the plush green carpet. She breathed in and held her hands behind her back and her baby blue pencil skirt splayed out as she stood with her pumped feet hip-width apart. Not one to wear her feelings on her sleeve, Violetta noticed the soft pressure on her chin and cheek. She was smirking, but with a twitch of her lips she had wiped the smile from her face. The light from the hallway beyond the doors cracked through as they opened marginally then all at once.

 

[Ametheliana]

In a tumble, a wet sap fell through the door in a pile of sky-blue hair and the sickly candy cane colors of a prisoner of war uniform. She had a pretty voice that said some ugly words. Violetta took a step back, if only to let the balled up NH-29 know that she didn't like being around her.

"You look filthy," the admiral said through a cold tone. "You really should change into a body more fitting of the Imperium."

"For a second I thought you might mean this ugly ass fit they dressed me in," the crumpled up young woman said. "Not—"

She had been cut off by Violetta stepping forward. Her lip curled and eyes fell on the creature who shrunk into herself in the shadow of the Admiral.

"So what did you want to tell me, dear?" Violetta asked.

The NH scoffed, "I'm a victim here."

"Take a look at yourself, Miss Hana. You're illegally dressed up in the skin of an enemy the Imperium wants to forget. You're cooperating for leniency in the trial over whether you get to cosplay a catgirl into your fifties. You're as much a victim as the Funky City Thunder. So, what did you tell the nice men out there?" Violetta asked and she felt so, so tired inside even while her affixed facade kept her looking sharp and menacing.

"Well," Saku said, sitting up slightly as she looked around her surroundings. "I don't want to get anyone that got me this body in trouble. I have promise of that, right? Well the thing is, I came across some, uh, merchandise. I had to burn the old names and ST off the bodies. Well, the names were Motoyoshi."

"Motoyoshi like how?" Violetta looked oblivious to any Yamataian word, let alone a clan name.

"Like Motoyoshi Naoko, she was a person or some such, and the rest were all of her kids. I looked them up at the time but I only remember her name. I remember being surprised they got the whole lot of her kids and her too for being from such a famous clan." The little Neko shrugged, pushing up the red and white stripes of her uniform.

"And so you did what?" Violetta asked, leaning down slightly to look into the false Neko eyes of the Nepleslian.

"My job," Saku said, as if there was no other answer but that. "They're gone for good. And I'm not about to tell you who gave me that job, by the way."

"Even if your stolen blood isn't like mine, you bleed green." Violetta said decisively with a knock on her door. It opened gently and Saku was swept off of Violetta's green foyer rug.

 

[Ametheliana]

The pile of NH-29 was away, replaced by the more imposing form of a real Nepleslian, Leo Taylor.

"So," Taylor began. If he was expecting Violetta to offer up a reply, he was wrong. She stepped from the entranceway to her sitting area to heat up a pot of tea. With a lady-like smoothing of her skirt, she sat. Her head fell into her hands. When she pulled her face from them, she had removed her glasses and her hands were rubbing at her temples.

Violetta's black brows pushed up, "Yui said we'd look out for one another."

Taylor said, "You want to go tell our neighbors some of them —some of the important ones— were killed for good on our property? Because I don't, ma'am."

"Are we sure it's for good?" Violetta asked, hands at her temples.

"We picked her up with the bodies still on the ship," Taylor shifted, pulling a datajockey from where his belt sat on the small of his back. He dropped it in her lap, showing the one of the carrier's newest additions to the cargo hold. "We scanned the Motoyoshi bodies for a soul or whatever Yamataians want to call it today, but we didn't get shit."

"Incinerate them at once," Violetta said in a huff. "The only hemosynthetic life form I want left aboard this ship is the one I just spoke to."

"An easy task," Tarloy said with a grim, tired expression. "Do you want to find who was buying the bodies?"

Violetta cupped her knee in her hand as she exhaled. "I want to go shake the Ikemen for all they've got."

"That one sounds fun," Taylor chuckled. "Consider it done."

"No, they may not be a legitimate business but they're a necessary piece of our fabric. I dare say, I really would like to know what they were thinking, truly." She huffed, her posh upbringing evident.

"Maybe it's time for the good news now," Taylor said. "A pending announcement, to be specific."

Violetta obviously perked as she sat straighter.

"There's another war," Taylor said out of the corner of his mouth which was pushing up into a smile.

"Don't tell me," Violetta said, putting her glasses up against her purple eyes as she took a guess. "The cat next door dug something up. Something we thought we buried."

"Right on the money. We're doing all we can to diverting commandants to their Task Force now that they're done with the squids in that old salt's new Empire."

"The one with Sanders' kid?" Violetta asked hurriedly as she stood, unable to sit longer as pieces started falling in place.

"That's the one," Taylor said. "If you've thought of a way to avoid the same mistakes as last war, I'm all ears, ma'am."

Violetta's eyes slid away from Taylor as she paced the room. She was avoiding his gaze and hiding her thoughts from Taylor. An IPG Commandant of his aptitude could tell. Violetta's excitement had been replaced by worry. He let her walk it off, this time patient as he waited for her to offer her reply. The tea kettle whistled and primly she poured two cups and set one for Taylor before sipping her own.

As she did, her datajockey came alive and Taylor himself was again pulling at the small of his back once more to read the same message Violetta's eyes bore down on. She put her palm against the mahogany of her desk and spoke into it, head bowed so that her dark bun pointed to the top of the NSS Episcopus.

"Is that not a convenient way to keep us out of the sidelines," Violetta said, voice grave and sharp at its edge.