Primitive Polygon
🎖️ Game Master
OOC: Featuring @Rizzo !
"Hello Mister Suites." The same old stern tone. But she had missed him. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"It's been too long, Tsu-hei!" Candon greeted, "how have you been?"
"Adequate." The woman answered curtly. Not good at small talk. "Mostly learning to fly a shuttle. How is your universe at the minute?"
"There's people that hate me, people that love me, plenty of gunfire. All around its a very well-balanced experience," he generalized, "I can't say much but there's a formal event at Hanako Palace coming up in a week that I'd really love for you to attend. Jax and Masumi will be there. Can you make it?"
"...Affirmative." A cautious but supportive voice. It wasn't like them to make a snap judgement, but this was Candon they were talking about. The two had been through too much together for her to ever turn him down. The secrecy, well... That wasn't exactly a surprise. "Yes, I can do this for you. Of course... What's the attire, though? Power armour or formal?... Or... unofficial, perhaps?..."
"Formal, please. If you must bring a weapon please conceal it, there will be a light security in the palace," he answered.
"Agreeable." Tsuguka nodded in real life. A small hesitation, fingers twisting. A phone cord like one of those ancient designs would have been real handy right now. Absent-mindedly, they realised they were smiling. "Just... Just give me a hug at least, Mister Suites, before you return to the aether this time."
"A hug?" Candon questioned, wondering who he'd just reached, "this is Tsuguka with a T, right?"
"Our level of formality should be below that which requires a handshake by now." The woman answered plainly. "Besides, I think I've realised that people in our line of work don't have separate social lives. Would you prefer if I just swore at you, for old time's sake?..."
The spy thought about it for a moment then answered, "yeah, hug is better. So what have you been up to? I've been out of touch with the old crew for a while."
"We got a bunch of new faces. I guess I have become 'momma bear' again." She shrugged a little, though it was par for the course. It was also a little hard to think of a response when they knew it would be difficult to ask them about work. "You see any of the old crew yourself?... I do hope somebody has your back."
Kind of a weird question considering Candon was actively calling up old friends for support on something, but Tsuguka was getting nostalgic for the time spent running after him on the old smash-and-grab now... Her job had really changed, and the support role seemed like a simpler, more intimate time to her now. She missed being able to count on him, in kind.
"Well, Jax moved onto our station and has a business building hot rods now, so I see him now and then, but I've been fighting a shadow war for months and didn't even have time to keep seeing Masumi. We just met back up and that's going well," Candon recounted, "I miss my Eucharis days. It was so much simpler."
"That's good. You two always seemed like you understood each other." A faint sigh. It was Tsuguka internally admitting she could have seen that being her, in another life. "...Erm... I've had this civilian ship for a year, by the way... Even followed in your shoes, and bought it in a way that is hard to trace back to me. Long story... But, well, there is nothing stopping us from meeting in person a bit more often..."
"I'd like that," Candon agreed, "I have a space station out in the 604 system you might like to visit sometime. Maybe we can even get you some work. What line of work are you in anyway?"
"I'm not." Tsuguka responded with a little reservation. "Actually...There was some perv sending weird messages to a bunch of Star Army personnel from planet 188604, and we investigated it personally. Ever since then, this ship has kinda just been the designated snooping vehicle, but my heart still belongs to the Eucharis, really. I can't abandon Yamatai with the Kuvies on the horizon..."
"Besides, you know what the turnover rate is like. I don't want to abandon the newbies." This was turning into a run-on sentence, but the red neko certainly hadn’t felt the need to explain herself like this before. "That said, I'm not impartial to visiting there again. There is something to be said for keeping an eye on the boondocks in my spare time."
Candon laughed at the statement. "Yes, there are many somethings to be said. I'm the only member of the 188604 SAINT monitoring station," he explained, then whispered, "space me, waking her up. I'll see you soon Tugs."
