Elijah
"Ah, he's just hurting because it's my job to kill my fellow prisoners." Admitted the most cognizant pirate, the one called Greg. He was markedly older than the other two men, scarred up yet otherwise plain looking. He kept his hair shaved short, and it was now that he scratched at his scalp with a bashful look. "Y'see, I get captured an awful lot; like anyone in our business. The whole thing is a pain in the ass, but I always get out unscratched. If I kill the other prisoners, then I get their cut of the take at the end of the day. Keeps people from tattling, I guess, and it keeps people from getting caught, too."
"That's just about the dumbest shit I ever heard." Said Franklin, furrowing his brow over having just heard the dumbest shit he'd ever heard.
Nearby, Niel opened his eyes peeked around Yori for a moment before settling back in and refocusing on her voice. As much as some lonely middle-aged guy like him might like for her to be naked in front of him, she still had some shred of decency left. Niel illustrated this by letting her know, "Well, I didn't take too close a look at the design, so the whole thing might be shit for all I know. When they first assigned you, I thought they were trying to use you to keep tabs on me, make sure I didn't get senile or anything. So I didn't really look at your work, just your history. But, hey--"
And just like if she were naked in front of him, he was willing to get naked as well. "If you ever want to forward me anything you're working on, I'd love to look it over and make suggestions or ask questions. I know how cruel the approval board can be."
APS
"I think Miss Koga is retrieving the scanner." Daziel said matter-of-factly, pointing a hand to Akemi's fading form on the horizon. "I wouldn't worry about that, anyhow. We've got a bakers' dozen of the blasted things sitting scattered around, and Sapphire's device captured all of the data from your scanner. Walk and talk with me, my friend."
At this, Daziel turned on a heel and began to walk towards the Joacim with broad steps. Without checking to see if Seiji was following, he added, "Do be a lad and tell me what's on your mind. These 'important things' your well-learned mind is no doubt concocting."
Akemi's Fortress of Brownietude
As Akemi settled onto the brownie once more to scope out her surroundings, she recieved a note from Sister Sara, letting her know that the message she'd written had been encrypted and sent over public communications channels. In the distance, there were many plain looking mountains. The only one Akemi could even make look remotely filthy in her mind's eye was one to the south that looked somewhat like a nude woman lying on her side, propped up on an elbow. Well, it at least looked a little like that. It certainly had the silhouette of it from the North.
While Akemi sized up this rock face, she recieved another message, this one from Daziel.
'I was a Nepleslian, to answer your first question. My family comes from Delsauria, though we moved to Funky City when I was still young. I'm told that 'Daziel' is an Elven name. I don't know any elves, you see, so it's awfully hard to confirm that. As it were, please forward me your business model and a series of stock options at your convenience and I'll browse them in my free time. Savings accounts accrue at a lesser rate than inflation, so I'm always looking to invest.'
It was within the nanosecond that Akemi was recieving the word 'invest' that she saw it. The motherlode of lewd rock formations was spread before her just a few kilometers to the west. It was a vast, deep scar in the land that lay between two peaks. Rainstorms had eroded whatever meteor impact had caused this imperfection and smoothed out the edges so much so that they represented a pair of lips, and not the kind one might find on a mouth. It seemed to sing to her, begging her to take a closer look. To top it all off, a single towering batholith escaped from the narrowest end of the gash. It was, for the perverted pop singer, majestic. If Akemi's bucket list included the task of making love to an entire planet, this would've been her moment.
If not, it was at least a pretty cool giant rock vagina.
Sister Sara
Whatever noise and fury Sapphire had been hoping to get was significantly muted to the rest of the ship. The 'alarm' she'd triggered amounted to a flashing red light and a single small noise that rang out from every workstation aboard the repurposed cargo carrier. The only other person who'd be able to take note of the intrusion was Mako, who from her position in the armory would hear the tiny voice of the floating sprite more loudly than she would the alert sound. The little witch crossed her arms and watched Sapphire squirm with a sideways face.
"Attack? I don't know anything about that. Sounds like somebody else." Said the adorable thing. "I'm Sylph. My master and her four friends use me to help them fix broken things. I'm just a helpful assistant program."
This spritely sorceress extended a hand to her right, and a ray of white light formed in the shape of a tear drop, with tiny cubic pixels shaving off of it as it shrank and turned brown before becoming a tiny broom with an audible 'puff' noise. Next, the sprite mounted this broom and puttered around the room in a wide arc before flying down next to Sapphire and planting herself on the edge of the young October's desk with her legs kicking beneath her.
"Y'know, I could help you fix up this crummy little 'home' you've got, too. Well..." The creature tilted her head and rubbed her chin with a look of firm concentration. "I'll help you until my master shows up, anyway. But if she needs me for something, I gotta go."
Several Lightyears away, the YSS Usa, taking a shipment of Type 35 Duty Uniform Pants to Leo Station
The YSS Usa was a Star Army cargo vessel operating in the Yugumo Cluter. For days, she'd been cruising with her full load of uniform pants, blazing a trail of fire between the Star Army supply center and the remote star fortress she called come. The bridge of this starcraft was like any other, a white spread of stations with a tall-backed captain's chair in the middle. Seated in this mighty chair was a tall, caramel-colored Neko proudly wearing an orange-paneled duty uniform. Beneath an adorable peaked cap and a spiky mane of pink hair was a pair of wide blue eyes that examined the space beyond with infinite innocent curiosity. Beneath those, a slender tongue was working the mean streets of Icecreamville, riding down pistachio street with an intent to eat a cherry.
Miria held the cone daintily in one hand and typed with another, licking away at the frozen confection while she crunched some numbers. Suddenly, a Nito-hei turned in his chair and approached her.
"Juni, an encrypted message for you." Said the other Neko, giving Miria a little bow.
The pink-haired captain looked back with excited eyes and said, "Oh, great! Looks like we're getting redirected again~"
"Ah... No, Juni, it's come in over SYNC; not PANTHEON."
Miria straightened in her chair. "A letter, for me!? Super! Here, you can finish this."
Without waiting for an answer, Miria pressed the ice-cream cone into her communications specialist's hand and began hammering away on her console with both hands. Immediately, Akemi's letter popped up.
"It's from Aki-chan~ Lucky me, getting fan-mail from a pop-singer." Miria remarked, already working on her response.
The communications specialist just sat there quietly, nervously testing her new ice cream cone with the tip of her tongue. Eventually, Miria noticed this and turned her eyes to look at the girl from under the visor of her cap. "Oh, and Yan-yan. Don't tell anybody how excited I got, they might lose respect for me."
The other neko's face flattened a bit, and she intoned bitterly, "Your secret is safe with me, Juni."
