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Super Robot Wars ∀: Deep Space IC Thread - Part 2: Of Dire Tides


Xinnidy
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Feeling Blue

"What she said... And I'm bugging you because you feel down. Sorry if I shouldn't be prying, but... Well, I'm not like the other two. I can't really drown that out. You're making it feel really obvious..." That was probably rude to say, despite the concern in her voice. "I'm probably not the best at helping with all this adult stuff, but, maybe talking to us would be better than spending time with the wine?" Had the XO done something wrong, anyway? She seemed to be rather tense with the captain in meetings, but she'd been helping out during the fights all the same, no?

Fit to Scale

"Power and scale problems, huh... Avery would probably be better able to help you with your power problems. That's probably one of the few things I don't get. But!" Buck scooted closer and pulled up a digital display, propping up the tinkering he'd been doing with the Crescent. "So, that Apoth grunt mech we grabbed, right? There's some really interesting tech in how their weaponry works. Beam rifle, ours just hold charges, right? Standard stuff-- or the bigger stuff like with the Mantle, powered by the main machine rather than holding its own ammunition. Well, the gun on the Cressida we snagged is using ammo. Like, carts. Sounded kinda cumbersome, until I looked into why."

The gun popped up, dismantling itself in the display, focusing in on the ammo storage. "It's got a whole 'clip' of clips. Each one stores compressed energy on twice the scale of an ANF battery. I dunno if that's why they fire blue, or whatever, but it'd give your tiny bots a way to shrink down without sacrificing firing power. Just have to adapt what's here... Seems like it pools the charge into the weapon before firing, like it's condensing it." Buck was smiling at the little diagram, a bit too giddy about it.

"I bet the bigger machines have even stronger energy condensers, but the tech's right here. Just have to unpack it, shrink it, test it, and apply it... Drives, huh... So these drones, are they supposed to fly?" One subject to another. "How you gonna get something so tiny to fly? It was already hard enough getting Kim's machine to stay in the air, from all the complaining I've heard on Avery's end." He'd dropped the tour entirely for now, talking tech was fun, and if he had to face down Firmia, he could do it later.

Tag Along

"Oh, hush. I can only ever be active in one instance, so even if I leave a copy, unless you tell her, there's no harm... So don't tell her, big guy." Galatea stuck her tongue out before disappearing again, leaving Hannah chuckling quietly.

"She's probably just happy to have friends after being locked in my brain for so long. You should eat something before you work on anything else, Brant. Speaking of, do you need help with what Firmia is having you work on? I would be happy to provide parts of my structure if it would be beneficial."

"I told you," Galatea quipped.

"I... I suppose that does not come as a surprise. But, I just want to help. Firmia is having me running battle simulations, and I am sure that's helping, but, I can do a lot more..."

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Well, maybe she'd oversold it; 'Hell' was a pretty extreme descriptor. Either way, it got the point across that Abigail was worried and wanted to know what was up, so it did its job there, and the captain didn't seem to get more depressed at hearing it, which meant it didn't backfire with unintended side effects. All told, a win. What was an even bigger victory was the news she was relayed. 'No strings attached' was a better result than she could have dared hope for, and warranted a little fist pump. Then Abby was about to give Jess a hug of thanks, but she was beaten to the punch, and found herself on the receiving end of what was admittedly kind of a weak effort. The captain really seemed exhausted, must've been burning the candle from all ends.

"Wow, you sure know how to make a girl feel good," Abby shot back with playful sarcasm as Jess informed her that, yes, she stank. "Kinda goes hand in hand with tinkering with nuts, bolts, grease, and oil though. Was gonna take a shower before meeting up with you, but best laid plans and all..." She let the captain drag her into the elevator, so the doors would close behind them and giggled a bit as she continued a little further. "Still plan on washing up before bed... You're free to join me if you want."

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Clean Off

"Shhh... It's fine." It wasn't anywhere near bad, really. Not pleasant, but not close to disturbing... Maybe it'd get pleasant if she stood there and waited. This was incredibly comfortable, after such a tense day. "Do I make you happy?" she muttered, half awake until the elevator dinged and woke her up. "Ahh, geez... Sorry. Almost conked out there... Joining you? Er, sure... I suppose I could use a shower too. Didn't do as much work physically as you, but... Still. The warm water and everything." Missing any implications in her tired state, Jess slipped away from Abby and stumbled out of the elevator, yawning again. "Long day, huh?" she smiled back at the woman, taking her hat off and messing with her gloves. If she was going to be showering, they'd be coming off at some point anyway.

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"Hee hee, they're so easy to just eat and suggest. They're everywhere." Burgers and fries were indeed common. Though she thought it wouldn't hurt to try something different too if Elaine wanted to. She followed Elaine to the food court and took a look around herself. Elaine decided to change her mind and go with the classic fast food combo. Can't blame a girl for the easy answer nothing wrong with that at all. She did the same in fact and took a seat with the red. "Movies? Well there's a nice action comedy flick going on about two cops. Kinda nice but I prefer romance movies myself." He dipped a fry into her paper ketchup cup nearby and took a bite. "Mm...they can get cheesy but I like the ones with happy endings. Overdone yeah but...Iunno. Maybe I'm too weak to see something tragic..." She half joked and swallowed.

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"Huh," Tonya grimaced at her messages on the display, "I wanted to introduce you to my guild leader, Empress Elle; she's usually on this time of night ... but it looks like she's offline for a change. Guild message says she's at the hospital dealing with family issues. I hope it's nothing too serious ..."

"I don't care," Firmia sighed, "If you need this game to keep you busy when nothing's going on, fine, but don't forget to disconnect when you're in hiding, otherwise they'll just use the signal to track you."

"Oh come on, I'm not an amateur," Tonya said, her feigned annoyance not even eliciting a reaction from the Alkaev. "That's why I was asking you about the relays, earlier. When I need to go radio silent, I want to do it right."

"That's fine. You should be able to turn them off manually now. They'll also shut down if any of the override commands are detected coming from somewhere other than the Regalia, Mantle, or the Heion Riese. Well, I'm done here." Firmia started toward the hatch. "You can do whatever you want for now, but make sure you're ready to go in the morning. Whether we fake leaving the Riese or something useful comes up first, I want to get the Reign off of the ship before we run into Apotheosis, again."

Tonya winced a little. "You're really worried about this."

The cockpit slid open and Firmia grabbed hold of the lift, turning back to face Tonya. "Don't forget, Tonya, Apotheosis may be stupid, but they're being backed by some advanced alien race. We're so close to a worst case scenario right now ... I'm still trying to figure out what we can do to win."

Tonya grinned somberly. "I guess we shouldn't wait for the Lupunine Feddies to swoop in and save us."

Lupunine? Oh! Wolf ... dog ... aliens? A federation of alien dogs? Something like that. Firmia stopped just short of laughing. "Yes, we're on our own for now."


It was a war. They might as well turn Apotheosis' own tech against them. Sasha was all for that, but Firmia's plan to leave the Riese if the ANF didn't do ... something for her, wasn't giving them much legroom for fighting back. For now, they still had some time to get some work done on the engineering front, and this energy clip method sounded like the right way to go. Powering their weapons the way the Mantle did was pretty much out of the question, after all.

As for getting these things mobile, as well as airborne ... "The drives the AMS units are using aren't proper V-drives." Scratching his head, Sasha thought back to the months just prior to Apotheosis' incursion. "The lead scientist at the Alkaev company somehow got his hands on some of the ANF's mobile suit V-drive data, but couldn't put together a model compatible with the AMS series with the manpower and materials we had on hand. The torso is too complicated to fit our standard generators and a V-drive on top of that, not when the head unit has to fit in there during Flight mode. So eventually the guy found my notes on gravitation and cogravitation and created Frankenstein's Monster. The system I designed generates its own field instead of relying on the Earth's. The system also doesn't use emitters, but most importantly, the whole thing is a hell of a lot smaller. It all came down to saving space, so the AMS series' pseudo V-drives are smaller than the one on the Artemis."

Sasha took a moment to grab his mock up drive and placed it in front of his abdomen. He leaned as far to the left as he could without losing balance, making sure to keep the saucer upright, its flat underside lined up with the hangar floor. Then he mirrored the action to his right. "AMS drives have just one emitter, but they're in a gyroscopic rig, so no matter which way the suit's oriented, the emitter is always facing the Earth. The rest comes down to the suit's own flight characteristics. That's why they don't handle as well in MS mode. Anyway, for these MDs, I'm thinking of going with my system's original setup. It scales up pretty well. I just need a way to power it. If I can't figure it out, they'll just have to use battery clusters and dock with a carrier unit to recharge." A carrier unit wasn't anything specific. Rather, it didn't need to be. An AMS unit. A ship. A platform. Whatever sheltered and deployed an MD was its carrier unit as far as Sasha was concerned.


Brant grimaced at his communicator. In the long run, keeping secrets from Firmia pertaining to her mobile suits didn't even approach the realm of good ideas. "As much as I don't want to rock the boat, she already doesn't trust the ANF. She needs to be able to trust us." Admittedly, Brant knew his subconscious was hard at work right now, looking for any little thing he could do to redress the situation with her. It was starting to surprise Brant just how much he longed for the old days. He'd only known Firmia personally for a mere handful of months, but a lot had happened. Was this really so bad, though? Even if it was for his own good, Brant doubted Firmia was better off limiting herself like she was.

"Anyway," Brant shrugged, feeling a bit helpless, "I won't turn down the help, Hannah. You can punch in code a lot faster than I can. I can walk you through it and tweak your work as we go. Let's save copying from you directly as a last resort, though. You're not a war machine or some code base, and we can pull this off without having you be either." At least that's what he hoped. Brant also hoped to move on to the purpose of his break without getting caught up on that point. "Food first though, right? Not sure what I want yet, but I guess I'll figure it out when we get there. Were you going to try anything?"

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Jess was kind of in full on lovable dope mode right now, apparently not wanting anything more than to hold and be held back. And well, maybe some affirmations. Abigail was happy to oblige, sliding her hands up her back as she hugged back, rubbing around her shoulders, maybe working a little of the tension out.

"An excellent start," she admitted. Abby wasn't sure why, but she kept finding herself wanting to be careful, to hedge her words. Was she really that worried that if she admitted she was happy she would only end up losing that happiness again? She really didn't want to think about it, it made her uncomfortable, and so she would probably just keep refusing to be as firm on things as she should, at least until called on it. Who knew how she'd handle it then...

Thankfully Jess nearly completely missing her innuendo caused her to break into laughter, a full and genuine smile now broadly across her face. "Oh Jess," Abigail managed between a few chuckles. "Yeah, the warm water will do you good, that's exactly what I meant." Then again, given how tired the captain obviously was, with big yawns and stumbles abounding, maybe she should let her off easy tonight. Eh. Abby decided to just play things by ear.

"Long day, indeed. Took a lot out of all of us," Abigail agreed, following Jess out of the lift, a hand on the other girl's back to steady her.

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Not Proper

"Not proper huh? That must be why they can't stay flying in MS mode, but how they keep so nimble when transformed. Interesting..." Hmm... Sasha's ideas on suits emitting their own field to stay airborne was an interesting one. Conventional V-Drive technology made use of the earth's own magnetic field to counteract the forces of gravity enough to give a suit-- or even a battleship, enough help to stay off the ground. Either through mass amounts of V-Drive technology, in the case of the Riese, or combining the phenomena with sufficient thrusters, like the Artemis. Buck was really stuck on the AMS units now, even if he was impressed by Sasha's roundabout way of addressing the issue. "Their own fields, huh... You're probably onto something."

"I assume you're not wanting to do solar for the MDs? The tech's really reliable now, and can hold a charge for a long time. If you go with the cartridges for weaponry, all they have to do is be powered enough to fly, right?" It was worth a shot, as much as he was sure Sasha had already thought about it... And he couldn't stop thinking about these pseudo V-Drives. "Okay, listen, it's eating at me, can I see a diagram of these pseudo whatevers? Gonna toot my own horn, I managed to make a working V-Drive in my backyard. For... All of five minutes-- but! I didn't have my hands on any real technology. If you or your boss are willing to let me have a look at the Regalia, Mantle, whatever, I can probably get rid of the pseudo in those drives... Space issues or not." He wasn't bluffing, if the tech was close to the Artemis' own blueprints, and he could sneak those away from Avery, he was confident he could fix something up.

"What do you think? Probably help you guys if the machines didn't have to land in MS mode, right?" Would probably make flyboy a lot happier if he got to stay in the air.

Trusting

"Trust us, is it... Hmm." It was a failsafe on Galatea's part, but she supposed a copy in the Regalia would do more harm than good. "Fine. Put this code into the Regalia next time you're in it." A string of numbers and letters sent itself so Brant's inbox. "You're free to check it over and decrypt it if you're worried, it's just a termination code for my backups. Is that better?" She didn't mention the code would only work on that version of her backup, but she wasn't expecting Brant to go about trying to delete her off of things.

"Well, I... I may not be a war machine, but that would make things go faster, wouldn't it? If you're sure..." It was amusing that Brant wouldn't accept that sort of leap forward. With how much he enjoyed AIs, she'd been assuming he would've jumped at the chance to get at her code. He must've been trying really hard at this treating her like a human thing. Despite her previously disappointed tone, she smiled wider. "Yes, let's. Er, try anything, though?" She was back to being confused. "Well, I can't taste, and there's no proper reason for me to ingest anything. I suppose if you wanted to try feeding me something, I wouldn't say no. I can cleanly dispose of anything that I physically process."

Galatea rolled her eyes at Hannah's perhaps oblivious flirting, before noting something important. "You've started using contractions."

"Huh?" Hannah paused and looked down at Brant's wrist.

"When you talk. You weren't for the longest time, and now you're introducing them like they're no big deal."

"Oh... Am I? Should I stop? It just seemed like natural progression, and I'd-- I had, er... I have been taking in a lot of speech patterns from everyone talking on the ship. If it is bothersome, I can stop."

Galatea left that one up to Brant.

Missing It

Jess furrowed her brow, frowning a bit. "Heyyyy, why are you laughing at me? What'd I do?" She rolled her eyes just a bit and smiled, letting Abby help keep her propped up. It dawned on her a moment later, making her blush. "Ohhh, ohh... I-I see. I mean, if you want... I don't know if I can really help back tonight, but..." It was a good thing no one else was around, Jess was almost glowing, glad her hair was as long as it was to hide her face.

"It was a long day... I'm just glad we're here at Central. Hopefully it means at least one day away from the constant battles and nonsense... And all that talking with Alphonse. Ugh... It didn't last super long, but like... I had to ask if we were okay. He told me to keep quiet about it. Just makes me worry that I'll get you into trouble. And..." Jess glanced into the cafeteria as they passed by it, noticing the XO, and looking away quickly. "It was more than awkward to have to tell him how much of a problem his own niece has been."

The door to her quarters couldn't have come up fast enough, Jess using the last of her energy to make a small sprint for it and dive inside. With the door open, she unbuttoned her officer's jacket immediately, tossing it aside and flopping onto the bed in her tights and a t-shirt. "So done with today. So done... Bed so cozy. Mmm, you're gonna have to get me off of this slice of heaven if you want me to join you in the shower... Don't think I have what it takes to get myself off of it." She crawled further up the delightful mattress as she said that, yawning and curling up some. A hand lazily grabbed for a pillow, but collapsed down after it couldn't find one. This was good enough.

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"Romance movies, huh? Could be an interesting watch. And there's nothing wrong with preferring happy endings. Better than ones that just end with cliffhangers." Lord knows that we need more happy endings around here. Elaine took another bite of her burger, preferring to save the fries as a snack after it. Truth be told, Elaine was more interested in the action comedy flick Aliza mentioned. Maybe she could watch that on her own time. But, for now, she wanted to spend more time with her newest friend. It was nice to be able to talk to someone like this, especially after how threatened she had felt by Louise's call. It was like all the anxiety she had felt over the past few days was slowly fading away with her time spent with Aliza. Slowly. "So. What do you wanna do after this? It is pretty late, but I think there are still plenty of places open."

Edited by Dandragon
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Lively Night

The sight of a boy Tarquin's age by his own wasn't particularly strange by the mall, families were still around, but the demographic was certainly leaning to teens and teenagers by that time of the night. Most adults around seemed to be staff or security, likely a side effect of the war. As Tarquin entered Cold Topic, he was immediately approached by one of the teen employees standing by the entrance. "Welcome to Cold Topic! Looking for something special? Boy's fashion is at the left side." She didn't seem that much older than Tarquin, reciting a greeting that was probably rehearsed, and with notable bags under her eyes. Did a job so simple push unreasonable hours? Then again, somebody needed to work the midnight shift. "If you need anything more, just give me a holler." In true modern convenience, asking her name wasn't necessary, as this girl and every other employee had name tags. This one in particular seemed to be called 'Caroline' if he was reading the shoddy writing in the tag right.

Cold Topic wasn't that awfully busy, but maybe it was the fact that it was so expansive inside that gave that idea. The rows of shirts, shorts, and more, seemed to go on forever, assorted by design first and size within the rows, it was quite a complex layout. Did picking out one's clothes really need to take that much effort?

Nerds and Books

Well, that was... a reaction. Still, it wasn't like Talia was squeaking and looking like she was going to collapse, so it was better than what Makoto remembered from back in the infirmary! "Mmm, yeah, I guess they can put a strain on your eyes sometimes. I think it's worse when you binge watch a series and wake up feeling dead the next day, at least if the series isn't even worth it." Makoto fell for that way too often, for shame. He was kind of lucky he didn't need glasses yet, his dad had to start using them at an early age. "Ah, let's go, then!" He still couldn't believe how similar she looked to Tarquin, at least superficially. Did they age the same as everyone else? Well, he hoped so...

The bookstore in question was rather expansive, making use of the large space to make a second floor with a few tables for reading and a small café space at the corner. Despite the existence of a food court, the place seemed modestly popular, and was probably pricier. The atmosphere was fairly pleasant, and it wasn't all that busy. "Mmm, there's the e-book section, but I really want to see if they have a print of the new volume of 'Neo Arts Magisphere', the new act was finally picking its pace, and the holographic cover was really nice." It was a shounen manga that was really picking a cult following lately, volume 7 was focusing on the world building (finally), and was being well-received by critics. It was probably going to be the next big hit if they made a TV adaptation. "Oh, anything you wanted to see first?" It wouldn't do well to run off to the manga section on his own and leave Talia hanging!

More Drinks

"Ah, uh.. right, the Artemis was surprised by those units. Right." It made sense for the girls to be up and about if they had been resting for a while already. Ah, and Jessica probably wanted Seung-Min to be around for the meeting. "Yeah, the meeting. Captain wants you and Brant on standby. I also have to be on standby..." Which in retrospective made her decision to drink away seem real dumb, "D-don't worry, I'm holding back on the drinks." Totally.

Christina wanted to help her, but the fact she was feeling the early mid-life crisis Roxanna was so desperately wanting to drown out with alcohol only made it a harder subject to approach. What could these kids help her with, really? They were still relatively young, and none of them really needed to know her issues. "I... just, messed up, hard, since I stepped in this ship." She downed her glass of wine faster than before. Despite Christina's pleas, Roxanna really needed a punch to her senses to continue this line of conversation. "H-honestly, I shouldn't be talking about this stuff or making your day worse. I just... I don't gel with the Captain, but I fucked this up --uh..." She unconsciously jumped to strong language in front of subordinates, she never did that. How embarrassing. "I think she's going to fire me..." Ugh, what an idiot she was making herself look...

Edited by Xinnidy
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Sasha nodded at Buck's solar comment. It wasn't a bad method by any means, but he had a feeling solar plating might not be compatible with Firmia's design. He hadn't seen the latest version of said design yet, but his bets were already placed on Firmia complicating things. Things seemed to take a detour as Buck brought up an idea of his. The young prodigy was confident he could upgrade the drives the AMS units were using to proper V-drives, space be damned. Sasha wondered if they even had time left for that. It was his only issue with the idea, though.

"It'd definitely help," Sasha nodded again. The accompanying smile was weak, thanks to his overall mood, but still genuine. "Hell, if Firmia's not too worked up over this mole situation, she might even sign off on the idea. Give me a second. I'll get you a look at the data first and you can give me some estimates. If we take care of the logistics ahead of time, it'll be easier to get her to listen."

The Mantle's pseudo V-drive came up on Sasha's console after a moment. Four columns of stats appeared below the diagram half a second later. "Have fun," Sasha teased, setting down his mock up out of the way and turning turning around to lean against the console.


Brant frowned. "You know, there's no guarantee Firmia would be mad about you having yourself backed up in the Regalia. I just think she'd want to know about it." She probably wouldn't mind having the code either, but still ...

Hannah's contraction usage had slipped under Brant's radar until Galatea pointed it out. He didn't know why it would be a bother. As long as she didn't pick up a weird accent or start using some strange dialect ... "You do you ... just don't take after the wrong people," Brant chuckled, just a tad forcefully thanks to his impromptu answer.

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It seemed that the XO was also asked to be on standby for this elusive meeting of theirs... who doesn't even give a rough time for that sort of thing, really? Of course, this seemed to be the first she was remembering of it, becoming embarrassed at her alcohol consumption, and abruptly trying to wave it off as insignificant... entirely unsuccessfully, at least to Kim. Maybe Christina had believed her? Either way, she began to talk about what was bothering her... and downed another glass of wine, oops. The tension between the XO and the Captain had always been... difficult to miss, but it appeared that the XO was being effected more adversely than one might expect, apparently at this point her position was also on the line.

"I can't say... I know all of the details of your position. But from what I managed to glean from...your interactions with the Captain in front of us... it seems like, an issue of pride... and trust. If you think... that it's too far gone, I don't... know what to tell you. But if you're willing to put things behind you... to move forward, you should... show her that, I think." Kim reasoned... having not interacted much with the XO outside of formal settings, it was difficult to say just how deep this rabbit hole was, really...

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Yeah, Jess really was entirely full-on lovable dope right now, it was super precious. Especially the blushing, without even trying to dodge it through denial, just straight up accepting everything. But understanding that a very large chunk of that had to do with how legitimately exhausted the captain was did certainly put a damper on certain of Abigail's potential plans. She nodded and gave a squeeze of the shoulders as Jess explained her talk with Alphonse and the state of somewhat official sanction their relationship had gotten. Put the final nail in the coffin to the uneasy worries she'd had that Jess might be having second thoughts, based on her bizarre actions earlier in the day, especially after she'd already explained she was trying not to be that clingy, takes-up-all-your-time-for-normal-friends girlfriend.

When the mention of the troubles with Roxanna came up again, Abigail did have to frown. She hadn't really made much progress in figuring out just what was wrong on that front. So far, aside from being a bit prickly, the XO had seemed genuinely like she was trying to do her job, just, maybe they disagreed on a few of the details. Hopefully Jess asking for those extra few minutes this morning hadn't made things any worse...

And then she was off. Abby looked and had to hold back a laugh at the running leap the captain took for her mattress. How adorably childish... Leisurely following into the room, Abigail swung the door shut behind them and with a smile plucked up a pillow that Jess had tried and failed to find. Leaning down and ruffling Jess's red hair a little as she gently lifted her head and slid it underneath, Abby shook her own and gave up. "Just promise me you won't be asleep by the time I come out, I have to talk to you about some things I learned from Chris this afternoon."

 

Well, that had been interesting. She'd caught sight of a handful of people exiting Chris's room from down the hall. Some people sure work fast. Abigail didn't expect they'd also been following up on things for the captain, but then again, there hadn't been any sort of prohibition on crew contact with her, and she was quite the curiosity. Abby put on her best 'don't bother me' face, as she passed them in the hall, going straight to Chris's door and giving it a knock of her own. Who cares if Brant, Elaine, or Makoto paid attention?

She could hear the distinctive sounds of one of the classic Christmas movies of all time coming from within, which was odd, given the season. But maybe Chris was just trying to grab hold of whatever cheery feeling she could find, to escape when she was captured and alone. If so, Abigail could certainly sympathize.

"Hey," she called out, adding her voice to the knock. "I'm opening up and coming in."

"Wha--" Another one? Chris bit her lip and scowled at the door. That voice was... "Abigail." She sighed. That was better than most of the crew, probably. "Fiiiiiiiiine." She sighed it out at the door, waiting, pausing the film once again. It wasn't like she could let her in herself...

The door opened right on the 'i' of 'Fiiiiiiiiine', and Abigail quickly slid in and shut it behind her, lock reengaging automatically. Chris was in the stock clothes from the provided wardrobe, apparently changing had been the first order of business. Abby was lucky her selection was slightly better than just the plain whites provided, thanks to a little outside help, but it still wasn't exactly what you'd call 'good'. Arriving with nothing tended to do that to a person. So, yeah, she sympathized. Still...

"I guess a bit of a congratulations are in order, hmm? Managed to avoid the brig, well played. I guess I should have tried the whole 'not being unconscious' thing when I got dragged in. Skipping out on surgery woulda been ideal too, shit. Looks like you got it easy with the Lieutenant going in for you, instead of Doyle, huh?" Pointless small talk bullshit, but it was hard to resist. "Then again, maybe it wasn't all roses, either, I shouldn't be too quick to judge." Abigail shrugged, remembering that with Kim came some additional baggage, and particularly heavy baggage for this one at that.

Sauntering over to the bed and plopping herself down next to the sullen copy, Abigail turned and gave her a serious look. "We're gonna have a bit of a talk, and then, depending on what I hear, maybe we'll take a bit of a walk. How's that sound?"

Congratulations for surviving? No, for making it to a proper room right away. That's right, Abby had been tossed into the brig when they'd picked her up. Probably didn't have any worthwhile information to give to stay out of it. "Lucky's a word for it. I told them to kill me. Their mistake, I guess..." Roses this was not. Maybe the thorns from the stems. Being so broken in a ship full of these happy go luckers and the original just made her feel more of the only emotion she was good at.

Chris met Abby's serious look with a dejected glare of her own, before looking away and sighing. "Yeah, sure. Whatever you want. You're less fun to talk to than Brant, though. Can't put the moves on you. Just how good is the captain in bed? You're at least good enough to make her late, but you were right on time. Guess she didn't stack up that well, huh?" These mole reports were certainly... Detailed.

The fuck was that? If there actually were moles and they'd been giving reports that detailed, that up-to-date... Abigail's eyes narrowed. The list of suspects had just dropped exponentially. Herself, Jess, Roxanna, Tristan, who else had heard? Maybe the adjacent rooms? No, they hadn't been that loud...

Or maybe there was another explanation? Frown. No, even if... Even if this Chris was one of them, one of them ESPers, Abby hadn't even been remotely indulging in memories of her time with Jess. Just how powerful were they, just what could they...?

Only one way to find out.

Reaching out and grabbing Chris by the chin, now thoroughly unamused, Abigail forcefully turned her face back to facing her. "What did you say." A flat, angry demand for clarification. And then, she began thinking back purposefully, remembering every squeak and gasp. Abby was going to give this clone a mindful, even if reliving the excitement got herself uncomfortably bothered with no hope of release, she needed to see if Chris would react. Because that might clear up one worry, for better or worse.

Chris was quick to respond to the grab, snatching Abby's hand and pushing it off of her, staring her back down. "I said you were sleeping with the captain. What the fuck else do you want? I was complaining that it's pointless to flirt with you because you're already in bed with her. Is that clear enough for you?" Chris let her go and shuffled a bit away, sighing. "If you're gonna snap at me over the smallest little cut, then get out. I'm not a nice person. I don't expect you to change that..."

Nothing. Well, nothing relevant anyway. Just the normal response anyone would expect. Fuck. Okay, then was the list really that short? She'd need to talk to the captain tonight, if not before. But, this was all incidental, and unrelated to her original purpose.

"Relax, I'm not fussed with you, just with how you knew," Abby half-mused, half-explained. "That said, you shouldn't fucking spout your mouth about shit you can't back up. Pretty sure you wouldn't hold a candle to her, not with that attitude. But enough on that," Abigail had to force herself to stop and catch a breath. She'd let herself get a little too steamed, said a few too many unnecessary words there. "I didn't drop by to talk about my love life, and I certainly wasn't planning to 'change' you, no worries there. Trying to 'change' someone is just bullshit for people with god complexes and too much time on their hands. Fuck that."

Abigail sighed, spread out her hands behind her back and leaned back on them, sinking a bit into the modest cushion of the ANF mattress. "No, I was hoping to find out just how much better you were in a cockpit than your template. No offense, I mean, she tries, but... wasn't exactly a great pilot. And you didn't really get a chance to demonstrate anything yourself, what with the massive range disadvantage out there this morning. Was thinking I'd take you to the sims, see how you stacked up, maybe put in a good word with the captain. Which, considering you know I've at least got access to her ear, might mean something to you. Or would you rather just pout, feel useless, and go back to your movies? We've already got one of those on board, you wouldn't be the first."

"You're not gonna find out how much a candle I hold, so watch me. I'll spout my mouth however I want," she jabbed back, not at all amused by Abby's rather defensive front... But it made sense from what her bio read. She was a fiery one, that was for sure... How unfortunate that someone had already gotten to her. "And I didn't mean that kind of change. I meant fix. I'm broken... Their technology wasn't all that impressive. I'm not mean because I want to be, I'm mean because that's all I know how to be... I'm literally missing emotions that I should be able to feel. All I get... All I get is angry. That's the sob story. Wah wah."

At least the next subject was better and worse. Having Christina called a template made her blood boil, scowling at the carpet, but the chance to shoot something to relieve some of this frustration was a worthwhile endeavor... "You sure your precious captain isn't going to chew you out for letting me out to do that? If you're giving me a serious chance to do this... Then don't think I'll sit here and whine about my brain. I'd rather be useful. And if there's anything I can do right, it's fire a gun."

Part of Abigail wanted to leap at Chris and take that challenge. It was the part of her she was afraid of, was hoping wasn't responsible for her relationship with Jess, wasn't just a case of her using her. But being an adult with enough common sense to recognize a huge problem when it stared her in the face, she'd already brushed it aside. Sure, there was some internal grumbling to herself about 'Damn girl, just how thirsty are you? I know we were just stoking the fire trying to test that dud theory, but even still...' but even that came to an end when another bucket of ice water was thrown on any remaining smouldering embers. Chris's explanation about whole chunks of the emotional spectrum just... missing from her repertoire was certainly... a thing.

While that didn't fundamentally change how she'd been using 'change' and the whole nature of 'fix' and 'broken'--after all to Abigail's parents her 'deficiency' needed 'fixing' in just the same way--it really did paint a different picture on the whole... anybody making any sort of moves on the clone. What a mess. Who wants to fuck a headcase? Thank god the mention of sims seemed to change the track of the conversation.

Abigail shrugged a little at the other girl's lead-off. "For someone boasting about how mean and unfeeling they are, seems odd of you to care how Jess might choose to punish me, no? Regardless, this something I'm curious to see, and don't worry, I don't intend to keep it behind her back. I'll be telling her the results either way: Whether it turns out you can't even stack up to the original, or if you blow her out of the water. Just... don't do anything stupid on the way to and from. I'd hate to have to hurt you, and for you to lose all the nice privileges you've wrangled yourself. Despite your aggressive fronting, you don't really seem the sort I'd wish time in the brig for."

Abby stood up from the bed, and moved halfway to the door, turning to see if Chris would follow. She'd be walking behind the captive as they travelled, but someone needed to start them moving if they were gonna get there anytime today. "No promises you'll actually get put to use, this is just a 'feeling the waters' kind of thing, but it certainly can't hurt, right?"

"Wha... I-I don't, care about if you get into trouble! I... Just, felt like mentioning it..." Chris turned red, like she'd been caught stealing the last slice of pie at thanksgivings. Maybe she wasn't missing these emotions as she claimed, rather, maybe they were buried in her subconscious; as she'd said, it wasn't like being mean was intentional, it was just filling her conscious void. She hadn't actively noticed that she'd voiced that concern until it was pointed back at her, the frustration evident on her face as she began to calm down.

"Wh-Whatever... Just... I'm not gonna do anything stupid... This bed is too nice to give up. Don't think you'd be doing all the hurting, though. She might be the template, and they messed up my brain, but they got the body more than right." She casually rolled up a sleeve and flexed to prove her point, muscles Christina could only dream of forming in an instant.

"If I felt like being a nuisance, I could be one. I just... Don't want to be." She sighed and headed off in front of Abby, waiting next to the door. "That's fine. Anything's better than laying here watching Bruce Willis."

Edited by Balcerzak
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Apologize

Roxanna was really out of sorts, huh? And all because of her tension with the captain? Geez. "If you're so beaten up over this, why don't you just say sorry?" Drinking in the cafeteria wouldn't really solve anything, would it? Maybe an apology wouldn't either, but... "The captain seems really nice, so... If you mean it, and you stop fighting with each other, maybe things can get better. You don't know until you try." Worth a shot? Who could say. "Seeing you like this isn't good for anyone, though." Crew morale and Roxanna both.

Playing Around

"Holy shit really?" Avery wasn't around, so Buck wasn't up for self censoring. "Dude, you're the best. Give me like, a few minutes here." The diagrams and data came up and holy crap Buck's eyes went wide. These things were barely working as it was! That wasn't about to discourage him, but wow, the Russians were really strapped for this sort of tech, weren't they? Fingers flying over the keyboard, Buck brought his previously setup diagram of that energy condenser over and went to work. "Put this here, move those numbers over there... No, that doesn't-- wait, here instead... Okay, what about... Alright, cool, so, just..."

All his mumbling finally stopped as he beamed wider than ever, turning the console towards Sasha. His big smile slowly retreated to a smug grin, but he was no doubt still incredibly proud of himself. "Alright. Here's the lowdown, my pal. Using the theory behind that weapon I talked to you about, I can increase the output of your pseudo drives... For a good ten minutes at a time. These fights you're all getting into seem to fly by, so by my standards that's plenty of time. You were right about the size constraints of these things, though. Can't get it better than that without finding somewhere else to squeeze in the tech... Best of all is, I don't have to touch anything. This is a pretty simple fix, just has to do with energy flow and output, so you and Firmia could probably fix it yourselves." The pseudo drives' issue was that they weren't able to produce enough energy because of their size constraints.

That just meant finding a way to get more energy... The AMS units could pump out enough as it were, the little drives just couldn't output enough either. All Buck had done was switch up the input and output a bit through the condenser giving a more concentrated stream, pressing the edges of their limits, but giving them enough power to facilitate MS flight for a limited time. It wasn't perfect, but it was a good solution for a group low on practical time.

"If the machines were just a bit bigger, I could probably get a second emitter to fit inside, just enough to level things out for indefinite flight... But, you work with what you have. More size would mean more weight, too." He shrugged. There was a limit to everything.

Leaving it

"Then give the code to her and tell her. She can decide what she wants to do with a dormant copy." Galatea withheld a comment about Brant's passive nature, it all seemed to stem from that horrible history, didn't it? Galatea peered up at Hannah, wondering how the android was going to handle him. Could she even help with all of that? It seemed like something that pushing would just reinforce.

"Then I will take after you," she smiled back, about to grab his arm and lead them off so he could eat, but she stopped herself. "Er... I am-- I'm, not bothering you with my closeness, am I?" Things were too relevant in her data stores now. It would likely be seen as moderately suspicious, but she couldn't help herself. "Apologies, again, I have just... Realized that I have not especially asked your permission to be so close. If it's okay with you, then..."

Information

"Mmm, pillow... W-Wait, Chris?" Jess perked up some, sitting up just a bit. "What'd you talk to her about? And no, I should go with you. I'll definitely fall asleep if I stay here, even if I sit up and try to watch TV or something." Jess groaned her way to sitting and shook her head some, blinking her eyes until they decided to focus. "Okay, I'm awake... As awake as I'm gonna get. A shower will probably wake me up some, so, let's go do that. It's... The Captain's quarters are a bit more, uh... Luxurious?" That was probably the best way to put it. "Just, don't tell anyone how nice the washroom is. Don't wanna get anyone bothered that I've got this big walk in shower. I just use it like a normal one anyway, i-it shouldn't be a bit deal, but, it's the little things, y'know? Or you, don't? I must be more tired than I thought." Jess shook her head some again, wiping at her eyes.

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It sounded like they would need to give the drives more attention during maintenance with Buck's suggested changes, but that was fine so long as they got their effort's worth. No doubt Firmia would be happy to have Sasha do the adjustments personally, rather than let the ANF mechanics poke around the things. "Sounds good to me," Sasha managed a more convincing grin this time around. "We'll have to save scaling things up until we can actually build new frames. That's a ways off .... Anyway, we're glad to get your input on this, Buck."


"Sure ..." Brant sighed. He supposed Firmia wasn't very likely to use the code anyway, not unless there was some big falling out. That just left his actual break and getting something to eat. Hannah had opted to base her speech more on Brant himself going forward, which he half expected and couldn't help but smile about. It was a bit of a downer when she apologized for a grab aborted midway. Somehow, it reminded him of how hands off Firmia had been, lately. Even though Brant meant what he said afterward, it was pure instinct when he said, "It's fine. Don't worry about it."

It was at that moment that he saw Firmia leaving the hangar and making her way toward the elevators. She never used her room for anything but storage, so he doubted she was headed there for anything ...

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Big Sorry

An issue of pride... Roxanna winced, she was aware of that, but it wasn't like she had a choice, did she? She was put in this world bearing the name of one of the most influential families in the ANF, was always expected to achieve greatness, and lived her life in a mansion fit for somebody of her status, learning with the best conditions. She couldn't afford to be less than exceptional... in that sense, it was always a matter of pride. "I don't really want to think about apologizing, right now. Ugh, I don't think she wants to see my face, anyways, even if it was painted gold. Probably make it worse." Roxanna was trying so hard not to avoid the girl's attention now. She'd die before acting all sorry and apologizing to the pipsqueak. It wasn't a scenario she could even stomach imagining. Sure she'd done wrong, but pipsqueak was a bit of a dick back, right? "I... just keep to myself around her. We got in an argument once, it got a bit heated... physical. She actually punched my jaw so hard I had to go to the infirmary... I-I did slap her first, I guess. It's not something I can really apologize and expect everything to be fine. Shit." Thinking back to that was the worst. Bottoms up.

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"Riiiight?" She grinned wide taking another bite. Yeah Aliza and Elaine were kicking it off rather decently. "Hm...well we could just windowshop around some of the stores a bit. I wouldn't mind buying more BBQ chips, running out for some reason." She spoke as she finished her food and rolled the trash up in a ball. "Up to you. I'll go where you wanna go. Make it an adventure." She smiled as she tossed the trash ball into a nearby bin. From downtown it landed! "Two points!" She laughed. "Anywho ready and willing El."

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Talk to The Boss

"Hey, sure thing... Put in a good word for me with Firmia, would you?" Buck didn't really want to talk to the little spitfire, he liked how relatively calm his life was. "Maybe if she sees all this stuff that I... Well I don't care, we're all in this together, but the brass outside might flip if they caught me giving this sort of help out for free. If she says no, I'll take it, but, y'know... Hope she's more charitable. It was fun, anyway, so this can be my charity case. I hope you get your tiny drives figured out... And call me if you guys get more space in the AMS units! I'll make those V-drives work right, promise." Buck was grinning ear to ear, dropping it to whistle and walk on his merry way. Getting to see something new and interesting like that, almost every day... It was worth his time, every time.

Procedure

Brant's approval was all that Hannah needed, smiling and clinging onto his arm as per usual, pressing up close. "Then let's get you something to eat." If he was alright with the contact, then she was fine giving it to him. There was a small curious thought on whether or not he was more comfortable with it because she was synthetic, but with how hard he'd been trying to avoid treating her like a machine, it passed into the recycling bin rather quickly. "I am programmed to cook if you wish for something complicated." Hannah would've spotted Firmia leaving, but all eyes were on Brant, so the Russian passed without notice.

Galatea sighed. No witty comment, no remark. Hannah was too much, sometimes...

Altercations

"...If you're admitting to instigating these things, but you won't apologize, then you can't start to fix it." Christina sighed. Roxanna was an adult, right? An apology didn't magically close a wound, but it was the best place to start, especially with someone as prideful as Roxanna seemed to be. She didn't want to comment further on the getting physical, if that got out to the crew it would probably worry more than a few people. The bridge command was supposed to be trusted, wasn't it? But if they couldn't even trust each other... "Let's just get our food, Kim."

She didn't want to leave the XO there, but with the alcohol, helping her out of her funk would take all night. All Christina wanted to do was eat a pear, wait for Kim to get what she needed, and collapse back into a comfy bed. Maybe if it had been earlier, or the XO wasn't drinking, they could have a proper talk... As it was, everything combined with the continued feed of negative emotions was ruining any shots of wanting to try. Christina rubbed her eyes and headed over to the fridges. "Gonna get my fruit and get back to my room..."

Edited by SnakeMomMelissa
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Buck's suggested alterations would speak for themselves if the drives could handle them. At a cursory glance, that appeared to be the case. Just the same, Sasha felt the more friendly relations Firmia had on the ship, the better. The lack of said relations was probably the whole reason she was so ready to abandon ship. "She won't say no," Sasha smirked, "Trust me." This was the kind of upgrade she would have paid for, normally. Getting help gratis like this ought to help their situation a lot.

"You have a good one, Buck."


Brant had to remind himself that even though he was only barely peckish right now, that would change soon enough. Better to at least have food ready or nearly so. This way, he wouldn't wind up settling for junk food. From the sound of things, Hannah could help him with food preparation. Not surprising, but something he hadn't thought of. There didn't seem to be much she wouldn't become skilled at with enough exposure. "The break's only supposed to be ten minutes but I'm probably going to be up all night anyway, so may as well get an actual meal in, sure."

Deciding to save his questions about what Hannah could make--assuming it was anything she could download the recipe for--Brant walked with her to the elevators and hailed one. Not spotting Firmia at the opposing elevator, Brant figured she was either waiting for one of the other two, or had already headed down ahead of them. Maybe if they were fast enough, they could drag her to dinner with them. Otherwise she might just settle for any alcohol she could find, something to buffer it with, and just leave ...


"Now I know I can't lose ... as looong as you follow ... ... I'm gonna win ... I'm gonna beg, steal or borrow ... yes I can live today ... if you giiive me tomorrow ... as long as you follooow~" Firmia had gone from humming to quietly singing as the elevator brought her down to the third deck of the Riese. There hadn't been much use fretting now that she had done all she could for Tonya. Firmia's company project was coming along nicely, as well. Overall, her mood was improving. That wasn't stopping her from heading to the cafeteria in search of alcohol. Her mood could always improve a bit more, after all.

Once the elevator arrived, she promptly transitioned back into humming, and stepped out into the hall.

Edited by Phoenix
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Rejected

Well... Roxanna had finally shooed the girl away, but what was with that feeling? She was almost hurt, at the way Christina said her piece before deciding to be done with convincing her. Was she too far gone? Biting her lower lip, Roxanna put her glass of wine down for the first time since she picked it up. "I..." She winced, that girl was probably done with her too, just like Jessica. The rest of the crew too. She just wanted to curl up, why was this happening? It wasn't... it really wasn't that simple. At least it didn't feel that simple at all. "S-Sorry... I, need to." The words were stuck in her throat. Why was this so hard. "Ugh... S-sorry about that. I don't want to... Make your night worse."

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Small Break

The elevator doors opened, and inside they stepped, Hannah mulling over whether or not to start talking about a few things here, instead of waiting until he was fed. "If you would like me to keep you company while you work, I can sit in the backseat of the Regalia. I do not have anything else to do for the moment, as I have learned most of what I can from Sasha's theories... And I would feel bad waiting around for you to come back to the room, only for you not to." She was asking if he didn't mind having her around, but she'd likely end up there anyway.

Breaching the topic now wouldn't hurt things, it wouldn't suddenly deter Brant from eating, so, "would you like to go on a date tomorrow?"

Galatea's face popped up on Brant's console again, staring at Hannah, mouth agape.

"I had been meaning to ask Firmia what sorts of clothes you would appreciate, but it is easier to cut out the middle woman... So to speak. I have been interested in several new topics over the past few days, and I believe that the sorts of clothes you appreciate is a good starting point... My internal temperature is rising quite steadily, please do not delay in a proper response."

Edited by SnakeMomMelissa
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“If you say so. I’m thinking Orange Theocracy might have some good clothing options, so I’d like to go window shop there.” Elaine wasn’t exactly done woth her fries, but there was still enough trash that she could roll up into her own ball. Competitive to the end, Elaine threw it towards the trash can, only for it to hit the ramp and fall to the floor. Well, that left only one thing to do, and that was go for a layup. Elaine walked over to the trash ball and tossed it into the can. “Second times the charm?” She smiled.

Elaine collected her bags, Aliza eventually collected her new bag of chips, and together the two walked on over to Orange Theocracy. She hadn’t noticed before, but as they walked, Elaine saw a Cold Topic right next to the store. Even here, competing stores would most likely work tirelessly to out do each other. Still, even if she would often choose to go to O.T. before C.T., she couldn’t deny that Cold Topic had its charm on certain days. The girls stepped inside, and Elaine quickly took to surveying the immediate area. 

Edited by Dandragon
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"Best of luck, XO. I hope you can... work things out. Try to come back to it... when you've sobered up. Sometimes you need... to take things on the chin, even if you don't want to." Kim noted, giving the XO a quick salute as Christina walked away. It had perhaps been a bit hasty, but Roxanna's negative aura was even effecting Kim at this point, she couldn't imagine how hard Christina was taking it, with her relative lack of experience filtering things. Hovering for just a moment, she turned to follow the blonde, who appeared to just be grabbing a small amount of fruit.

"Are you sure... that's all you want? It wouldn't be much... for me to make some extra for you. Or do you not... like Korean food?"

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"Hey, Firmia." That was Sasha's voice. Firmia glanced down at her wrist bound communicator, still keeping pace toward the cafeteria.

"What is it?"

"I got a professional opinion from Buck a couple of minutes ago. I'm still looking it over, but I think you're going to like it. I'll explain more when you get back. Better you see for yourself, right?"

"... mm," Firmia closed her eyes and nodded, mostly in agreement. She hated pointless surprises, but it felt more like she was being given a heads up about a product she would be reviewing. Firmia did wonder how Sasha and Buck had gotten to talking at length in the first place, and more importantly, what they were talking about ... but not wanting to risk her good mood on the answer, she put off asking. She'd figure that out later. "Thank you for letting me know. I'll be back ... probably before midnight."

"Can't be away too long, right?" Firmia could almost see Sasha smirking on the other end in her mind's eye. "See you when you get back. Look forward to it, boss."

Oh? That was an interesting thing to say ...

Firmia continued on to the cafeteria, her mood almost taking a hit for finding the place not completely devoid of familiar faces. It almost took a hit. Noticing the wine bottle Roxanna had already broken into, it was obvioius that she wasn't the only one trying to cope with the situations. Firmia wondered if it was the aliens backing Apotheosis that had the XO so down in the dirt, or if it was something more personal. Something closer to home. Maybe Roxanna was as tired of the Captain's shenanigans as Firmia was ... or maybe she'd lost a relative in the war .... They had just arrived at Central. News could spread quickly now, so there was a chance someone she knew had been killed during the comms blackout and she had just learned about it. In fact, Firmia wouldn't be surprised at all if some in the crew spent a good portion of their day tomorrow quietly saying their goodbyes to friends and loved ones. The war with Apotheosis was turning out extremely bloody. Being on the Riese had a way of dulling the senses to that harsh reality, but Firmia was acutely aware of the danger, and she was doing everything she could to shield herself and her people from it. That wasn't nearly enough by itself, but something about knowing she was doing all she could, unlike Captain Gefalscht, gave her just a bit of inner peace.

Comparing her own aura to Roxanna's left the Alkaev with a sense of pity that she wouldn't be able to shake off as easily as usual. The woman was waist deep in wine and might be short a family member, friend, or lover. Firmia felt a slight urge to talk to the XO ... though mainly to sate her curiosity and look for a reason to stop caring. It wasn't like Roxanna was making Firmia's time on the Riese any less bearable, and she could get back to what she came here to do without much trouble. Cautiously, and not even considering anything more than waving back as a greeting to the Artemis Team, Firmia approached the Riese's second in command.

"I'm sorry for intruding, but ... why are you in here drinking?" Even if she was feeling miserable, Firmia had the sense to snag a bottle and abscond to one of the AMS cockpits to have a measure of privacy. Looking at it that way, the XO was bringing this on herself. If she wanted to be left alone, fair enough, but she'd picked one of the worst places to sulk.


"Yeah," Brant nodded, "It seems like the work has shifted to Sasha and me, now. I've got to get the program written, and Sasha's got to figure out how to get them flying." Brant wondered if it would be possible to use whatever Sasha came up with for the Regalia's funnels. Even if they had to be scaled up slightly, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. If they were lighter as a result of each having a special drive system, he would have a much easier time controlling them. Firmia would put down missile threats with contemptuous ease. Brant didn't know if things would turn out exactly like that, but it was something to think about.

"It's fine though. I could use the help. I don't think I can keep this up all night, though ..." Brant didn't normally take stimulants at all. It typically came down to sheer willpower. Add to that the intense battle earlier that day, and Abrams didn't have much left in him, even now. He might just have to work a little harder in the morning to keep to Firmia's nebulous yet increasingly tight schedule.

That wasn't the only thing Hannah wanted to ask him about, though. Brant felt himself go completely wide eyed when Hannah asked him out on a date, only coming back to his senses when she--in so many words--followed up by asking him to be prompt with his answer. How could he even give her one so out of the blue like this? At first blush, Brant didn't mind the idea of going on a date with Hannah at all; she needed the people experience, and honestly, this might be the one time they could get away with it. The problem was that he was still struggling with his own personal problems, trying to get passed his brief stay in the red light district of Hell. If he could just do that then maybe he could be more to the captain than just some pretty boy pilot she was sheltering from the Alkaevs. What would she think, though? What would she think if he was running around with other women? Nothing good, Brant was sure of that.

Brant winced, his eyes centering on the bottom half of the elevator doors, still unable to put together a decisive yes or no. Worse still, he was starting to remember things ... things he really didn't like the implications of. It was true that Brant didn't mind Hannah hanging off of his arm all of the time, but wouldn't that look like the tell tale signs of an intimate relationship to any sane person, Jessica included? Hadn't she seen this at least once already? What did she think about that? It couldn't be anything good, Brant was definitely sure of that.

"... dammit," he whispered to himself. I'm not sure I want to know how badly I must have screwed that up. Did Jessica know Tonya was sleeping in his room, too? What a perfect storm Brant had leisurely--completely absentmindedly--strolled into. What crush or casual relationship could survive a situation like this, one where all the outward signs pointed to a complete lack of interest on Brant's part? Sighing, Brant finally said, "I can't answer that, just yet, Hannah. There's someone I need to talk to before I find a way to make the situation even worse." Maybe Jessica wouldn't be upset about it; she wasn't going out of her way to think of Hannah as a real woman, at least as far as Brant knew, but that could be better or worse for the situation, and it said nothing of Tonya. Brant felt he had to apologize regardless, for the awful impression he knew he must have given the Captain. He had to figure out where they stood. Doing anything else with either Tonya or Hannah before that, just wouldn't sit right with him. He'd done more than enough already, as far as he was concerned.

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"Mmyeah, don't you remember? You'd asked me and Aliza what we thought about her, had been planning on polling the whole crew I think, and I said it could maybe work, but I'd want some one-on-one with her first to be sure. Guess there's been a lot on your plate though, not surprising if that got shelved or forgotten about," Abigail answered, as she moved toward the washroom and began to unbutton.

"Wow, you weren't kidding, this is a bit of a cut above! If I didn't have easy access like this, I'd be a jealous woman~ But don't worry, your secrets are safe with me. All of them," Abby turned over her shoulder and winked, then finished sliding out of her clothes and danced lightly into the shower, turning on the water.

"Anyway," she called back, a little louder now that she had to compete with some additional noise, "Chris is a good pilot. Not as good as me, of course, but a solid two steps above Christina. Perhaps more importantly though," she paused and frowned. "She seemed to already know about us. And with how few on the crew do... that's worrisome."

Edited by Balcerzak
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Food Talk

"Huh? It's not that, I'm just not really hungry. I ate while you were asleep, so... Having too much would just keep me awake. If you make yourself something, I don't mind trying it, though..." Oh, Firmia was here now. Christina gave her a halfhearted wave with a smile. Too many people would likely be a problem... It was odd. In the hangar it was fine, there was so much going on that it sort of drowned out into white noise, kind of like the din of crowds at a mall. Definitely prevalent, but with so many voices, you couldn't make anything out. When it was a small room with a small group of people, though... Filtering it all became much harder.

"I'll try to hang around, Kim, but... If my head gets too bad, then I'll head back first. Go ahead and make yourself whatever you like. You're almost perfect at everything else, I'll bet you're a great cook too." Something happy to try and raise her mood from the CO's oppressive aura.

Different Steps

As quiet as Brant would've liked his exclamation to be, Hannah's hearing was far too good to miss the utterance so close to him. As the doors opened, she let him go with a rather fake smile, even for a machine, trying not to make things worse. "That is alright, Brant. You do not need to go out of your way for my sake. Let us find you something to eat so that you can go back to your work before sleep." Hannah began down the halls, dropping her smile and wrestling with her programming to not have another ridiculous outburst like with Tonya. Her ability to react properly to these sorts of things still needed work.

Galatea rolled her eyes, giving herself a digital facepalm. "What did she think was going to happen? Ugh. Brant, look down, read this. It's only fair you know. Apologies if Hannah is acting weird at all, but..."

Galatea quickly scrawled the message, 'Firmia had us read Rex's notes', before disappearing and leaving it there for him. What Galatea really wished was that she could jump from Brant's communicator right into Hannah and give her a good talking to over this silliness, but over the ship's wifi, it would take too much time to fix anything.

Shower Time

"Er, yeah, I remember you saying you wanted to talk to her... Just, what about? Heyyyy!" Jess was a bit slow on the draw for things, Abby already going into the shower. It was far, far too embarrassing for her to dress down and hop in after her, and this information sounded important, so she went into the washroom after her and rested against the wall to try and have a conversation. Thank the world for condensation... She looked away from the shower stall anyway.

It was good to hear that she was worth an asset if she could manage to fit in with the crew, but the other part was rather alarming. "Wait, how? What? I... That's..." Jess took a tired breath, placing her hand against her forehead. Places were probably tapped, or one of their moles new... Who even knew? Jess was too tired to figure it out, sighing loudly, almost groaning. "Well, that's great... I don't know how they're going to use it against us... I just... Hope the rooms aren't bugged." The thought of someone hearing or even seeing them together was... Infuriating and terrifying.

"Did she say anything else useful, or just more things to scare us?"

Edited by SnakeMomMelissa
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