Once down, the transport trundled along at a fast walk/slow jog pace through a tunnel, finding itself what appeared to be a service elevator. The driver didn't even bother with the button, just ran his comm over the sensor above it which overrode everything the lift was doing and brought it to their floor.
"Got your bracelet on Traj?" he inquired good-naturedly.
"Yep," Trajectory responded, still without opening his eyes and the immediate response being the only indication that he was actually still awake. The lift arrived and the transport trundled into it. Once more using his comm, the driver sent it express into the heart of the Tir, where the medical facility ad the science lab were located. It felt a little like dropping into a big hole in the ground, but not quite so fast.
They landed in a different section of the facility to the one usually entered. The driver parked the transport and hopped off, ready to lend assistance if needed.
"We'll go through to the rest area," he said, "and I'll go tell Doc you're here."
Trajectory finally opened his eyes, and the coloured bit was a bit bigger and yellower than normal. It lasted for about half a second before he blinked and they went back to normal. He slid off the transport and onto the ground, his slow, deliberate movements hiding a slight unsteadiness.
-=o=-
A small Mercurite about the same size of Hummer poked its head out of the gap suddenly, giving the illusion of not there one second and there the next. Geiser jumped slightly. Quicksilver trilled and warbled, the melodic notes tumbling forth at the rate of a rapid symphony. Geiser cocked his head, ears flicking, brow furrowing in intense concentration. Eventually he said:
"Slow down."
The music abruptly ceased as Quicksilver stopped, then started up again, slower this time. Geiser listened attentively, occasonally nodding, occasionally arching an eyebrow.
"Meteor shower?"
Quicksilver dropped out of the hole head first, flipping in the air to land on its feet. It trilled a little more, looking up at Geiser and gesturing to the access hole. Geiser g;anced at Rav'una, looking like he'd forgotten she might not understand Mercurite and knew exactly what Quicksilver had been talking about, and poked his head and brawny shoulders into the access hole, having a peer around.
"Yep, that's definitely out. What the hell did you pass with a pull that strong?"
Quicksilver shrugged as Geiser pulled out of the hole and kicked open the toolbox in what looked like another well practised move as well as explaining the dints littering the surface of the box. "Whaddya reckon, try and weld it back on or take it off completely?"
Quicksilver ran a hand through its crest, then twittered.
"I'm pretty sure we do. I'll check." Geiser moved a little way away as he made a call on his comm.
Quicksilver looked up a fair way at Rav'una and twittered cheerfully.
-=o=-
Byte appeared beside Derek and playfully tapped the bottom of the water container to make a bit more than intended fall into his mouth. "Rest at the eatery," she said, hooking his arm and dragging him to where her brothers and Starzone were gathered, "Donno 'bout you but I'm starving!"
Byte glanced at Derek with an evil little look and an even more evil little smile as they caught up with Starzone and the other two. As they drew near, Starzone moved slightly, then touched her oversized watch which contained her comm, then moved a bit away from the group. As Byte dragged Derek over to them, Starzone came back.
"I'll catch up with you guys," she said briefly, and sprinted off down the corridor. The triplets watched her go with matching blank expressions, then Byte and Chip simultaneously shrugged, a move only barely mirrored in Cypher.
"Let's go," said Cypher, taking the lead down the large corridor that would lead to the Atrium and the place where the eatery was. As they approached the Atrium, they joined the growing throng of pilots and techies heading in the same direction. The delicious aroma of roasting meats and vegetables wafted up from the Atrium. Chip raised his head and sniffed.
"Mm. Hoppers on spits." He grinned.
-=o=-
No footfall preceded the wraith-like Starzone as she entered the vehicle bay. Daemun wasn't exactly hard to spot, hulking mass that he was standing and chatting to his bike. She entered soundlessly, not because she was trying to sneak up on him but because an internal subconscious wariness that she had with anyone she didn't know well kicked in and changed the way she moved slightly to ensure silence and maximum reaction time.
"We have the best techies on Mars," she commented as she approached, realising suddenly that she was unintentionally sneaking up on him. "They can give her a service if you want." She walked up the rest of the way to him, still soundless because she couldn't really help it. She walked around to the other side of Anarchy, leaning over the bike's seat and resting her elbows on it, grinning at Daemun. "You should be in medbay."
-=o=-
Quicksilver nodded, looking like it was contemplating gutting Rav'una right there and then. Or smiling, either way. Geiser returned from his call.
"We have enough parts to patch the generator, should be enough to get you back home and get some proper repairs done," he said. "They should be coming up from parts soon."
Quicksilver twittered and hopped back in through the access hole. A chirruping sound came from within, echoing slightly. Geiser picked up a tool and passed it in. "Musta been a hell of a meteor shower if it damaged your ship."
A bunch of shrill noises answered him.
"Magetic storm?" Geiser looked confused. "There shouldn't be any meteoric activity in this area. We specifically came to this area for that reason." Geiser looked confused. "What the hell is going on?" The question by the sound of the tone was more rhetorical than anything else.
Derek's ears perked as he stared at Byte for a good long while, dispite being almost literally dragged to their next destination, before letting out a comical little "Eeeeeeee..." sound as he looked momentarily concerned at the way Byte was looking at him. When they finally did stop Derek straightened his clothes a trench coat some before rubbing the side of his arm with a little "Ow" before then proceeding to add with a smirk "If I have a hand print on my arm tomorrow I'll know who to blame. But hey, at least you'll know where to snatch me the next time" Derek winked before then his attention went over to the group.
The sudden depature made Derek react almost as blankly as everyone else and with a small perk of his brow he watched this occur, blinking momentarily at it all before then with a shake of his head as though to hint he wasn't even going to try and figure it out he turned his attention back over to the remainer of the group.
Derek followed without further a word, knowing full well where they were about to head next. It didn't take very long for that auroma of awesomeness to slip into his nostrils and it was pure bliss to say the least. With a deep breath through his nostrils Derek stopped just a few steps away from the entry, closing his eyes with a satisfied "Aaaaah" before then opening them again with a grin, rubbing his palms together and licking his lips in anticipation for what smelled to be a great meal.
Even if he wasn't sure what exactly "Hoppers" where. But at this stage he couldn't care less what it was as long as it tasted great and filled his growling stomach.
*Insert flashy scene change effect here.*
Daemun hadn't, surprisingly, sensed that anyone had entered the vehicle bay but it wasn't long until his attention went from his bike to Starzone when she made her presence known. At first it kind of startled him, Daemun having turned rather sharply and out of pure reaction reaching from the gun on his belt. But he settled when he saw who it was, his expressions serious but his tone a little calmer just to show he wasn't intentionally meaning to sound cold.
"Do you make it a habbit to sneak up on others? Or is your trust in me still a little unbalanced?" He asked rather firmly, settling then as he turned his head to look at his bike and then back to Starzone with a small smirk. "Well she should could use a tune up and an oil change. That and her boosters could use a clean out and recharge too."
When she mentioned he should be in the medic bay Daemun's expressions gradually went back to their usual serious state, his arms folded as he leaned back against his bike, showing his true colours and level of stubborness in his response.
"I grew tired of laying around. I needed to get up and move. Besides, I'm fine."
Of course, he wasn't entirely fine yet. His wounds still needed time to heal, dispite that he heals somewhat on a faster level than most, and his energy wasn't completely recovered yet. After a moment of silence playing its role Daemun turned his attention back to Starzone now with a upward nod of his head so to signal he was addressing her as he asked "What brings you here anyway? Apart from checking on the bikes."
*Cue Biker Mice From Mars theme and spinning logo effect.*
Rav'una hoped that was a smile Quicksilver was giving her because it sure was hard to tell sometimes. Assuming it was Rav'una simply nodded back before Geiser's return caught her attention and she turned to him to see what news he had to bring.
"Something tells me that nature is not playing too kindly on our guest's ships" Rav'una later noted, hiding her own confusion behind her usual firm and collected ways. Resting her hand on her chin a moment she gave this all some thought. "Hmm, seems rather odd that if you say there are no such meteors around these parts that we should have suddenly at least one ship in need of repair. However, I do know it is possible to get at least a few random meteors every once in a while."
Rav'una moved nothing but her eyes as she looked at the ship as she stood in thought, trying to figure it all out, before then after a good while she finally spoke up.
"Interesting." She began, tapping her chin with her index finger a moment before resting her left hand on her hip and swaying her index finger a little in a gesture toward what she could see of the damage from her angle. "Correct me if I am wrong, but does this ship not have at least some level of defense against meteors? For if so, the meteor should have bounced off the hull and at most caused a dent and some rather nasty burn-scratches. But from what I'm seeing the hull has actually been pierced. Are you certain it was a meteor and not some kind of debri?"
(ooc - for ease of description, I based the hoppers on kangaroos, they can grow to the size of big reds but most are small wallaby sized due to the harsh environment, they travel in herds and are omnivorous)
The Atrium was fuller than usual. It seemed like the majority of the Tir had turned out and were kicking around. There were children joyfully scurrying around accompanied by happy strains of music, lending an air of joyful festivity. A few of the adults were still looking a little wary, and there were more uniforms than usual around, which were the only reminders that they were still on high alert.
Pulling Derek with her, Byte slotted neatly between her brothers, who formed a bulldozer of sorts with Cypher at the head, the bulky male parting the crowd with ease.
"Ares that thing is HUGE!" Chip exclaimed. The emanator of the delicious aroma, a slowly roasting carcass of close enough to two metres long, with ridiculously long hind legs and much more sensibly proportioned forelegs, was casually being spun over the large fire obviously built to accommodate it, and the two much smaller ones it overshadowed.
"Well that's a good sign," Byte said cheerfully. "Hopefully there's more where that came from." She snagged a set of tin plates from a nearby bench, handing them out to her companions as they jumped in the line for a cut of the meat. The line moved fairly quickly and the portions were generous. Their plates were laden precarously with meat and some roasted veges of some description, and Byte led them over to an unoccupied patch of ground under a large tree.
A couple of hyperactive teenagers screamed past, pausing long enough to give them mugs full of something sweet and fizzy, before taking off again, looking like they were on the same stuff and making the rounds to hand them out.
"Mmm damn this is good!" Byte managed through a full mouth, getting only concurring grunts from her brothers as they ate like they hadn't eaten in months.
-=o=-
"Habit," Starzone replied, somewhat apologetically. She slid onto her bike, resting a hand on its tank, her thumb stroking it gently. Anarchy let out a robotic purr. She looked over at Daemun with a slight smile. "Fine my arse. Your energy's all over the place." She kicked her other leg over the bike and pushed off it. "Hey there, beautiful," she said, addressing Daemun's bike, "can I get a look atcha?"
As she performed a cursory visual examination, waiting for permission to get a closer look so she could then book the bike in for a service, Starzone answered Daemun. "You haven't seen Doc yet. So I'm gonna take you to him. And I'm probably gonna get my tail whipped for this but there's a feast goin' on in the Atrium and to my knowledge you haven't eaten. And should. So Doc can wait a bit more."
Bringing a demon right into the middle of the civilian population. Brilliant move. Talk about massive laying of trust. As with all of her gambles, she hoped this one wouldn't bite her on the arse.
-=o=-
"Not a lot can pierce mercurite," Geiser said by way of explanation, moving around to stand beside Rav'una. He didn't really need to move around that far to see what she was looking at but he was starting to like being close to her, as nervous as it made him. His nervousness was overridden for the moment, as he studied the burn patch in question with her.
Quicksilver warbled, then sprang off the ground, flapping twice to gain enough height to attach to the ship and scrambling deftly along the body of the ship to where Rav'una and Geiser were looking. It studied the burn patch, carefully tapping the edges of it with a clawed finger. Then its head rotated at an angle that looked perfectly comfortable for a bird but that looked remarkably neck breaking to normal people so it could peer down at them, and trilled.
"How much?" Geiser started, looking properly edgy for the first time since the conversation had turned to the topic of meteor showers. Quicksilver cheerfully trilled the same melody.
"Rav'una might be right about it being debris rather than a meteor storm." Geiser frowned. "That's a lot." He started talking to himself more than the others. "What would cause that much debris?"
A lilting tone from Quicksilver. Geiser glared up at Quicksilver.
"Yes I know it was probably a ship of some sort, smartarse. What would break it up that much that it looked like meteors?"
He didn't really want to think about it, and fortunately another techy came around with generaor parts on a flatbed so he didn't have to.
(OOC: Oh well in that case I should feel right at home! XD!)
The change of mood was a welcomed one indeed and the music was quite soothing to the ear. In fact any kind of music at this point would be better than the sounds of war Derek and the others had to endure for so long only moments ago. And even with the place still on high alert it didn't seem to phase most in the Tir, in particular Derek who was just happy that things were over and done with now and that everyone was now safe. It sure has been an interesting journey for Derek. From the day he crash landed on this planet to now a lot has changed and he has grown to learn so much about it all that he had almost forgotten all about home. He did, dispite his reputation and history there, miss it but he had found a new and better home here on Mars. Sure there were some things he wish he could improve or have but Derek wasn't in a position to be picky.
Besides, right now he was starving enough to eat the balls of a low flying duck were one unfortunate enough to happen to flap past.
"Ow! Hey, easy on the merchandise!" Derek blurted with a small frown as Byte had pulled him in to sit with her, rubbing his arm a moment before watching the others sit at the table along with them. Even Derek was feeling about an inch tall in comparison to them but by now he was getting used to it. You would hope so anyway.
Derek was quickly enough distracted by the sweet, sweet smell of-
"FOOD! Oh Gods of Lupron, how I love thee!"
Needless to say it didn't take long for Derek to hop in line with his plate held anxiously within his hands and the generous offering was met with a big "Thanking you!" and a grin to the server before he trotted on over to Byte and the others, sitting himself down next to Byte and watching with an amused smirk as the teenagers came rushing in to serve some drink or another. Whatever it was, it too smelled great but first thing's first. Derek lifted the plate just a little further from his nose and took deep breath through his nostrils, letting out a contentful "Aaaah" before yanking it from the plate and wasting no time to rip right into it like a barbarian who hadn't eaten in about a century. "Mmmm, tastey extra terrestrial food..." Derek comment with a mouth full of food, smiling happily as he chewed his food looking like a happy wolf cub with the greatest meal in the world. Well, at least whatever managed to not end up on his face...
Meanwhile...
"Right..." Daemun replied half convinced as he watched Starzone slip onto her bike almost emotionless as she did what she did. Of course this was only on the outside as it was often difficult to tell what kind of mood exactly Daemun was in a lot of the time. When she addressed his bike she responded with a "If you feel I need the inspection by all means you are welcome to proceed", her voice sounding like a toughened female but with that sexy streak to it. Typical of Daemun to select that kind of voice for her communication upgrade which has been there pretty much ever since she was made.
Daemun meanwhile stepped aside and didn't seem too eager about going to see the Doc or too excited about going to grab a meal dispite the fact he really did need both of these things. "So why the sudden level of care?" Daemun asked rather bluntly after Starzone noted what she had. He didn't show any signs of that he was neccessarily ungrateful for the concern but Daemun was fairly well known for his straight forward, often cold responses and when you get to know him you tend to find that half the time it's his strange way of actually being polite. Either that or just watching his own back. Not that he needed to do so in this scenario but old habits rarely die.
Then he thought about this for a moment. She was taking a risk by offering to take him where the civillians were. Daemun wasn't overly sociable and who knew how the crowd would greet him dispite his efforts in the recent mission. "That's quite a risk you're taking Starzone" Daemun then continued, adding then with a firm yet collected tone "Taking someone like me into a crowd of civillians might not be the smartest thing to do. I stay alone for more than just one reason. So again, why the effort to care?"
Ah Daemun. Such a charmer...
Meanwhile...
With Geiser now by her side Rav'una was very tempted to ask him to-...It was certainly a pleasant feeling to have him standing by her and though she could feel that he was nervous she did her best to try and keep him at an ease. In fact Rav'una was a little nervous herself which was saying a lot for the tough assassin female that she is. Good thing they had something to distract themselves with for the time being, even if it wasn't the greatest of news to be distracted with.
"Interesting..." Rav'una continued after a moment, turning her attention away from Geiser to look back at the burn patch on the ship before then watching as Geiser and Quicksilver had their conversation. A small smirk played accross her lips as Geiser responded back in regards to the debris possibly being from a ship but it quickly vanished as she realized this could be very serious indeed.
"Wait a minute...a ship? So close to this planet?" She questioned with a puzzled frown.
She thought about this a moment longer, thinking hard as she tapped the end of her index finger on her chin before then looking over at Quicksilver as she asked with a small raise of index finger "Quicksilver, does your ship's radar show any indications of other debris at the time of impact? And if so, does it show any detail of what they look like? I know some ships have this feature as a means to make identifying debri easier however I am not certain how advanced your technology in this feild is. Though it is worth a try."
(ooc- was easier for me to base the Tir tribe on Aussies than Yanks for obvious reasons :P)
"Nothing extraterrestrial about the food, it comes from the planet," Byte teased when she had finished enough of her meal to sate immediate hunger levels and work on the rest of it at a more normal pace. Chip downed half the drink they had been given and shuddered violently with happiness as the intense sugar and nutrient rush slammed through his veins and into his brain, emitting a whoop after he'd finished.
"Oi Derek, get some of this in ya," he said, nudging Derek a little hard but in a friendly manner.
-=o=-
Once given permission Starzone smoothly slid off Anarchy, dropping into a crouch beside Apocalypse. She blinked and looked like she had to correct her balance slightly as the angry buzz of Daemun's energy clashed violently with her. Shaking her head, she started carefully probing the bike, looking for external signs of wear and if any mechanical parts needed replacing. She heard the first part of Daemun's question but didn't register what he said so it was fortunate that he elaborated and saved her the necessity of asking him to repeat himself.
She pushed herself to her feet and went to one of the nearby terminals, blitzing through the screens barely having to read any of them as she booked Apocalypse in for a tune up and full service ahead of Wired and Anarchy. "Coz Strike seems to think you're worth the effort," Starzone replied shortly. She finished up the order on the terminal and turned to face Daemun, her tail curling high and close against her back so she could lean on the console. Taking a breath, clearing her head, she expanded: "Weird supernatural shit isn't out of the civvies' experience base. It's still weird and scary but it happens. And if the Psions," she gestured vaguely at herself, "say the weird supernatural shit is okay, then the civvies are more accepting of it." She stood up off the console. "Spit roast hopper is the best. I've booked her in for a tune up and full service. Think there were a couple of worn gears that need replacing but couldn't get a decent feel on it, so the techies will take a look at that. You do whatever you feel you need to."
Starzone headed towards the door of the vehicle bay, leaving Daemun to follow or not as he chose.
-=o=-
"We have Catatonian ships cruising around, usually resupplying their bases," Geiser said, "so a ship in the area isn't out of the question, even when we do make efforts to avoid them. Don't suppose you managed to pick up any of the meteor bits, did ya?" Geiser looked up at Quicksilver who responded with a decisive head shake. "Well how about you squeeze your tiny little feathered tail into the gap and fix the generator, I'll go change the hull panel."
Quicksilver trilled, then relinquished its hold on the ship, wings flaring to parachute down to the ground. It sauntered in that slightly odd gait the claw footed Mercurites all seemed to have some variation of towards the flatbed that had the generator parts and started trilling instructions at the mice that were setting up there for the repairs. It obviously had to slow down its speech quite a lot from the sounds of things.
Geiser looked up at the hull of the ship, then led the way up the scaffolding stairs to where they could clamber onto the wing, and then the hull. Up there, he paused and turned to Rav'una. "This isn't terribly exciting," he said apologetically. "If you want you can head back to the Atrium, they're having a celebratory "we didn't get blown up" feast. Spit roast hoppers. I can come join you when I'm done here."
(OOC: Now that my laptop is back up and running again and I've remembered to check here I'm back! XD)
(OOC 2: LOL! Yes I certainly can understand that. Besides, you avoided at least some of the common clitches ;P.)
"As far as I'm concerned I'm an extraterrestrial and therefore this food to me is foreign" Derek teased back with a small smirk before proceeding to work on his meal. Hungrily and certainly not shy about being in tune with the wolf he is.
He had just managed to take one more bite before nearly choking on it with a small cough when Chip nudged him in the arm. Blinking some he then proceeded to eye his drink almost cautiously, reaching out and grabbing it before chugging a good amount of it down. At first he smacked his tongue lightly against his gums with a nod and an expression of approval but seconds into this his eyes widened as the sudden sugary goodness rammed his senses like an American Football tackle.
Derek's verbal reaction was deep to show just how much it had hit as he let out a "Whow..." before grinning widely as he held his mug up in an enthusiastic outburst that caused half the inhabitants of the area to stop what they were doing and stare at him for a moment until they realized it must have been his first time drinking the stuff.
"This shit is fucking awesome!"
Derek went silent when he realized that was a little louder than he intended it to be...
Meanwhile...
(OOC: Oh my God...you actually remembered her name and I had forgotten, LOL! That's so sad of me. XD! I was like "Now I know it's one of those dark names that would suit the bike and Daemun...but what the bloody hell was it?...")
Daemun watched Starzone with a very serious expression as though if she so much as even scraped a fingernail on the paint work he would unleash all kinds of hell upon her. But he was patient enough and add to this that Starzone was willingly offer to help, not worsen, the situation. Apocalypse meanwhile remained at her own calm, which wasn't too hard for a motorbike like her dispite there being the whole 'she's a motorbike' situation. She did have some level of emotion which Daemun often questioned why he had bothered to give her that upgrade at times. But it was worth it for her.
"Well that makes a lot of sense" Daemun began to reply, his arms folded and leaning back against a near by tool bench as he continued "Still, I'm a little more than just "something supernatural". Even I worry about myself at times...but you didn't hear that from me."
Daemun nodded to Starzone's note about Apocalypse being booked in for her service and what not before taking a moment to consider his options from there. In the end he decided to follow, stopping beside Starzone as he looked at her with a small smirk as he said "You convinced me when you mentioned "Spit Roast". Even I can't resist that."
Meanwhile...
"Typical..." Rav'una replied with a curl of her lip and a quick roll of her eyes. She was all too familiar with the way the Catatonian army seemed to do their job and what not. For her sake and the sake of others however she pushed aside her rapidly growing irritations and decided to focus on what was important now.
With Quicksilver now working with the others to fix at least one of the known problems, hopefully the only problem, Rav'una followed Geiser to the hull, her pace steady and collected as usual as she swayed her hips in an surprising natural level of elegance, her tail calmly swishing behind her as she did. It was as natural as her killer instinct.
"Honestly I have never been much of a crowd type" Rav'una replied with a small shake of her head before then adding with a smile "I am more than willing to wait if you would prefer that. After all..." She smirked rather proudly as she continued "You could use the company."
The triplets laughed heartily, quickly joined in by the mice immediately around them at Derek's embarrassed silence.
"Firs' time?" Streak inquired as he popped up suddenly, carrying a big jug of more cider. He grinned and plonked the cider on the table, the betraying sugar twitch only showing in his usually steady hands after he'd put it down slightly harder than normal, a few drops sloshing and dripping down the side. "Oops."
"What's goin' on Mr Sleight o' Hand?" Chip teased. "Gettin' old? Losin' your touch?"
"Least I got most of it here," Streak shot back, plonking among them with a plate of food.
"How much you had to drink Streak? You're gonna be fuckin' airborne if you keep this shit up," Byte said, sculling more of her cider. "Gods DAMN." She grinned.
-=o=-
Starzone smirked and loped along a little ahead of the much taller Daemun, leading the way. It didn't take long for the delicious aroma of spit roasted hoppers to come wafting down the corridors toward them. The two of them entered unobtrusively enough, although as soon as people started noticing the stranger, and the freaky eye, the area around them immediately settled into an uneasy silence, made more noticeable by the continuing background niose of the rest of the crowd who was unaware of their presence.
Starzone looked at the people staring. "What?" she sapped sharply. Almost immediately people seemed to remember their manners, plates were passed over and loaded up with the famous spit roast hopper which looked exactly as good as it smelled and probably tasted even better.
"You prob'ly don't wanna hang with a bunch of kids. Want me to take you to the officers?" Starzone inquired, looking up at Daemun. By all rights the slit eye should have been freaky but after having her iron will completely and utterly decimated by Lorus' domination, it was just interesting, and a useful reminder that this guy could tear her to shreds.
-=o=-
"Stay over there," Geiser said to Rav'una, "these things get hot." He waved around the welding torch he pulled out of the toolbox. They were a lot hotter than the welding torches they normally used, but not nearly as hot as what was needed to cut easily through the mercurite. They were not capable of handling anywhere near that amount of heat.
Geiser put on the large weldng gloves and mask. "And don't look," he said, smiling down at Rav;'una, "I like your eyes the way they are." He quickly tipped down the mask and turned his attention to the plate he had to cut. Or more accuraetly the two plates, seeing as the projectile had been rude enough to strike the boundary of two plates.
"Was it that obvious?..." Derek asked with a blink or two, his expressions and response pretty much answering Streak's question.
He watched as the new jug of cider was placed on the table and Derek only wondered how long that would last. His guess and final conclusion was not very long at all since it seemed to be the drink of choice around these parts. Well it could be worse. They could have been drinking something Derek absolutely hated and that would be a total drag especially if it was all they had. Fortunately that was not the case in this scenario.
"Noooo! The prrrrrecioussssss!" Derek blurted in a joking mock as he reached his hand out in a purposely dramatic style, making himself sound like Gollum (however the hell you spell his name) from Lord of the Rings. By this point Lord of the Rings had to be known even as far as Mars. Surely.
If not well it was probably amusing all the same. Probably.
Derek daringly took another drink of his cider, trying to be the typical male and take it but an eye twitch was more than enough to say he failed that task.
"Mleh...Sugar punches..." He added with another twitch of his eye.
Meanwhile...
Daemun's stomach gave a small growl at the scent, urging him to feed upon whatever meal that delicious fragrance was emerging from though the moment they entered the dining area and everyone went silent and began to stare...Oh how Daemun had to hold his tongue. He was just about to actually say something when Starzone snapped at the crowd for him which surprised him at first but this was soon followed by a smirk and a nod of grattitude to Starzone. It wasn't one of those usual creepy kind of smirks he so often displayed in his expression but one that was actually a little softer than usual. It was a good sign he was genuinely grateful for at least someone standing up for him.
Even Derek, admitely, was a little freaked out by Daemun's appearence but oddly enough unlike everyone else he didn't stare for long. Just a mere look at Daemun and then back to his meal his went as though nothing had happened. Perhaps it was that relation in knowing that he and Daemun shared a quality about them which was they both had a difference that was very alike. Dark and mysterious and that made many stop and stare and even perk a brow or two. Derek may not have been completely conciously aware of what he had done though or at least how calmly he took it. Even if a side of him was a little intimidated by Daemun's appearence and personality. But the demon side for some reason didn't seem to really phase Derek much. At least not anymore and after all he managed to see in the last battle/mission.
Daemun had meanwhile spotted Derek's reaction and it did catch his curiousity that of all people he was one of the few that seemed the least phased by him. But everyone else's reactions had already got on his nerves and Daemun could feel the urge to snap at the crowd like he would have in the past. But that would have been unwise and just stupid. As he had been scanning the crowd with an eery look in his eyes, in particular that predator-like sharpness to his one particular eye, Starzone's question sliced through his concentration and fortunately at a good time. Looking down at her, the slit in his eye thickening to it's more calm state, with a nod he replied "Actually I would prefer that, yeah..." Looking back at the crowd who by now were back to doing their thing, he added with a small frown "The crowd here seem to have forgotten their manners...Hopefully the officers will be an improvement."
Meanwhile...
"Understood" Rav'una replied with a nod before stepping back and giving Geiser the room he needed to do his work. She observed, curiously, at what he did and did her best to try and learn from observation. Of course she figured there was far more to it than meets the eye as with most, if not all things, but never the less she was good at learning from observing.
But that idea went out the window when Geiser told her not to look and with a small chuckle followed then by a smirk she replied "I appreciate that." With that she turned her attention to something else so to keep her focus on that instead as Geiser meanwhile worked on the welding. And what better to distract herself with than her favourite blade: The trusty double bladed lazer blade. The very one she almost killed a certain someone with on her first time on this planet. Now it was just amusing to her to think she had overreacted so badly but you couldn't blame her really. With an amused smirk she studied the handle for a good while before deciding it was time to give it a good clean. Grabbing a cloth near by she began working on it and as she, keeping her focus on the handle so not to be blinded by the welding torche's light, she asked "How severe is the damage?"
Starzone nodded, having expected as much. The officers weren't that far away and Epoch was with them, so all would be well with the world. Daemun still had to build up and sort himself out and she wasn't picking up any particularly malevolent intent from him.
"Just a sec," she said, winding her way over to her group, seated not that far away.
-=o=-
Streak, Byte and Chip giggled at Derek's eye twitch, Cypher only just managed a much more macho manly chortle. Starzone, leading Daemun, reached them in very little time and leaned over, putting her plate in front of Streak. He grinned up at her, she smiled back but didn't show him any affection this time aside from a quick squeeze on the shoulder.
The triplets and Streak nodded politely to Daemun, not staring but with the air of wariness of once bitten twice shy. The only reason they were being so polite in the first place was because Starzone seemed to be okay with him, and if Starzone thought the weird supernatural shit was okay, then it was okay with them.
"Guard the food with your lives," she said, "and don't drink all the cider. Back in a bit."
"Yes Starleader," Cypher responded, again with the mock formality and a big grin. The triplets saluted dramatically at the same time, the boys making sure their fists pounded hard on their broad chests.
"I hope that hurt," Starzone said with a grin, and led Daemun to the central table where the officers were sitting. They weren't set any higher than anyone else, just more or less in the middle of the celebrations. Strike was seated there enjoying a drink and the food with the captains, including Epoch, and also with the ferocious looking Raven, who was partway through a hunk of raw hopper.
They all looked up as Daemun approached, Starzone materialising out of the crowd in front of him. She saluted the table in general, they all casually returned the gesture except for Raven, who had relegated himself to watcher.
"Thought you might like him to join you, sir," Starzone said simply, smiling slightly.
"Thank you, Starzi." Daemun smiled back and gestured to an empty seat close to him. "Take a seat," he invited Daemun.
-=o=-
Geiser spent a couple of minutes while Rav'una was getting herself where she was going to set up a clumsy but serviceable shield around the area he was working, leaving not many gaps to look into. He secured his visor and lit the blowtorch.
It was ridiculously bright even by blowtorch standards. Geiser winced internally as he felt the heat on his hands even through the welding gloves. The Mercurites had no dramas whatsoever handling the torch but they had their mobile forges set up in close proximity to the sun, plus they used "starfire" torches. It wasn't certain whether the fire was from actual stars but it was so damn hot they never brought them planetside.
This blowtorch, while hotter than most, didn't even come close to the torches the mercurites used when they were metalworking.
"Pretty bad," Geiser replied to Rav'una, his voice muffled by the mask, "gotta cut through two panels." The strain was evident in his voice as he applied torch to panel, having to push to get it to cut, watching the slow heat up and melt of the mercurite metal as it reluctantly gave way before the torch. "Hopefully it didn't do any internal damage, Mercurite electronics are more irritating than their metalwork."
From the other side of the ship, Quicksilver's high pitched trill could be clearly heard, apparently in answer to Geiser's comment. Geiser smirked, unseen under the welding mask.
By this point Daemun had already figured out that by picking a fight or doing something stupid around these parts he would only find himself facing some severe consiquences as a result. Dispite his level of power and how easily he seemed to intimidate most around the Tir the odds were still against him as an over all thing. If Starzone didn't stand her ground and manage to strike a dent in his defenses and attacks then someone else would surely do just that. Eventually no doubt but still, he knew better than to also attack his allies. Though for the moment that was all he had. Allies. Not really anyone in particular, apart from Strike (That's right, right? XD! I always get Strike and Streak's names confused.) who he helped in the last battle. Daemun was starting to see him as more of a friend than an allie, although Starzone seemed to be showing some signs of wanting to at least help him get fed. It was a start.
Daemun simply nodded in response to Starzone and followed to where she lead. Once there he couldn't help but smirk in amusement a particular someone who's reaction to the whole juicy goodness of his drink amused even the darkest of demons apparently. Though he didn't say anything and that smirk soon faded to a more collected and yet serious tone.
Derek meanwhile had been chuckling at his own sillyness before settling as his smile slowly faded, his expressions forming to a more calm and even curious manner as he looked over to see Starzone and Daemun approach the table. For a moment they met eye to eye and though Derek did stare for a moment for some reason Daemun didn't seem to mind. It was one of those intrigued sort of looks and one that Derek wasn't entirely concious of doing and Daemun picked up on his extrodinarily calm energy. And something else in Derek that striked intrigue in Daemun as well. It had to be a demon thing. After all, Derek did have Mr Darkness in himself and Daemun...well we all know about him. Derek finally gave a nod in greeting and Daemun likewise returned the nod with his own silent greeting before turning his attention over to Streak and the triplets with a nod in return to them.
Shortly after that, and the funny moment with exagerated mocking which actually amused Daemun, though again he only really showed so with a smirk, Daemun gave a small salute to the crowd before following Starzone to the central table. He waited his turn, though showed his respect with a good strongly put salute, easing then at Starzone had her say and when invited to sit at the table Daemun nodded once with a "Thank you sir" and sat himself down.
"Good to see to you in good health" Daemun noted, though hardly changing his expressions by much at all typically enough, taking a chance in trying to be nice for a change.
Meanwhile...
Geiser probably considered himself lucky in the sense that, by the sounds of things, the blowtorche he was using was pretty standard by Mercurite rules of heat differences. Rav'una may have been able to handle it but not by much more. Especially considering the welding torches back on her planet were not anywhere near as hot and she had only ever used one a few times to practice. Fortunately she never had to use one although her ship, which by now would have been reduced to nothing more than scraps and spare parts, was in dire need of it at the time. Well even if you could weld some of it together the ship was a complete and obvious write off.
Thinking back on it Rav'una's mood began to change a little more. She was starting to remember home but she did her best to hide the fact she actually missed the place. Unlike Derek, who came from a rough side of his planet, Rav'una came from a very highly regarded part of her planet. In fact there was more to Rav'una's history than Geiser knew. Or anyone else for that matter.
Pushing aside this, though it was still evident in her voice something was bothering her and she was just being polite by pushing it back, she stopped fiddling around with the handle of her blade, slowly lowering it with a few nods before responding "We should hope so..." She didn't look at Geiser when she said this, knowing he was still welding since she valued her eyes and the sight she's blessed with.
Hearing Quicksilver she glanced over to where the sound was coming from, careful not to look at the welding torche's light, as she perked a brow in question. "What was that all about?" She asked rather curiously.
"Likewise," Strike shuffled over a little to make room for Daemun. "Dismissed, Starz."
Starzone nodded and melded into the crowd.
"These are my captains," Strike introduced Daemun to the group. "Garnet," a deep red male with the appropriate garnet coloured eyes and platinum shooting through his burnished red hair nodded politely, "Epoch you've met," Epoch nodded slightly, his cold silver cybereyes not leaving Daemun, "Flak you know," Flak nodded, meeting Daemun's eyes long enough to issue a polite acknowledgement, then looked down at his food, "Rexanor," the old gray furred, white haired mouse had hints of brown in his fur which suggested that he wasn't naturally gray, and the almost customary scar across his face that seemed to be required before you could be considered a veteran old timer type, "and Chase," the token female with the curves in the right places, her blood red eyes standing out from almost black fur, although to mention anything about token female would probably be suicidal judging by the way well toned muscles rippled under well kept fur. Even though she was smaller than the well built males at the table, she looked plenty capable of taking them on.
"This is Raven, from Mercury," Strike then introduced the large bird, who cocked his head, raptor eyes regarding Daemun with interest.
"Guys, this is Commander Daemun Shade, my old commanding officer."
The captains snapped off a salute, even Flak who looked up long enough to do so.
-=o=-
While that was happening, Starzone and made her way back to where her friends were seated and tickled Streak in the ribs, almost making him choke on the cider he was guzzling.
"I said don't finish the cider," she chided playfully, bouncing into his lap and tackling her food.
"Dere's plenty left," Streak said cheerfully, grunting as he earned an elbow in the ribs for copping a feel.
"Pour me a drink first, bitch," Starzone managed through a mouthful of spit roast hopper. "Man this is the shit."
Streak obligingly poured Starzone a cup of cider. She sculled about half the mug and came up for air with a maniacal grin.
"Pass it over, Streak," Byte said, leaning over towards the cider jug over Derek. Streak obliged after refilling his and Starzone's mug. Starzone looked at hers as it was refilled.
"Anyone would think you're trying to get me horny or something," she said, drinking more.
Byte sat down and refilled hers, then brandished the jug at Derek. "Reckon you can handle more?" she inquired, her eyes sparkling with mischief to match the grin.
-=o=-
"He doesn't get why everyone doesn't use bionics," Geiser translated. He grimaced as his hands started to send more pain signals to his brain, whining something about getting burnt. He was most of the way through one of the damaged panels. The edge in Rav'una's voice seemed slightly out of place considering the comment. He didn't think now was the appropriate time or place to ask about it, but made a mental note to do so later, if he could find a way to broach the subject. The result made it look like he hadn't noticed the tone. The next words out of his mouth were not too flattering, but he forced himself to deal with it until he'd cut the first panel loose before switching off the torch and collapsing back onto the cooler panels, and shedding the gloves, quickly reaching into the toolbox to grab the icepack which was in there for precisely this reason.
-=o=-
(ooc- join in whenever you can :)
The orderly entered with two covered dishes of finely sliced, choice cuts of spit roast hopper and roast veges, but with mugs of fruit juice instead of the cider the more healthy revellers were consuming. Finding her patients sound asleep in the Psion recovery room, she left each plate beside Trajectory and Redspot respectively and then quietly left.
Daemun simply nodded in response to Strike and sat himself down at the table, getting himself comfortable before giving Starzone a small wave goodbye. Though he didn't smile or even smirk it was still a good sign that he was getting the hang of this being nice business. Well, as far as Daemun the demon mouse was concerned at least.
With that Daemun's attention went then to the crowd of captains, a few familiar faces but again Daemun greeted them with a simple nod in return, not wanting to say much or having much more to say for that matter as Strike continued to introduce him to them. He didn't seem to mind the stares in this crowd or the various reactions he recieved as for some reason this crowd just felt right to him. Heck, at least they were mature enough to treat Daemun like an individual rather than a freak show item. Chase seemed to have that streak about her that Daemun liked but he kept that to himself. Surprisingly enough.
Raven. Now that was a pretty bird. Daemun had always liked ravens so to have one part of the team somehow managed to add some level of comfort and even Raven recieved a greeting nod from Daemun who didn't seem to judge it by the fact it was a bird at all.
With that all done Daemun spread his attention to the crowd as a whole as best he could, looking over at Strike with a small smirk when he regarded him as "Commander" rather than just "Daemun". It was nice to be regarded as something classy as that, even if it was something old. But who knew. Maybe Daemun could reclaim his crown some day. For now though he had that nasty stain on his records and name that held him back from achieving that.
At first Daemun was caught a little off guard by the saluting, his attention snapping back to the crowd with a small hint of surprise in his firm expressions but with his trademark smirk he saluted back, unable to resist but to say "At ease" when he was done.
Meanwhile...
Derek had been munching contently on another chunk of his meal when Starzone's seemingly sudden presence caught him by surprise, his ears shooting up to a perk as he quickly looked at her with a piece of Hopper sticking out from the corner of his maw.
"Hey Starzone!" Derek waved, trying not to grin too widely so to hide the mess in his mouth, chewing a little more before swallowing it with a small gulp.
Derek stopped as he blinked some at Byte who leaned over for the jug and when later offered more Derek smirk was confident as ever. Holding up his mug he said the first thing that anyone with the right mind and a taste for the stuff would say.
"Bring it on."
Meanwhile...
"Perhaps due to the increase in price for bionic materials lately" Rav'una replied, still pushing aside her emotions as she slipped her now clean and fixed lazer blade back into its hold, looking over at Geiser's completed work once he was done. She took note of how hot that torche must have been for there to be a need for an ice pack and as any concerned lover would she had to ask.
"Are you alright? I can smell the burn of fur from here."
(OOC: How so? I are is confuzzled...XD!)
(ooc - was talking to Redspot, she seems to have gone awol again though so I guess we'll just carry on til she can join back in. Sorry for long delays, as well as waiting to see if Redspot was coming back I moved house over the weekend and now in for all the unpacking and sorting fun :)
Rexanor, Garnet and Chase smirked when Daemun gave them the "at ease" command, and they all responded to it by calmly resuming eating. Raven for his part grabbed hold of the hopper with both clawed hands (which probably reminded Daemun of Phoenix's razor claws digging into his shoulders) and stabbed his beak into it, ripping out a sizeable chunk, shaking his head slightly to get it loose but being careful not to spatter Rexanor and Flak, his neighbours to either side, with blood, before scoffing it.
The table manners of the captains were a slight improvement on those of the pilots and the riders, but they were still fairly barbaric mercenary, no Bourgeoisie to speak of anywhere in this mobile base, it seemed. Chase was quite noticeably happily picking around bits she'd carved off and then stabbed with what looked like a large hunting knife.
They ate in a comfortable silence for a little while, one in which there wasn't really the need felt to fill the silence with smalltalk. Flak's residual fear was only evident in his intense concentration on his food, and if the captains were wary of Daemun, only Epoch showed it and then not in a hostile manner. It may have had something to do with age, in his early 20s Epoch was obviously the youngest captain, everyone else was in their 30s or 40s with the exception of Rexanor who could have been close to 60 if not past.
It didn't take long for the cider servers to come around again to their table and start filling everyone's mugs with cider, beginning with Strike, then moving around to Daemun and then Raven in a fluted metal drinking vessel before doing everyone else. The captains didn't seem to be indulging nearly as much as the surrounding revellers. Rexanor indicated a no refill on his still partially full mug.
"Careful how much you drink," he cautioned Daemun with a smirk, the sharpness of his eyes belying his age, "it's non-alcoholic but it's a pretty potent aphrodisiac."
-=o=-
"Good hopper...Derek?" Starzone hesitated only briefly as she struggled for just a second to remember Derek's name, and not call him by the slightly more impersonal callsign. She grinned, noticing the empty mug of cider already consumed, then at Byte offering him more. She arched an eyebrow at Byte, tilting her head downwards slightly in an inquiring manner. Byte responded by grinning back cheekily as she filled Derek's mug to the brim and placed the empty jug back on the table.
Starzone settled back quite comfortably on Streak's lap, smirking more as he reacted to something she did under the table, then he nuzzled into ner neck as she continued with the meal.
"Get a room you two," Cypher grinned.
Chip's eye in the meantime had been caught by the sexy young girl, obviously high on the cider herself, that came past, hooking their empty jug with her tail and replacing it with a full one, then placing the empty jug on the tray she was carrying. Chip's tail snaked out and tapped her smartly on the rear. She jumped slightly, then smiled coyly at him before continuing on her rounds.
-=o=-
When the pain in his hands had subsided, Geiser exhaled softly at the panel he still had to carve, and pulled the gloves back on. "More because the Mercurites have to do bionics differently to everyone else in the known universe," he said, forgetting that Rav'una couldn't see his face or his amusement behind the welding mask. "We have exactly one techy who has an in depth understanding of how their stuff works and of course he's on loan at the moment." Geiser winced as the heat of the blowtorch starting up aggravated the sensitised skin on his hands. He was going to end up with burns, but the panel had to come off. He growled as the torch hit full heat and he started pressing it through the metal, slicing through the next panel.
"Yeh I'm fine," he answered Rav'una through gritted teeth, "all in a day's work."
There were only three sides of the panel to cut through so it didn't take as long. By the time he was done the pain in his hands was intense. Wincing, Geiser put the damaged panel on top of the first one he had pulled out, then dropped the torch onto them to cool down. He flipped off the welding mask and winced again as he pulled each glove off in turn, dropping them into the toolbox. Remaining on his knees in front of the toolbox, he contemplated his hands, both badly burnt. The icepack wasn't going to cut it now, he definitely needed medical treatment.
But first he had to work out the best way to get off the hull with minimal use of his hands, he hadn't thought about that.
"Poi," he yelled. From across the floor, a woman in the standard bright orange techy garb popped into view from beneath the ship.
"Sir?" she responded, looking up at him from the ground.
"Need your hands," he said, smiling. "Mine are fucked."
"What you need?"
"Circuits checked, looks like some of the organs are damaged. Can't tell without getting in and lookin' round."
"Be up in a bit."
Poi vanished under the ship and could later be seen heading to the room where the tools were stored.
Geiser sat back more comfortably, allowing himself a pained groan this time as his hands continued complaining about the burns he'd picked up.
(OOC: Thought so. It's alright, I figured you've been busy and all anyway. Plus you have kids too, right? Or am I confusing you with someone else? XD.)
Daemun was pleased to find that gradually, but surely, others were starting to treat him more like a Commander than a strange demon mouse with a bad reputation and history. Though he still he couldn't shake the nudging thoughts and feelings that this was going to be a long process indeed. At least this was all a start.
Daemun didn't mind the table manners at all. In fact though he dared not mention it at the table in his more...darker moments he had eaten some things in such a way that it was like it was snatched right out of a horror movie. So table manners were something that went right out the window quite a while back for him. That said though there was a part of him that was a little more civilized in the way he did things. For now he just sat and observed, smirking in amusement at the variety of eating habits at the table.
That smirk soon faded away however when he picked up the energies around him. There was some fear in the air and at least one of them was obviously wary of him. You couldn't really blame them though. For starters it's not every day you invite a demon over to sit and enjoy the company with you. So that probably didn't help. Add to that said reputation and what not and the whole mix was an uneasy one. But even with that evident in the air it was far more comforting here than it was out with the other side of the crowd. Daemun at least could feel somewhat in his place here which helped ease any tensions coming from him.
Watching Raven clutch onto his food as he did certainly reminded Daemun of the not so pleasant clawing he had recieved but it also reminded him that he needed to thank the one who saved him personally. He made a mental note to do that when as soon as possible. Those wounds were almost completely healed by now which was extrodinarily fast considering how recent they are. One of the plus sides to being a demon type one could say.
Age. That was something Daemun lost track of over the years. Daemun himself would probably around his thirties or so, give or take, but the demon version of him was ancient. It was determined that Daemun was not a two part entity. The demon and himself are the same individual only it's like slipping off a mask and the way he transformed was certainly, in some gruesome twisted way, a perfect example of how that was represented.
"Aphrodisiac?" Daemun finally questioned, looking down at the mug of cider before him before then scooping it up and looking at Strike with a smirk before then responding "You make it sound like it's some kind of sex juice. Trust me, I think I can handle it." With that Daemun chugged a good portion of the stuff down before resting the mug down with a small cough, clearing his throat and inclining his head into a brief diagonal shake before then noting in a slight struggle with his voice box "Whoa...Instant diabetes anyone?"
Meanwhile...
"You bet!" Derek blurted through another mouthful of hopper, swallowing his bite of hopper before waving a piece of it at Starzone with a smirk as he noted "Good to know you remember my name by the way" with a small chuckle to follow.
He was soon enough distracted by Byte's offering and needless to say this may lead into quite amusing in the results factor. Obvlivious to the cheeky cheeky grin displayed in Byte's expression Derek took the mug, which would have quite fittingly sizzled with a smoke streak shaped like a skull and crossbone were it capable of such, and proceeded to move it forward toward his lips. Though he stopped as he too was distracted by the pretty female coming back to serve more cider and Derek smirked at Chip's actions and the response he recieved.
"Smooth" Was all he said before proceeding to take a drink of his cider.
No sooner had he placed the mug on the table did Derek's sweet high kick in and shatter through its maximum capacity like an overheated thermonitor and just barely did he manage to let out a "Whoo!" with his hands raised clenched in the air...did he then faceplant the empty dish in front of him, his half full mug tipping over and rolling to tap him in the side of the head.
"Yeah, I think he's had enough..." A random mouse at a near by table noted with a blink or two, the rest of the mice at his table staring at the situation like someone had just hit a pause button.
Suddenly Derek shot up straight with a snort, his eye giving a light twitch when he saw the empty mug in front of him. "My cider! It's ruined!" He blurted in sudden shock horror, his hands clasping to the sides of his head. "Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!"
Meanwhile...
"Apparently" Rav'una smirked, showing a sign of amusement to cover up all else clashing within her right now. She reminded herself to be patient, be grateful for what she has now. Still...things nudged at her.
"And there is no one else who is able to assist in the meantime?" Rav'una asked, turning away from the light of the torche once more before she then noted with a small sigh "I can not help but wonder what truly did cause the damage. So far we are basing a lot of our conclusions on possibilities that may have been so."
Geiser's response to her questioning him if he was alright didn't quite convince her all that much that they were. The sound in his voice and the fact she could feel the heat of the blow torche from where she was standing all were not helping in that.
"You should rest in between welds and slices Geiser" Rav'una noted in as calm a tone as she could. The last thing she wanted was to have Geiser walk away with burned hands or none at all due to overworking the welding/cutting job.
The smell of burned fur and flesh concerned Rav'una but more than anything actually irritated her. Out of concern of course but still, it could have most likely been avoided. At least as far as she was concerned. Exhaling deeply she turned to Geiser and with a shake of her head she then said "I told you that you should have rested between cuts my love." There was a hint of irritation to her tone but calming herself she then waited until Geiser was done giving his orders before adding in a firm yet calm and gentle tone "You should let me see to your hands. I am able to help you with those burns."
"And I won't take no for an answer." Rav'una then very firmly stated, her expressions making it perfectly clear that saying 'no' to her was not a very smart option. Unless you're really brave or stupid. And surely Geiser was certainly not stupid.
(ooc - yep 2 kids + 1 sporing)
The other captains chuckled at Daemun's reaction to the drink, even Epoch cracked a smirk. Flak was still being silent, but he did glance up at least.
"The sugar rush thing is a bit of a mystery," Strike smirked, sipping his with only slightly more decorum but definitely putting it back a lot slower than Daemun just had, "considering how not sweet it is."
Epoch tipped his head slightly, his partial ear noticeably dipping, and studied Daemun carefully as he sensed an odd energy ripple in the demon mouse. Casually, he glanced around for Starzone. His energy ability was limited to sensing, he had no clue what to make of this.
-=o=-
The triplets burst into uncontrolled fits of giggles, even the rugged manly Cypher, as Derek faceplanted and the resulting comedic scrabbling at his now empty cup. Starzone also started chuckling before she noticed something strange in the colours surrounding Derek. Her laughter subsided as she studied it thoughtfully, and became vaguely aware that the strong buzz in the back of her head was not entirely due to the massive sugar high adrenaline rush she was currently on.
"You have so had enough," she smirked, keeping her voice light. She giggled as Streak suddenly nibbled her shoulder and neck, before yelping a very unconvincing protest as Streak suddenly scooped her up.
"I'm takin' your leader," Streak announced to the group with a devilish gleam in his eye before striding out towards one of the exits, his coat swirling gracefully behind him. The crowd had thinned down a little as couples of groups of mostly teenagers and young adults had slowly been sneaking off to indulge in the passions the cider had stirred up.
-=o=-
Geiser stared hard at his burnt hands, his ears burning at the tips and feeling a warm flush as he struggled hard to convince himself he hadn't just imagined Rav'una casually referring to him as "my love".
"Don't think it would have made a difference," he commented. "The torch is hot, resting up would just have prolonged the inevitable." He shrugged nonchalantly, then smiled down at Rav'una. "I won't say no, lovely. Come on up, just mind the edges of the bits I cut, they'e still a bit hot. I gotta stay up here and supervise Poi when she gets back."...0
(OOC: Well no wonder you've been abscent then =p. All the best! And thank you for still keeping up with this RP. I can't thank you enough or begin to tell you how much I still am thoroughly enjoying it!)
"Probably the only reason I find it so sweet is because I usually sip on something spirit or another" Daemun began, looking at Strike with a smirk as he decided to note in a slight dark sense of humor "Drink wise I mean."
"Besides, you're used to it" Daemun shrugged, taking another sip of his cider with a clearing of his throat as he continued "The last time I had the stuff was when I was a young mouse way back before I-" Stopping there Daemun's expressions became a little more firm, a frown obviously noticeable in his expressions as he remained silent for a good long while as though he had just been struck by some memory he had wished he had forgotten. Pushing that aside Daemun continued "Before I joined the ranks."
Daemun was quick to adapt to his new drink though and soon he was drinking it like it was nothing. It tasted great and was certainly refreshing and he didn't get the same kick from it by the time he was done. Sensing something on Epoch's behalf Daemun had no sooner placed his empty mug down on the table did he then look at Epoch with a small perk of his brow.
"What?..." He asked in a semi-blunt but more curious manner, obviously not having a clue as to why he was being stared at.
Meanwhile...
"Yeah...Yeah I think I have too..." Derek finally replied after he gathered what just happened, rubbing the back of his neck and being greatful that the fur on his face was dark enough to hide the deep blush of embaressment from showing through and denting his ego more than it already had been.
With a smirk and a chuckle Derek raise his hand with a tilt of his wrist in a small salute-like wave before then saying with his smirk still in tact "Have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"Well, I don't know about you" Derek then began, addressing the group with a small stretch "But I'm stuffed and on a sugar high like you wouldn't believe. I can only say one thing...BWAGAGLEOOGLEGAGGLEAGLE!" Clearing this throat and straightening out his coat as he stood up Derek added "That uh...was apparently sugar high for "Thanks for a great meal and drink"..."
Meanwhile...
"When sharpening your blade Geiser always remember its edge." Rav'una replied with a wisdom in her tone that was almost quite shaman-like and very different to her usual style of tone. "What I mean to say is that if you press too hard you will only hurt yourself. But if you take your time and allow yourself to rest the results are much healthier and better in the end."
Rav'una felt herself suddenly blush and she had a feeling it was probably even showing through her fur. Geiser had a pleasant way with words and it was unlike anything she was used to hearing. Especially much of these days. She even purred behind her smirk at his response and she found herself restraining herself from leaping up and pouncing him right then and there. No, instead she carefully made her way closer to Geiser and with a few skillful leaps and hops she not only avoided the hot edges all together but made it up to the top with ease and speed of a pro.
Walking over to Geiser she knelt down beside him, keeping her tail well and truly clear of anything hot behind her and reached out to gently hold the backs of Gesier's palms in her own. For a moment she studied the burns carefully, mentally shaking her head at the damage that torche had caused but on the outside remaining surprisingly calm.
"You're fortunate that you had stopped when you had" She began "These burns are quite severe however not anything I am unable to help with. I will do what I can but I will warn you before hand that it may hurt a little to begin with but you will be pleasantly surprised of the results. Granted I can remember my teachings..."
"This only comes out on special occasions," Chase piped up. Her voice was low and sultry naturally but probably more sultry now due to the cider. "It's potentially more dangerous than alcohol."
Epoch sensed Starzone leaving and tracked her, seeing Streak carrying her off through one of the doors. He sighed. Well, he wasn't sensing anything dangerous from it yet, so maybe it was nothing. He made a mental note to ask Starzone to check it out, sometime afer she'd worked off the excess adrenaline she had pumping through her system. To Daemun he said nothing, wondering if he aware of the flux himself, and although he was still wary, especially considering that not that long ago the one that walked among them had been threatening to kill their commander, he was polite enough to offer an apologetic smile as he shook his head.
-=o=-
The triplets chuckled again, and as Derek stood up the boys looked even more amused.
"Looks like everything's on a sugar high," Cypher drawled, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back against the back of the bench.
Byte, much less discreet, grinned slyly at Derek. "Nice boner," she commented.
-=o=-
Geiser watched in amusement as Rav'una took the most direct way up, rather than coming up the wing and scaffolding like any normal person would have done. Still it was a good a way as any and it afforded him a very nice view of those goreously toned muscles rippling under her fur as she bolted up to join him.
"We don't usually have to cut this much," Geiser said, quite comfortable with Rav'una holding his hands. "If we have to make any ship repairs here it's one panel at most, the rest of the time it's small stuff."
From down below came a bit more ringing and clattering and carrying on, accompanied by a bit of swearing and some harsh notes from Quicksilver, who was probably right alongside the techies swearing as they struggled with the generator.
"Could have fooled me" Daemun replied as he raised his mug to his lips, taking another sip of the cider and having to pause a moment after swallowing it as he placed the mug back on the table. "I've drank a lot of stuff in my time but nothing quite like this before." He admited quite honestly but in a good way, even if he didn't show much emotion in his expressions.
Daemun was sensing a lot of things from all directions and it was difficult to focus on just the one thing at this point. Times like these he cursed his 'gift' and really wished he could stop it somehow. But on the other hand Daemun learned to deal with it and take it like a male. To Epoch he simply nodded in a silent response to his appologetic smile, raising his mug once more to take a sip of his cider and placing it back down on the table.
"So..." Daemun began, looking at his cider mug for a moment before turning his attention as evenly as he could to those gathered at the table "Obviously our mission was a success. But what's the total damage we're not telling anyone about?"
Meanwhile...
Derek was wondering why he was being suddenly laughed at and you would think that his response to Byte's remark and the way she smirked at him would be met with an embarressed blush but the more cheeky side of Derek decided to play the role in his response, looking down at himself and then to Byte with his smirk a sly and cheeky one indeed as he gave his response.
"You can thank your tits for that."
Meanwhile...
"Either way you should always be cautious Geiser. You know this as well as I do." Rav'una stubbornly pointed out through concern more than anything. It did come out rather sternly but Rav'una couldn't help it really.
Her ears perked as she looked as best she could from her position toward the direction of the sounds below and smirked amused as she could only imagine what was happening down there. But that smirk faded as she turned her attention back to Geiser now and studied his burns once more.
"Alright, I think I know what we are able to do. It is a good thing I always come prepared." She noted, having taken off her suit earlier to better get up to Geiser and reaching into a belt pouch at her side she produced a small vile of some type of blue liquid along with a set of bandages. Showing Geiser the liquid which was held in a kind of test tube shaped vial she explained "This is a herbal extract from a rare herb on our planet. It is expensive to buy and risky to find but fortunately I managed to recover most of what I have found myself and brewed from the wreckage of my ship. It will sting for a few moments but it will help heal the wounds quite quickly. No matter how severe."
Popping open the vial she poured a very small amount of it over the wounds on Geiser's hands, using her own hands to carefully massage it in before applying the bandages and as she did so she explained "Leave the bandages on for at least three hours and try not to use your hands for any hard work in the meantime. After three hours remove the bandages and you will be pleasantly surprised with the results." Smiling at Geiser she leaned in close, placing a gently kiss upon his cheek before whispering in his ear with a smirk and a purr "If you behave yourself I may give you a surprise of my own..."
The capains fell silent and looked at Strike, who sipped more cider as he contemplated his answer.
"The Tir's going to require some major repair work," he said at last. "I'm still waiting on damage reports. We're looking for a safe place to stop for an extended period of time. Also," he smiled slightly, "it's not like we won't tell anyone else, we'll be making announcements about damage sustained and what we plan to do once I have the damage reports. If they want more information they can ask. Commander Zenith had this thing about transparent leadership and it's something I quite like, so continuing that tradition." Strike looked at Daemun closely with concern, although his concern was different from the concern Epoch was probably unintentionally showing. "Are you all right?"
Epoch was also looking concerned, but more on the energy fluxes than anything else. The last thing anyone, Daemun inclusive, was for demonic powers boosting into uncontrollably psycho mode. He glanced at the cider mug, turning inwards briefly to see if he could sense any changes in himself. He couldn't really, but he had seen a lot of sparks off Starzone, and her energy had looked a lot brighter. Could it be the cider? He didn't recall it happening before, but Darkmoon had always been around.
He didn't know what to make of it, and it was bothering him. A lot.
-=o=-
The boys made teasing "Oooohhh" sounds and sat back to enjoy the show, not seeing the need to put on the overprotective brothers act. Byte arched an eyebrow slightly, and not taking her eyes off Derek, suggestively pulled down the zipper of her pilot suit to give him an eyeful of ample cleavage, not any more than would have been gotten if she had been wearing a low cut top, and all she was wearing under the pilot suit was underwear.
"If the tits are doin' that think what the rest can do," she challenged.
-=o=-
He always managed to pick the bossy ones. He winced but otherwise the only movement he made was to stop a reflexive flinch when the blue stuff hit his hands. It stung like buggery but he bore it through gritted teeth as Rav'una applied the bandages. a few seconds later endorphins kicked in and then his hands felt tingly, almost pins and needles like. And then he forgot all about it when she kissed him.
"With that kinda promise I'll behave any way you want me to," he smiled.
Poi scrambled up, the only announcement of her arrival a light scratching and tapping on the lovely sounding mercurite plating as she hefted herself and what looked like an oversized silver briefcase up where Geiser and Rav'una were.
"Should I come back later?" she inquired, arching an eyebrow and grinning cheekily. Geiser flushed, some red evident around the base of his nose where there was a bit less fur.
"Bionics. Look." Geiser ordered, trying and failing to make his voice sound sharp and authoritative, the slightly sheepish smile and the fact he wasn't actually being snappy completely not helping the effect.
"Yes sir," Poi responded, with a look like she couldn't wait to finish up and tell all the other techies.
Daemun, almost emotionlessly were it not for the very serious expression he held on his face, waited patiently for Strike's answer though even Daemun wasn't sure what exactly the answer would be. But it was a question of importance to him and feeling like his old Commander self, though the title's genuinity these days could be easily questioned as there was still no doubt decisions to be made in that regards, as he did so. More importantly, however, he wanted an answer and this brief delay never seemed to be a good thing generally.
Listening carefully it was actually nice to hear that the Tier was the only thing that damaged and not a great deal was done to those living and working inside of it. Of course the level of damage would be another matter and if it was anything severe it would need immediate attention as far as Daemun knew. But in saying that Strike's response did ease Daemun's concerns.
When questioned if he was alright Daemun fell silent a moment, almost avoiding his question completely in his response. It didn't seem to be intentionally rude though Daemun, in truth, was ignoring something inside. It wasn't the demon within that was concerning him though. Something else bothered him but he feared little could be done about it. After all, at least in demon form he could contain himself...well somewhat. At least outside and during a battle where it seemed most useful to be in that form and what have we.
"What of the injury and casuality rate?" Daemun asked, bringing his mug up for another sip of his cider and placing the mug back on the table. He took note of the concerns around him but either chose to ignore it for the sake of not bringing what was bothering him up or, in some strange way, to ease the concerns. Not that it seemed to work half the time he used this. He had done this sort of thing in the past and it was part of what lead him down the wrong path. Keeping things bottled up until the contents popped out the top like champaigne on New Year's day.
Although maybe it was something much, much deeper about Daemun that he even wasn't completely sure of that Epoch seemed to notice. Something that seemed to be creeping up on him in the shadows of his other concerns.
Meanwhile...
For a moment there Derek had completely forgotten about the protective brothers sitting at the same table but at the same time you could say he was getting used to it. Maybe he was finally being braver about it than he used to be. Heck, you would think after all he's been through so far that he wouldn't be too concerned. Besides it was all in good humor and the reaction of the brothers only made him smirk as he felt his ego boost +40.
Naturally, Derek being Derek, he couldn't help but stare in typical confident male style as Byte pulled down the zipper as she did, Derek smirk becoming all the more deepened in cheekyness as took his eyes from her oh so wonderful cleavage and looked Byte straight in the eyes as he gave his response.
"Miss Byte" Derek smirked "Are you trying to seduce me? 'Cause I left my warning label in my other jeans so I don't think you're prepared for the risk I have to offer."
(OOC: Lamest. Come back. Ever.)
Meanwhile...
"Do not get too cheeky" Rav'una smirked, teasing further with "Opportunities are fragile things."
Rav'una's little moment came to a record scratching hault as she heard someone approach and even she blushed deeply under her fur, standing up straight and turning to see who it was, rubbing the back of her neck with a clear of her throat and a shake of her head as she silently attempted a more serious "No" gesture. Of course she failed almost worse than Geiser had. In fact...she failed more so miserably.
She couldn't help but giggle, that's right I said giggle, at what just happened and turned to Geiser with another mischevious smirk and a wink.
"I should probably let you rest?"
Now sensing something slightly amiss, Strike watched Daemun carefully, worrying a little when he saw a hint of that old cageyness emerging. Flak sunk a bit lower in his seat, thoughtfully chewing on the knuckle of a bone.
"A number of pilots were injured on the roof from direct or secondary hits," he answered, "and there were minor injuries sustained from the Tir gettin' rocked. Nothin' too serious." They had very slowly been covering the Tir with mercurite plates as the Mercurites kept bringing their shipments in. Looked like the underside which housed the bulk of the engines and other mechanical stuff would have to remain vulnerable for a bit longer while they repaired the damages. The mercurite plating had been primarily responsible for why they were all still alive and just crippled as opposed to half the Tir having been blown away when the missile rain had started getting too thick and fast for the defenders to shoot down.
Strike was trying to pick Daemun's tone. Once he had been genuinely concerned for the welfare of the people in his command. When he had started dabbling in things he probably shouldn't have been, there had been a change to when he had only wanted to know to see if it was going to impact on whatever mission it was they had been thrown at. He really should try to encourage him down to continue their aborted quest to see Doc.
-=o=-
Chip started to say something but was immediately silenced when Cypher casually backhanded him n the muzzle, just hard enough to sting and to knock Chip off the end of the bench. This battle of wits was between Byte and Derek and they shouldn't interfere. Still, Cypher had to admit, Derek could have come up with a better comeback.
Byte stood up and turned to face Derek, eyes sparkling partly from mischief and partly from mad high. "I'll take my chances. IF you think you can handle it." She cocked her head, grinning daringly.
-=o=-
"Whatever makes you happy." Geiser smiled at Rav'una and settled himself comfortably where he could look easily into the hole he'd made, resting his bandaged hands in his lap. Poi had undone the clasps on the suitcase and popped it open to reveal a kit that was equal parts small job tools and what looked remarkably like surgical tools. She was sitting back awaiting instructions, and it wasn't too long before Geiser gave them.
"Start at the top. Check for damage. Burn marks, broken connections, fake mercury, anything out of the ordinary."
Poi nodded and started looking, Geiser watching carefully.
"Good" Daemun responded with a nod, not referring to the injuries being good but rather as he further noted as he raised his mug to his lips again, watching the remaining liquid inside "No casualities at least." With that he finished off his cider with a single swig, placing the empty mug on the table as he exhaled from having swallowed a little more than he expected to be left. He managed so, however, with collected actions.
For a moment Daemun remained silent, sensing a variety of emotions from around the table but rather than feel awkward about it he instead silently and secretively homed in to those particularly looking into his current mood and energy. It suddenly made sense. Daemun was a little on edge, as usual, but maybe Starzone was right. He needed to see the Doc but Daemun's stubborness continued to stay strong.
Meanwhile...
At this point Derek heard that little voice in his head taunt him with a deepened toned "Failed!" as he realized he didn't quite succeed the way he hoped he would with that come back. But you had to give him kudos for trying at least. Derek always seemed to pride himself in how witty he could be but he hit a road bump with that one. Well, so he felt.
A challenge, eh? Byte was tempting Derek with something that any wise female should know never to tempt him with. Unless of course they wanted him. And we all know what that statement's meaning is. Slowly a smirk of mischief and pride deepened in his expressions, Derek's eyes adding to the 'sexy theme' of his over all tone and mannerism, typically male but in a cool and collected sort of way and not the irritating high school jock style we all grow to hate, and with that, his smirk strong as ever, he gave his response.
"Well sounds to me like that's a challenge." Derek, dispite being right near Byte's brothers who were known for their protectiveness, didn't even hessitate for a second as he suddenly reached out and pulled Byte in close, leaning in to whisper in her ear "How about you and me go some place quiet for a little...hide and seek?"
Meanwhile...
Ra'vuna shook her head before then responding with what was her style of a loving smile as she replied "No my love, it is whatever makes you happy." That response alone was true proof of how dedicated she was to someone she had fallen in love with so quickly and had so immediately labelled as her new mate. Geiser should be honored. Rav'una rarely ever trusted someone so much yet alone had ever trusted them enough to share her heart with them as she did with Geiser.
For the moment she simply stood back to allow Geiser to do his job but was watchful, in her own little secret ways so to try not make it so obvious, about what he did. After all those injuries won't heal any faster if he let himself work with them.
"No casualties," Strike confirmed. One of his ears flicked slightly, and then seemingly out of the blue he said, "Eight pilots injured, mostly techies. Worst are a few broken ribs and concussion, everyone else variations on fractures, sprains, mild concussion, burns and deep tissue bruising. Five of them should be back on duty by the end of the day."
The captains made relieved sounding murmurings.
"We're a Psion down, no injuries that Doc can assess, just exhaustion."
More happy murmurings.
"We've received extensive damage to the vehicle bay end of the Tir, and completely lost one engine. Top plating has also been damaged, three panels require replacing, the rest can be repaired. Front Line, Cavalry and roughly half of Hunter require repairs. A few of the Hunter mechs, Scout and Last Ditch took superficial damage, Scout has priority for repairs, followed by Hunter." Strike took a breath and looked at Raven. "We're gonna need your techies to do the Tir repairs. None of us are going to be able to hold the hot torches for nearly long enough."
Raven uttered a guttural, warbling croak.
"Thanks. Let me know when you have an answer."
Raven nodded.
-=o=-
(ooc - LoL! XD)
Byte pressed up against Derek, grabbed his head in her hands and kissed him hard. Keeping her nose close to his when they'd finished kissing, she smiled and said, "Your place," before grabbing his hands and dragging him towards the exit.
Chip got up off the ground, rubbing his nose as he plonked back next to his contemplative brother.
"Whatcha think?" he inquired. Cypher shrugged.
"He's arrite."
Chip arched an eyebrow, staring at Cypher in mild surprise. The girl he'd spanked earlier came past, he snaked out and grabbed her, pulling her onto his lap. She giggled, they both saved the mug tray she was carrying and somewhat carelessly dropped it on the table, both taking exactly enough care to make sure nothing clanked too hrd or broke before locking lips as they wrapped around each other.
Cypher smirked, drained the rest of his cider and headed towards the bar, where he knew there was a certain pretty young thing that he'd been seeing for close to a year now that would be waiting for him.
-=o=-
Quite aware of Rav'una watching, Geiser decided that he would not attempt to do anything unless absolutely necessary, not that he thought he would be capable of much considering the bandages. Both he and Poi observed some damage to the heat sinks, which in itself was surprising. Damage to mercurite plating and heat sinks took either one hell of a hard knock, either with diamond or another mercurite object, or a fairly strong explosion.
"Take the heat sinks out," Geiser instructed. Poi nodded and pulled out a decent sized screwdriver. She leaned in, being careful about the still warm edges though they were at least comfortably warm as opposed to hot, and started unscrewing. Not much later she had removed the pieces of heat sink that were in the way, revealing a mess of circuitry.
"Got mercury," Poi announced. Geiser sat forward slightly, observing the thin stream of the silvery metal seeping through a crack in one of the circuits.
"Damn," he said. "Quicksilver!"
An inquiring and somewhat amusing sounding squawk answered him.
"Shut down the entire nose section. We got mercury."
Some light scrabbling later Quicksilver appeared clambering up the other side of the ship,. He moved as rapidly as one would expect a bird of his size to move, and popped up over Poi's shoulder to have a look. With a concerned trill he disappeared headfirst back over the side.
Daemun listened carefully and seemed to waiting to hear what he actually hoped not to hear. That and the reason behind his questions soon became apparent as he exhaled deeply, lowering his gaze in what appeared to be relief and for the first time in many years he actually smiled. A smile of relief and as though a huge weight had just been lifted off his shoulders. And with this came his response, calm and a reminder that the old Daemun was still alive, if at all barely, within himself.
"Then I've succeeded in avoiding a repeated history..."
With that Daemun's now more well known self emerged from his moment of relief and took over once more as he raised his attention to Strike, making a mental list of the kind of headaches the poor techies would have to endure to get the Tir back to how it used to be. Then Strike mentioned the torches and Daemun smirked as he raised his hand, bending his wrist to an angle with his index and middle finger out casually in a two fingered wave as he noted "You're forgetting someone here can. I took a nuclear blast to the face, I think I can handle a hot torche in my hands."
Meanwhile...
(OOC: Hehehe =P.)
Admitely at first it did all happen rather suddenly and Derek did, for a brief moment, show a good sign of his surprise with widened eyes and a blush. But that quickly faded as he held Byte close, kissing her deep as she kissed him and just the way he liked it too. When it ended Derek smirked and was about to say something else with a "Hoi!" sound he was yanked away, laughing as he was dragged away from the crowd and turning for a moment to wave a quick farewell with a "See ya'll later!" before then turning back to Byte and making no hessitation to follow what so ever.
Derek had a good feeling he had just struck gold. In fact it seemed everyone was scoring big tonight. It was any wonder if there would be any rooms left. If not there were plenty of tables and benches around.
Meanwhile...
"Hmm..." Rav'una, knowing it may interfering but unable to resist the urge to do so, decided to study the damages herself. She kept clear of those working on the damage and crouched down at the edge of the cut hole, also careful not to touch the edges regardless of how cooled off they may be by now, and for a good long while she studied the damages thoughtfully, the end of her tail flicking from time to time as a good indication she was being careful in her conclusions.
But the proof seemed pretty obvious and a low, irritated purr-like growl rumbled deep in the base of her throat as she curled her lip, her brows frowned, as she growled "Catatonians..."
"Of course we're gonna forget," Chase's tone was matter of fact even if the words sounded like they should have a more biting tone, "shit like that can't happen. It's physically impossible. So then someone like you comes along and does it anyway, it does not compute, so we forget about it." She smirked.
The other captains chuckled, Strike looking slightly embarrassed that he had managed to put that particular little fact out of his mind considering he was the one whose aerotech nose now needed panel beating because a certain demon had spent a bit of time crouched there.
"Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated," he said. "We can discuss payment in my office tomorrow."
The party had started in the early evening and the last shreds of daylight were starting to fade away into night.
"I will be in contact tomorrow to organise a meeting as to where we're going to park the Tir. Raven, I hope to hear from you later tonight or tomorrow at your earliest convenience after you've reported to Gryphon. Commander Daemun and I have business to attend to, so we'll leave you to enjoy the rest of the party."
Strike stood up and the captains saluted him. strike returned the gesture, then looked over at Daemun.
"If you would?" he invited, motioning for Daemun to join him.
-=o=-
ooc - You know what, considering the rating and the fact that I'm not quite as nazi as other sites in that I haven't put up the standard "You have to be over 13 to join" and only the roleplay has a rating, I think we'll leave the people engaged in bedroom sports til they're done ;)
And yes, there's plenty of rooms, they are in a mobile city that isn't anywhere near filled to capacity :)
-=o=-
Both Poi and Geiser made inquiring sounds as they looked towards Rav'una. Poi looked back at the damage on the ship, then at Rav'una, her brow furrowed curiously.
"How can you tell?" she asked.
"Put your gloves on," Geiser said. Poi reached into the toolbox again and pulled out a pair of what looked like industrial strength surgical gloves, pulling them on. They went all the way up to her elbows, covering the long sleeves of her overalls. Geiser started to reach towards the toolbox himself before feeling Rav'una's eyes boring into him, and thought better of it. "Spread out the dropsheets. I'd help you but I've seen what she does to people that don't do what she says." Geiser pointed to Rav'una with his tail with an amused smirk.
Poi chuckled and spread some heavy duty drop cloths, already stained with many dull gray streaks, around her.
Daemun snapped his attention over to Chase when she had given her response and though on the outside he didn't look all too happy his tone, at least, wasn't too snappy or moody. Well at least for Daemun who usually walked around with a dark themed attitude and wasn't shy about saying exactly what he thought.
Though a small smirk did play along his lips as he replied with a small "Heh" to start off his sentence "What's unnatural is the Tir and the seats we sit on. Doing what I did is perfectly natural as far as I understand it. You're just not used it so you label it as "unnatural". Typical."
Turning his attention back to Strike now the word 'Payment' brought a wicked smile to Daemun's expressions as he confidently responded "Now we're talking my language. You got a deal. Just let me know what needs to be done and I'll get the job done."
With that said Daemun's usual tone kicked back in and gradually but sure enough he was back to his usual firm and to the point self but this time acting more professional about it as opposed to the rebel-esque type attitude he had before all this had occured. He felt he was finally coming to grips with the ol' Commander within and nothing felt greater at this point. Except for one thing: Strike naming him by his old title again. This surprised Daemun, who only showed his surprise for a brief moment before standing with a nod before turning to salute the others.
Turning back to Strike he replied with a nod to gesture he was ready "Lead the way Captain."
OOC: LOL! Awwww, party pooper =P. But that's okay. We'll just use our imagination as to what happened ;). I wasn't sure myself how far the ratings on this forum could be stretched (since there has been swearing allowed).
Ah, gotcha. Again, wasn't sure how many were living in the Tir and how many rooms were available. Not that Derek would hessitate sharing his room =P, lol.
Meanwhile...
"I have seen this form of damage on another ship" Rav'una explained, firmly as she was obviously irritated and angered by what she had discovered, standing as she remained looking at the damage, her expressions still quite serious and obvious to what was she was feeling about all this as she further explained "In fact the last time I had seen such, or rather experienced, such an impact as this was on the very ship I had been using to escape their attacks before I had crash landed on this planet. I had recieved two blows to the ship's exterior and a third on its right wing engine. I recall seeing the damage from the viewing window moments before hitting the planet's surface."
"Not to mention" She further added, looking at Poi as she continued "I have also seen this damage on other vessels and such back on my home world."
Rav'una left her explination at that before out of the corner of her eye she spotted Geiser reaching toward the tools and her gaze snapped right to him as she gave him 'The look' that every male knew not to ever ignore. When he thought better of it Rav'una eased but what she had discovered was obviously still on her mind.
The tension eased a little though when Geiser poked a little fun at her and Rav'una smirked at Geiser as she knew exactly what he was referring to and with that she then turned her attention to Poi, a little more serious but doing her best to remember no one here was at fault for what had happened.
"I will assist you in whatever you need assistance with" Rav'una noted. "Geiser, you should be able to remove those bandages in approximately two more hours. Your wounds should be more or less healed, or at least better than they were. That extract I placed on the wounds has some amazing healing qualities which is another reason is it is so rare." With a smirk she looked at Geiser as she added "Nature certainly loves her irony and sense of humor."
Chase's tail curled over her head something like a question mark. A lot of the Tir mice did seem to have longer and more expressive tails than other Martian mice. She rested her chin casually on her hands and smiled sweetly. "Your term not mine, hun," she said casually, "I di'n say nothin' bout unnatural. Jus' physically impossible for us normal boring rodents." She winked playfully at him. Maybe it was the cider, maybe it was all the captains with their relaxed attitude, maybe the attitude stemmed from the fact both Epoch and Starzone seemed okay with Daemun, and the fact their own commander seemed to like the guy, either way, they were a lot more comfortable with Daemun than most of the others.
The captains also seemed more amused than anything else when Daemun perhaps inadvertantly, perhaps deliberately, referred to Strike with his old army rank rather than with the commander rank that had been conferred on him by the Tir when he found himself unexpectedly thrust into Zenith's boots.
When Daemun got up to follow Strike, Epoch did likewise, shadowing Strike silently. Strike blinked at him in mild surprise.
"You don't have to..." Strike stopped as Epoch's cybereyes glinted at him. Even with the lack of expression in those cybereyes, he still recognised that stubborn expression. Following the backup directive that gave all the "military" personnel leeway to manuver around orders if they deemed it necessary, Epoch was not going to let Daemun be alone with Strike until he himself was certain that no harm would come to his commander. "Fine," Strike's tone was resigned, "come on then." Strike cuffed Epoch affectionately on the whole ear and led the two of them down the corridor.
Once they were away from most of the crowd and walking down the very sparsely populated corridor, Strike spoke to Daemun. "We haven't had a chance to assign you a bolthole yet, due to the high alert," he said, his tone apologetic. "If you don't mind crashing in the medlab, Doc always has a resting area for the Psions that's well out of the way and private, and we'll have a room done by tomorrow morning. Also, I would really like it if you'd come see Doc now." Strike looked up at Daemun.
-=o=-
ooc - the roleplay is the only thing with a rating, swearing is okay, talking dirty is a case by case basis (ie is it REALLY necessary/appropriate for the scene in question), pretty much the "lead up and leave off" and/or "come in afterwards" with regards to the "adult" scenes was to prevent people who would basically spend an inordinate amount of "roleplaying" cybering :)
The rest of the forum is supposed to be clean and family friendly language-wise, though I don't mind substituted swears (like I use fracking a lot outside of the roleplay, or starring things out). Fics and art, anything goes as long as the appropriate rating is applied, as MA15+ and R18+ are hidden from anonymous and R18+ is hidden from everyone except people who want access to the smut.
There's about 2000 people in the Tir, I believe it has the capacity for about 10-20k though I will have to double check that as I've kind of grown up and gotten more realistic since I came up with the original idea (though according to me looking at my past stuff I've always been gritty, just too anime ;). Nice mix of residential quarters, single (1x1 like the one Derek is in) or family (3x1 like what the triplets live in which is why Byte said they should go back to Derek's ;) and they've probably renovated a few for the large families.
-=o=-
"If it did this to mercurite I don't wanna know what it does to non-mercurite," Poi stated as she carefully removed the circuitboards surrounding the mercury leak and placed them on the dropsheets. The dropsheets were obviously there for a reason as silvery gray liquid wicked out from beneath the damaged boards.
Removal of a few layers of boards revealed a gently pulsating, frighteningly organic looking contraption, which was obviously injured as there was a jagged, deep gash in it, and it was bleeding the mercury stuff.
Poi emitted a sympathetic "Awww..." that would generally be elicited from someone who had just seen a small injured animal or child, and looked to Geiser with the expression of one who wanted desperately to help the injured but wasn't quite sure how.
Geiser swore, just loud enough for the ladies to understand. "Pads to stop the bleeding," he said, his tone calm but urgent. Poi immediately fished for said pads and leaned down into the hole, gently dabbing up the trickling blood before applying pressure to the ship's wound. "Rav'una, there's a bioscanner...thing...in the toolbox. It's big and chunky, you can't miss it." Geiser waggled his fingers, looking slightly annoyed at being incapacitated, but not too annoyed seeing as Rav'una had promised that they would be better soon. He wasn't sure if it was the endorphins or the stuff she'd put on it, or thinking how much better they would feel if he could run them over that lovely smooth soft looking fur coating her lovely smooth soft looking body, or the fact that they were preoccupied, or a combination thereof, but they were hurting a lot less now.
"Well in that case sounds to me like I misunderstood" Daemun replied with a small smirk playing accross his lips "I guess you're right then." It was a short and simple kind of response though that was pretty cleared up by the looks of things. Daemun had probably heard what he had expected to hear as opposed to what was actually said but the good thing at least is that he knew how to admit he was wrong. Regardless of how proud he is and all. Lucky too since having an arguement with him, or even a debate, wasn't always a great idea. Heck, even before he went all 'dark demon of doom' on everyone he had a reputation of heating up a situation such as mentioned more than it was probably needed to be. Then again this kind of stubborness did earn him a few stars along the way while he was still in the ranks. Speaking of which he still couldn't help but question how valid that was anymore or if he was even in the ranks anymore. After all he hadn't gone through any of the paper work and/or processes yet.
In any case Daemun too was starting to feel a comfort in this crowd he had forgotten how much he liked. He had almost forgotten how great it was to be looked at as a fellow mercenary and not some freak of nature with a reputation of leading his own troops to their death. A horrible mistake he still kicked himself for, especially now that the facts had been seperated from the fiction.
Seemed like Daemun did need a few updates on what was happening in the Tir and who was in what rank now. Calling Strike by his old rank was a good indication of this (ooc: *whipes his brow* Almost failed there...XD!) but at least he was showing some more respect. Even if it was labelled in error.
Daemun later stopped moments after having stood up and proceeded to follow Strike when Epoch too got up and began to follow. His expressions turned more serious as he was suddenly reminded that some needed more in proof that Daemun could be trusted than stopping a few warheads. But rather than get too upset over it, though it was starting to become a little irritating, Daemun instead saw it as another challenge and accepted this as he proceeded to follow Strike.
"Well the vehicle bay's floor I hear isn't too bad to sleep on with the right padding laid out" Daemun responded rather sarcastically in a half-joke manner, his tone typical of a tough guy like him and still holding that eerie touch that just seemed to flow naturally into his voice. Despite his effort to try and make his tone sound a little more "normal". When the medbay was mentioned it was immediately obvious that Daemun had a feeling he knew exactly what would be asked next and he didn't look very pleased about this at all. Turning his gaze to Strike, that eye of his thinning its pupil for a moment, Daemun curled his lips a bit, keeping his mouth shut, in an uncertain and not too happy manner before then squeezing a grunt out between his teeth along with his response as he looked ahead with a small frown. "Fine. I'll see the Doc. Shit, you have to be the second or third person since the last mission to insist to see him. Lucky for you I trust your judgement..."
(OOC: Ah, gotcha. Yeah see the way I look at is that if it's done right it can actually be a really nice read. Romantic even. But you're right though, some people don't do it right at all and it turns out to be more like cyber porn RP than a well written love scene.
Understood. I suppose when you create a forum, especially a fan based one, you have to keep everyone else in mind. It's different to sharing with friends or whatever else but when you're sharing with a whole community not everyone looks at it the same. Heck, I'd be doing likewise were it I in charge of a forum of my own.
Got it. In short, the Tir bloody enormous. XD!)
Meanwhile...
"Fortunately I was only clipped" Rav'una explained "However I have seen ships land with only half a hull or not land at all. Were I hit directly we would not be talking to one another today. I managed to avoid most of the damage and was fortunate to survive the crash."
Rav'una watched with curiosity as the plates were removed and that odd thing was revealed. It looked alive enough and she had heard of living organizisms being used in combination with technology but this had to be one of the first times she had seen something of this nature. Derek had probably seen plenty of them back home but where Rav'una came from things were somewhat more primitive despite the technology that was also very much so present on her world. You could say they just were careful with it and indeed they would use nature to help. Thus the organic and technological combo she had seen before. But something that bled murcury? That was new to her.
"On my way" Rav'una responded with a nod, turning to Geiser with another nod before then approaching the toolbox. It didn't take her long to find the device that Poi had requested. She wasn't wrong, it wasn't hard to miss at all. Scanner in hand Rav'una approached Poi and knelt beside her, taking another look at the living...thing that apparently was the ship?...and decided to ask about it later. She was more concerned for the injury.
"Anything else?" Rav'una inquired as she held out the scanner, wondering if maybe she would have to do the scanning as Poi seemed to have her hands full.
"Call it a risk assessment on things I know nothing about," Strike said light-heartedly. "I'm responsible for around two thousand people and you did want to kill me earlier." He smiled. "Doc's just gonna wanna see how with it you are, how much of a handle you have on your abilities, make sure you're not gonna go nuclear on us, not that I think you will or anything but like I said, two thousand people, gotta be sure."
Strike stopped outside the lift and hit the button for it. "Vehicle bay can get cold at night as all the heat we collect during the day is channeled to the Atrium and the residential areas. We can generate some heat into any areas where work late or through the night is required but it's not very eneergy efficient so we avoid it where possible. Just thought you might like to be comfortable."
-=o=-
ooc - I don't mind well done love scenes, 98% of the ones I have encountered seem to be entirely gratuitous though so avoiding is easier ;) And yeh the Tir is rather large, which is why it's built like a fort and bloody slow :) I'm stuck designing a citadel atm which is a LOT bigger (it's also on a hill and does not move ;) but if I can free up enough brainspace I'll try to scratch up a rough plan of it.
-=o=-
"Green button turns it on," Geiser explained to Rav'una. "Then just point the sensors at the organ and hold it steady."
Poi removed the soaked pads. The gash continued bleeding slowly, but at least they were able to see just how bad it was now.
"That's gonna need stitches," Geiser said. "Sprinkle some clot on it first, then go make sure Quicksilver's finished turning the nose off."
Poi nodded, foraging in the toolbox, which was turning out to be half bizarro medkit for bizarro ship, and pulled out a large bottle. She popped the lid off, revealing the contents to be coarse gray particles. Taking half a handful, she sprinkled it over the gash where it immediately started soaking up more of the blood and looked like it was trying to form a membrane over the open gash. After checking to make sure she'd applied enough, Poi took off her gloves and bolted down the side of the ship to go find Quicksilver.
By this point, thanks to the aid Redspot had offered earlier, Daemun was healing up rather nicely and his energy levels were almost at full again. Of course he'd still need plenty of R&R before deciding to go out and do anything much at all and hopefully there would be plenty of time to rest before the next big event. And from what has been experience so far one could only guess when that would be.
So while Trajectory was taken to where he needed to be taken Daemun meanwhile had made his way to where the bikes were stored. He couldn't help but visit a trust ol' friend there who, according to the bleeps and bops she cheerfully unleashed, was quite happy to see him.
Daemun smirked, walking over to his bike and sliding his hand along the side of its seat "I missed you too girl. I hope the others have been treatin' you well."
(OOC: Tell me if I've rushed ahead there ^..^ *sweatdrop*)
Meanwhile...
Remember that part way back at the start of this post where it was mentioned were it was anyone's guess what would happen next and when? This was a good example of just that. Rav'una hadn't been quite as startled as Geiser was but Quicksilver certainly caught her attention with just the kind of vibe she was getting. Then Geiser said two words that should never be combined and this made her frown in concern. She remained collected none the less but her more serious side kicked in to play its usual role.
She may not of understood Mercurite but she certainly gathered very quickly that things did not sound very promising. Not to mentioned having actually heard Geiser's question to Quicksilver only indicated further proof of such. She waited now, watching as Geiser peeked into the access hole and would wait to find out what would be revealed from there.
Well it was certainly a relief to know that so far there were some repairs, so she gathered, that needed to be done and that as of yet nothing more was about to hit the planet itself so Rav'una's mood was eased from this. Still though she didn't say anything and just observed.
Looking over at Quicksilver, Rav'una smiled and nodded in greeting before saying with a friendly smirk "Well met Quicksilver. I hope you have been well?"
Meanwhile...
Derek damn near choked as his eyes widened a moment in surprise as he suddenly found himself with more water in his mouth than he had intended to be there, most of it ending up on his front as he pulled the container away with a few coughs and splatter, clearing his throat with laugh before smirking at Byte as he got up.
"Ya know, you could have told me that without trying to drown me"
Next thing he knew he was being yanked away and Derek really didn't have much more of an option at this point than to go with her, chuckling as he joked "Judging by how hard you're yanking my arm it wouldn't surprise me if it's that you're trying to tear off and eat."
You ain't got a life 'til ya live it free!
(Thanks Nightbeat/Katana for Derek's picture! ^..^)