It is the year 0075 of the Universal Century. A half century has passed since the earth began moving its burgeoning population into gigantic orbiting space colonies. A new home for mankind, where people are born and raised… and die.“We are the people of the universe. We have struggled to survive in a harsh environment, and new generations of colonists testify to our success. Now, when we gaze back at Earth, we see a sacred blue and green orb- the cradle of civilization and a sacred home that we must eternally preserve and protect . . .”-Zeon Zum Deikun, UC 0058—--------------------------------------------------------------------------16:15, 8 March, UC 0075Flight space over Von Braun City, Luna (Earth Federation)Cratered gray beneath a sea of stars, the pockmarked moonscape stretches as far as you can see, discolored patches of regolith reaching out to the horizon and beyond. Trails of color lead up from the surface here and there, blues and yellows and reds, faintly flaring engines far in the distance. Vessels of nearly every shape and size make their way too and from some unseen location far below you, a carefully choreographed dance of controlled flight paths. Kilometers away a trio of bright crimson beams streak across the black, a searing trail of light firing off into the cosmos, vast laser arrays helping to push cargo transports deep into space.Luna.A faint rumble sounds through the cabin, inciting a worried murmuring from the less experienced passengers, a few children calling out in surprise - but you know exactly what’s happening. The landing thrusters are taking over, guiding your bulbous craft toward a waiting airlock in the spaceport far below. Slowly, very slowly, the endless gray expanse vanishes as the commercial shuttle you’re aboard descends, the lip of a great crater rising up to block your view, jagged and harsh. You mover about in your seat and strain to get a better view of the surface far below. The angle is poor, but you can still see it. Von Braun City . A shimmering surface of glass and mirrored reflectors, polished steel beams and panels stretching from one edge of the great crater to the other, filling it up entirely. The city runs deep, many circular levels around a central axis driven far into Luna’s depths, a home for millions of souls. Beneath that shining surface are conventional skylines aglow with neon, twisting roadways and overpasses filled with rover cars, and endless walkways connecting towering apartment blocks and business offices. It is a vision of a future which has been lost to much of the earth sphere, a gleaming dream of life on other worlds which has nearly been forgotten in the rush to create the Sides and their endless rows of colony cylinders. Von Braun is the beating heart of industry and business in space, a home to many of the most powerful corporations in human history; giants like Anaheim, Monterrey, Yashima, and countless others.
>>5533615You lean back from the small window, resting in your seat as the slow descent continues, eyes closed as you think of what lies ahead… An entire week with Elena, your first chance to see her in years. You can’t help but smile at the thought, though it fades quickly - You won’t truly be free. The flight from Zum has gone unsupervised from the moment you stepped aboard the transport shuttle, but as soon as you land you’ll be joined by a guard, one of Dozle’s men. Hopefully they aren’t too much of a drag.“This is the captain speaking. We’ll be setting down in Von Braun in three minutes, I hope you’ve all had a comfortable flight…”The shuttle touches down soon enough, a metallic thud sounding through it as the magnetic landing legs find purchase on the steel of one of the spaceport’s great rectangular landing bays. Flight attendants guide you and the other passengers off the craft, and you soon get a better look at the cavernous and fully enclosed landing bay - There are couple dozen other shuttles landing here and there, some on the ground level but many others at jutting landing pads along the towering walls. High overhead, great airlock doors cycle slowly, rumbling apart as they allow the next batch of shuttles to enter, each vessel guided to its destination by ghostly trails of yellow light.Exiting among the other passengers, luggage in hand, you make your way to the nearest door where a monorail awaits to take you all to the spaceport proper. It’s a short trip, lights rushing past quickly, the door eventually opening to allow you out into the spaceport’s main terminals.Speakers overhead announce arrivals and departures, screens along the high walls flashing with the same information, news tickers running across their bottoms. Dozens of other people are soon pushing past and around you, joining the steady stream of pedestrian traffic through the spaceport… it would be easy to get lost here, just one person among thousands, but you push the hustle and bustle from your mind, keeping your wits about you as you walk to the distant pickup area.Sliding doors hiss open, and you step outside, the low hum of electric motors filling the air as cars and taxis pick up other arrivals in what looks to be a real mess of traffic. The skyline of Von Braun’s first level shines brightly in the distance, an entire city nestled beneath steel and glass. You scan over the cars and people nearby, looking for any sign of your guard… he was supposed to find you here, but there’s no sign of him.“Hey, Taxi!” A woman shouts playfully from nearby, something about her voice oddly familiar.
>>5533622Turning, you see a pretty blond in a long tan coat making her way toward one of the nearby cars, one hand lowering her dark sunglasses as she passes by you, giving a quick wink. You blink, taking a moment to place her - She’s a little older than when you last saw her, but there’s no mistaking her.“...Miss Hamon?” You call after the woman, taking a few steps in pursuit, entirely caught up in the moment - What are the chances? “Where are you headed, miss?” A man’s voice sounds from within the nearest car, a dark sedan which very much is not a taxi.“I was thinking I might let you pick.” She replies, leaning over to look in through the rolled down window of the car, smiling mischievously at the driver before glancing back toward you, nodding to the door. Oh. Oh! You move over quickly and put your things in the trunk, finding it already unlocked, and then get in the back of the car. Could it be?...“It’s been a long time, Felix!” Ramba says from the driver’s seat, reaching back to shake your hand. He has a firm grip, scars on his knuckles and forearm speaking of years of brawls.“Far too long, Ramba!” You answer, nearly overjoyed to see the man; it's been years, but he was almost like an uncle to you when you were a child.Ramba is definitely the more aged looking of the two, military service having transformed him from the dark haired young captain of your childhood memories to a slowly graying veteran - But he’s not that old, and his toothy grin does a lot to hide the passage of time. The look suits him very well, a properly rugged officer. Hamon’s barely changed at all for her part, a few very, very faint wrinkles here and there but otherwise the same fox she’s always been. The electric car whirs to life, nearly silent as it pulls out into the slow spaceport traffic.“How have you both been?” You ask, “I’ve been trying to find a way to see you, we all have, but things-”“Things have been complicated.” Ramba finishes for you, nodding, “The Colonel’s been working me like a dog, haven’t had a chance to drop by - Not that I’d be welcomed outside of a party. Managed to convince him to give me this job, took a bit of doing though.”“Ramba’s threatened to sneak into the palace for the last couple of months,” Hamon says idly, checking herself over in a small hand mirror, “Personally I was all for it, but he would have had to shave his mustache and that just wouldn’t do…”“Hah, still doing that disguise stuff?” You ask, the idea of the two of them still sneaking like they did years ago bringing a smile to your face.“Still? Careful there.” Hamon warns, eliciting a laugh from Ramba, which in turn elicits a sharp elbow from Hamon, though their antics soon die down, ”...I was glad to hear Astraia is doing better, Felix. She was so frail when I saw her last.”
>>5533625“She’s much better, almost back to her old self.” You reply, your smile fading as quickly as it came, “...It was a really close call though. Thank you for visiting her while we were all away, Hamon. I know the letters didn’t get through to her, but it means a lot that you tried, it… it probably saved her.”“She’s like a sister to me, Felix, I’d do anything for her.” Hamon says somberly, “...I didn’t think she was going to make it for a while there, but if she’s back to her old self already…”Ramba chuckles, “We should sneak her out to see the old bar, that’s the real test.”“If only. Maybe she still has a few songs left in her too…” Hamon sighs, “How are your brother and sister?”“They’re both as well as they can be, considering the circumstances. Having mom back has been good for all of us, especially Artiesa. We’ll be starting at the academy soon, if you hadn’t heard already.”“All three of you at once?” Ramba questions, taking an exit and merging into the faster traffic of Von Braun proper, neon billboards and corporate advertisements playing along the towering buildings which surround the underground highway, the central pillar of the city ahead in the distance, “Isn’t Artesia too young for it still?”“She’s got a lot of fight in her, and it’s that or stay around Kycilia.” You answer with a shrug, though it’s a concern that nags at you as well.“With motivation like that I’m sure she’ll be top of the class…” Hamon laughs, though as she looks back to you she catches the worried look in your eye, “Don’t worry, the car’s squeaky clean, we traded out that awful bugged one earlier.”“Traded it out? You can just… do that?” You ask, the simplicity of the solution a bit baffling.“The other one had a tragic accident at the car wash a few hours ago, it’s a real mystery how water got that far into the electronics… Such a tragedy.” Ramba explains with a chuckle, “This one’s from the officer’s club, Dozle keeps a few in reserve for occasions like this.”>”So how have you both been? Dozle mentioned that he took you in after… after everything that happened. Mobile suit testing, right?”>”Then I take it that you’re my ‘guards’, right? Well, this is a lot better than what I expected.”>”...Ramba… About your father…”>Write-in.
>>5533627Voting:Feel free to vote for several options and list them numerically [1), 2), 3), etc.] in order of your preference. Numerical listing is very important to avoid confusion. If your first choice loses your vote will shift to your second choice, and so on. If you switch preferences before votes are counted, please link back to your original preference vote. If you do not pick multiple options it will be assumed that you only want one. If you list several options without numerical separation I will assume you want to combine them.Previous ThreadsThread one: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5414507/Thread two: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2023/5492260/
>>5533627>1).”So how have you both been? Dozle mentioned that he took you in after… after everything that happened. Mobile suit testing, right?”>2).”...Ramba… About your father…”I'd like to combine these, otherwise they're ordered. And shit yeah, Ramba and Hamon are great.
>>5533627>”So how have you both been? Dozle mentioned that he took you in after… after everything that happened. Mobile suit testing, right?”>”...Ramba… About your father…”Good to see this back so soon!
>>5533627>”...Ramba… About your father…”
>>5533627>”So how have you both been? Dozle mentioned that he took you in after… after everything that happened. Mobile suit testing, right?”>”...Ramba… About your father…”
With Hamon and Ramba being our guards, I'm way more open to investigate the terrorists now.Shame that it would be make Artesia sad since we said we wouldn't put ourselves in danger.
>>5533650Though having Hamon and/or Ramba die because of us looking for them would be bad.Besides Contolist said that we haven't escaped danger yet last thread.
>>5533627+1 >>5533639
Is it a good idea to mention his father's fate? It might be a mood killer.>>5533650>breaking a promise made to our little sisterI'm getting Do Your Best flashbacks.
>>5533806>Is it a good idea to mention his father's fate? It might be a mood killer.It'll probably be fine, since Ramba might already know.>I'm getting Do Your Best flashbacks.That's actually a very interesting parallel, especially since the situation seems to be similar with us literally saying we would stay safe (and we'd probably be breaking Artesia's trust if we decided to change our minds without a good reason).Well either way that mess is something I'd like to avoid.
>>5533806Yeah, breaking a promise to our sister is the reason I'm hesitant to do it even with them around>I'm getting Do Your Best flashbacks.How's that quest? I stopped following it early, but it now has more than 100 threads.
>>5533846I have the same feeling about that, honestly.Last I saw of that quest the mc got depressed and then made his own team. Apparently he's stuck in some sort of past virtual reality now.I'm actually surprised at how long it's been going on for, it seems to have kept it's humor through all of it.
>>5533861>Past virtual reality.When I was following there was some kind of apocalypse coming, but I left before it started. Did things change, or is it part of that?
>>5533872Actually ignore that, asking for some sort of summary would take a while, and it would be rude to talk about another quest in this one.
>>5533874You're right, I probably shouldn't of talked much about it too.
>>5533639>>5533647>>5533770Ask how they've been + Jimba.>>5533644>>5533648>>5533637 (second option)Jimba.Got a tie. Any opposition to just combining them?
>>5533915I'll go with >”So how have you both been? Dozle mentioned that he took you in after… after everything that happened. Mobile suit testing, right?”>”...Ramba… About your father…”then.
>>5533915I'm fine with a combination
>>5533915I'm fine with combining it.
>>5533922>>5533924We almost said the same thing at the same time kek
>>5533917>>5533922>>5533924Alright, going with the combination then, just wanted to see if there was any opposition. Writing.
”So how have you both been?” You ask curiously, eager to learn as much of your years apart as you can, “Dozle mentioned that he took you in after… after everything that happened. Mobile suit testing, right?”“We’ve made our way, there have been some ups and downs but the last couple of years have been steadier.” Ramba explains, eyes on rushing lights of the road ahead of him, “...And that’s right, I’ve been in with mobile suits from nearly from the very beginning, they weren’t much more than construction equipment then. Just how much do you know?” “Just about everything, they’ve got a simulator at their palace.” You say with a shrug, “Dozle offered me a spot in a mobile suit after graduation, and I’ve already put in a few dozen hours.”Ramba whistles, clearly impressed, “So you can fly them then. It’s nothing compared to the real thing though, you’ll see.” “I got a brief ride in one already, the simulator just doesn’t capture the acceleration at all....” You agree, though you didn’t mean to distract Ramba into just talking shop, “So how about these ‘ups and downs’ though?”“Ramba lounged around at Eden for most of a year getting drunk and starting fights,” Hamon explains, “Business slowed down.”“Won too many fights.” Ramba says ruefully, “But I think it was that singer that kept me at Eden, not the drinks. Quite the lady.” “Stop it, you.” Hamon replies, feigning bashfulness before continuing the story, “...We laid low during the worst of the purges, made ourselves look burnt out. It was a rough time, Felix, a lot of people didn’t make it.” “And then Dozle waltzed in and offered me my commission back - and a promotion.” Ramba continues.“Just like that?”“No. There’s always strings.” Ramba answers somberly, “I had to sign over the last of my family’s resources. It was all dead paper by then, nothing was usable anymore, but I still almost refused.”“I heard Dozle was taking in a lot of people around that time… It’s a tragedy though, all of it.” You say quietly, the mood about as dampened as it’s going to get, “But it was up from there?”Ramba grunts in acknowledgement, “Mostly up, Felix. Work hasn’t been easy or safe, test pilots don’t have a long shelf life, but I’ve had lady luck on my side - and Dozle doesn’t like to throw people away, even if he is bullheaded about pace.”“Things were still uncertain for the first few months, people still… disappeared sometimes, but by the time I was able to start seeing Astraia the worst of the purges were over. Gihren getting shot was a scare, there was another bad round after that, but we got through it…” Hamon “I won’t ask for it to come back, but the last two years have been boringly safe in comparison, not much of a chance for intrigue.”“She just likes dressing up.” Ramba jokes, eliciting another small elbow from Hamon.
>>5534088“...Speaking of Gihren getting shot… Ramba… About your father…”Ramba's face darkens, the faint lines of age suddenly much deeper, “My old man had something to do with it.”“...He helped fund it.”“Stubborn fool.” Ramba says, a hint of pain mixed in with his frustration, “He was never one to give up… Time on earth wasn’t good for him, was it? He didn’t send letters.”“He was pretty bad by the end, paranoid… Like a ghost of himself. I’m sorry, Ramba, maybe I shouldn’t have brought this up, it’s hard to even talk about… He was like a grandfather to me…”“I’ve had a long time to come to terms with things, Felix. My father wasn’t an easy man to be around at times, I saw the writing on the wall before he left… How’d he go?”“Trying to fight." You say, the words a struggle to get out, "I was there with him at the end… The Zabis sent soldiers after Gihren was shot.”“Stubborn fool.” Ramba growls, his grip on the steering wheel tightening, “...At least someone was there. I’m sorry he brought that on you, he never knew when to let things lie. Dozle mentioned the attack, but I didn’t realize you were there.”“...We survived.” You say, finding it increasingly difficult to discuss the matter. Gunshots and screams, the awful concussion and noise of it all, burning powder heavy in the air, the limp bodies and pooling blood - It’s hard to even think of it, bile threatening to rise in your throat. The memories are still fresh even after years.“Where was he buried?”“The town closest to our villa, a small plot at the local cemetery… It should still be there, if-”“Not going to be visiting anytime soon.” Ramba says quietly, “Maybe someday. Let’s talk about something else.”A silence settles over the car for a minute or two, somber and heavy.
>>5534089“How about this girl you’re going to see then? How do you know her?” Hamon asks, breaking the depressing quiet.“I’ve known her since we… Well, since we were both living in Spain. She lived near our villa, we haven’t seen each other since a few days after the attack. We've kept in touch by letter, we write nearly every week.”“The attack? …She knows who you are?” Hamon questions, her brow furrowing as she twists a little in her seat to look back to you.“She does.” You confirm.“And you write every week?” Hamon asks, arching an eyebrow, “She must be pretty.”“Uhm, yes, she is, but we’re just friends. Sometimes it’s every other week though.” You say, warmth flooding your cheeks despite your claimed status. “And you like her?” Hamon questions, her line of inquiry already eerily familiar - She really is on the same wavelength as your mother. Why does it always go to this when you talk about Elena with people?“Of course.”“And you must trust her if she knows who you are…” Hamon says mostly to herself, thinking through things aloud, “Are... are you sure you’re just friends, Felix?”“Best friends, maybe, but…” Ramba trails off, exchanging a skeptical look with Hamon, “Felix, why’d you ask to come here of all places then? Just that close with this girl?”“She always wanted to see Von Braun, it was her dream, and we promised to meet each other here when things settled down…” You explain, a little embarrassed by the details but the story still coming to you easily enough, “I promised to fly her around the city in one of our letters later on, so… so there’s that too. Got to keep a promise once it’s made, right?”Hamon’s blue eyes go a bit soft at your words, something about them seeming to really strike here, “A girl could write a song about that…”>”...So where are we headed exactly?” Not a subtle way to change the subject.>”I’d like to hear that, I think… Have either of you been to Von Braun before? Seems like your kind of city.”>”So, when are you two getting married?” Ask not about relationships lest your own be asked about in kind, Hamon.>Write-in.
>>55340921)>”I’d like to hear that, I think… Have either of you been to Von Braun before? Seems like your kind of city.”>”So, when are you two getting married?” Ask not about relationships lest your own be asked about in kind, Hamon.2)>”I’d like to hear that, I think… Have either of you been to Von Braun before? Seems like your kind of city.”
>>5534092>>”So, when are you two getting married?” Ask not about relationships lest your own be asked about in kind, Hamon.
>>5534092>>”I’d like to hear that, I think… Have either of you been to Von Braun before? Seems like your kind of city.”>>”So, when are you two getting married?” Ask not about relationships lest your own be asked about in kind, Hamon.
>>5534092>”So, when are you two getting married?” Ask not about relationships lest your own be asked about in kind, Hamon.
>>5534092>>”I’d like to hear that, I think… Have either of you been to Von Braun before? Seems like your kind of city.”
>>5534092>”I’d like to hear that, I think… Have either of you been to Von Braun before? Seems like your kind of city.”>”So, when are you two getting married?” Ask not about relationships lest your own be asked about in kind, Hamon.>Like a ghost of himselfGhost Jimba strikes again
>>5534092>>5534094Changing my vote to1)>”I’d like to hear that, I think… Have either of you been to Von Braun before? Seems like your kind of city.”2)>”I’d like to hear that, I think… Have either of you been to Von Braun before? Seems like your kind of city.”>”So, when are you two getting married?” Ask not about relationships lest your own be asked about in kind, Hamon.I'm only supporting this second choice on the condition that Felix says it more in a joking banter-like way, without any real pettiness.
>>5534117>>5534304>>5534349 (2nd option)Writing.
“I’d like to hear that, I think…” You reply, a little curious about her music if nothing else, “Have either of you been to Von Braun before? Seems like your kind of city.”“Our kind of city?” Hamon asks, “Now just what do you mean by that?”“...It seems like an exciting place?” You reply innocently, “Lots of casinos, a good club scene.” “Crowley, he’s got you figured out completely.” Ramba chuckles, the streaking lights of traffic still rushing by outside the car’s windows, “We’ve been a few times.”Hamon shrugs, smirking and ignoring Ramba’s comment, “Exciting? Clubs? This one’s dangerous, Ramba.”Ramba just keeps his eyes on the road, taking the car along a looping exit that winds its way down deeper into Von Braun, “Must run in the family.”“Mm, some things definitely do.” Hamon agrees cryptically, returning to a more comfortable position in her seat, “We’ve both been a few times, I lived here for a few months once, just a little stint away from Eden.”“I feel like there’s a story there.” You comment, sensing a faint… embarrassment to her words?“That was a fun one.” Ramba says, grinning enthusiastically, “Bunny ears, wasn’t it, Crowley? I wouldn’t mind seeing those ag-”“Ramba!” Hamon protests, her cheeks flushing with color, “...Anyways, Felix, the point is that we know the city fairly well. Clubs, casinos, even the lower levels.”“Good to know,” You reply, though you’re still not quite sure what this business about bunny ears is, “...So, when are you two getting married?”“Where the hell did that come from?” Ramba asks, sounding quite a lot like a soldier who’s just been shot at by a sniper, the car swerving slightly. He exchanges a look with Hamon, who seems to find Ramba’s reaction incredibly funny, at least if her stifled laughter is anything to go by.“Just snuck right up on us with that, didn’t he, Ramba?” Hamon says between fits of laughter, “That’s definitely Astraia, she just leaps out of the bushes like that too.”“...So you’re not then?”“Later.” They respond practically simultaneously. Well, if they’ve got something figured out then good for them, even if it does confuse you a little.The ride can’t be much longer, the spaceport is far behind you now and its been a few minutes already. The city is very dense, but at highway speeds there just isn’t that much of Von Braun to get around - not unless you’re going down a few levels anyways. >”...So where are we headed to? A hotel or…?”>”Ramba, you’re a test pilot, right? Do you know a Lieutenant Blanche?” Knowing who knows who could be useful.>”Well, I’ll leave that where it is then. Hamon, you could probably see my mother easily enough if you want to, she’s been going out to Laplace park a few times a week.” Explaining Glemy might be a little more difficult.>Write-in.
>>5534503>”Ramba, you’re a test pilot, right? Do you know a Lieutenant Blanche?” Knowing who knows who could be useful.
>>5534503>”Well, I’ll leave that where it is then. Hamon, you could probably see my mother easily enough if you want to, she’s been going out to Laplace park a few times a week.” Explaining Glemy might be a little more difficult.Having that connection between Hamon and Astraia might be important for future plotting.
>>5534503>>”Ramba, you’re a test pilot, right? Do you know a Lieutenant Blanche?” Knowing who knows who could be useful.>>”...So where are we headed to? A hotel or…?” young Hamon in a bunny costume, Ramba was a lucky man
>>5534503>”Well, I’ll leave that where it is then. Hamon, you could probably see my mother easily enough if you want to, she’s been going out to Laplace park a few times a week.” Explaining Glemy might be a little more difficult.
Does anyone think Hamon will take how Astraia cares for Glemy badly?
>>5534503>>”Ramba, you’re a test pilot, right? Do you know a Lieutenant Blanche?” Knowing who knows who could be useful.
>>5534510>>5534513>>5534545Writing.
You let the topic drop, moving onto something much less personal, “Ramba, you’re a test pilot right? Do you know a Lieutenant Blanche?”“...Lieutenant Blanche? Familiar for some reason…” Ramba questions, mulling over the name for a moment.“White hair, well put together, very prim.” You describe, trying to help jog his memory.“Nice rack?” Hamon asks, sort of miming her hands across her own chest as she looks back to you, emphasizing things a bit, her question nearly causing you to jump in surprise.“Uh, yeah.” You manage to say after blinking and taking a moment to recover, not at all used to this kind of very direct talk, especially from a woman Hamon's age.“He means Blanche Rugens, Ramba. From the other unit.” Hamon nods, satisfied with your answer and settling back into her seat, “She was at the new years party, didn’t realize Kord was gay and kept trying to flirt with him…”…That does match.“Right, her.” Ramba nods, “Had a real stick up her ass until she got drinking. I think we’ve met a few times other than that. Why do you ask, Felix?”“I’m just trying to get an idea of who knows who, she mentioned Dozle covering for her family during the purge.” You explain with a shrug, “Seemed like a similar situation to yours, thought there might be others too or something.”“Dozle did take in a lot of strays, General Rugens was one of the bigger ones now that I think about it… Good soldier, even more of a plank of wood though.” Ramba says, thinking aloud for a few moments and slowing the car down as you exit off onto a much less busy street, tall apartment buildings flanking the car on either side, “Met her through Dozle then, did you?”“She’s the one that grabbed me…” You begin to explain, retelling a greatly abridged version of your odd capture and time aboard the Zam, Ramba and Hamon both listening intently, leaving out the bit about getting drunk as a skunk.“...Took out her thruster with a worker pod? That’s some serious flying, boy.” Ramba comments, “Glad you made it out of that in one piece.” “Almost didn’t,” You admit freely, “Visor was cracked, and it’s a wonder the radio even got through. I’m just glad things worked out how they did. We were planning to come back to Zeon anyways, just not quite like… that.” “So why’d you decided to come back? Just your mother, or…?” Ramba asks, leaving the question open-ended. It’s a good thing the car is free of bugs or this would be a very, very treacherous conversation.>”For her, but… Also for a chance to get back what’s meant to be ours. I’m not quite sure what that’s going to look like in the end, but we haven’t forgotten.”>”Revenge, mostly. I thought mom was already dead…” >”...I’m not so sure anymore.”>Write-in.
>>55346541)>”For her, but… Also for a chance to get back what’s meant to be ours. I’m not quite sure what that’s going to look like in the end, but we haven’t forgotten.”2)>”Revenge, mostly. I thought mom was already dead…”
>>5534654>>5534664Wait, changing my vote to1)>”For her, but… Also for a chance to get back what’s meant to be ours. I’m not quite sure what that’s going to look like in the end, but we haven’t forgotten.”>"I suppose justice for all the suffering that's been caused to us also plays a part into this."I'll put this write-in as a suggestion if Contolist wants to use it, since Felix doesn't seem to care much about pure revenge by itself.
>>5534654>”...I’m not so sure anymore.”Is Felix living a lie, does he want it to be?
>>5534666+1Satan digits
>>5534669He seems to want it against Kycilia and Gihren at least from what I've seen.
>>5534674Besides the dancing practice with Mink seemed to imply to him that the Zabis were responsible in killing his father, and that's not to mention having put his mother in that tower for all those years.
>>5534654>>5534666Support
>>5534654>”...I’m not so sure anymore.”I'm going with this not because I want Felix to be conflicted on his motivations but because I don't want to drag Ramba and Hamon into anything just yet.
>>5534758I don't think we're necessarily going to drag them into anything just yet, we're just answering with what Felix thinks.
>>55346541)>”Revenge, mostly. I thought mom was already dead…”2)>”For her, but… Also for a chance to get back what’s meant to be ours. I’m not quite sure what that’s going to look like in the end, but we haven’t forgotten.”>"I suppose justice for all the suffering that's been caused to us also plays a part into this."
>>5534758I think they're already involved in helping us, they wanted to become our bodyguards and stuff. This kind of puts them at odds with the Zabis.
>>5534666>>5534672>>5534700>>5534769 (second option)Write-in.>>5534669>>5534758No sure anymore.Writing.
>>5534654>”Revenge, mostly. I thought mom was already dead…”
It takes you a few seconds to find the right words, the car slowly pulling to stop along the street in front of an apartment block, “For her, but… Also for a chance to get back what’s meant to be ours. I’m not quite sure what that’s going to look like in the end, but we haven’t forgotten. …I suppose justice for all the suffering that’s been caused to us plays a part too, but it’s not just revenge.”“So you’re still fighting then.” Ramba says, his tone serious, eyes flashing up to look at you in the rear view mirror, “That’s a hard life, Felix. Burns people up.”“...I know. I’ve seen what it can do, but what other choice is there?” You say quietly, thinking of Jimba’s last few weeks, that deranged look in his eye, utterly convinced that there were Zabi assassins in every shadow.“You could let it go.” Ramba sighs and shakes his head, “Haven’t been good at doing that myself though, just look at me now. I won’t lecture you about it. …You’re all in on it then? Brother, sister?”“Of course they are, didn’t you listen to his story?” Hamon asks, though there’s no real edge to the question.“I just want to hear it. I need to hear it.” Ramba says, turning back to face you directly. A few people are walking by on the sidewalk outside the car, completely oblivious to your conversion just feet away.“We’re all in.” You confirm, though it feels wrong to leave it at just that, “Casval’s gunning for it the most, he always has, but even Artesia’s come around in the last few months. We thought we’d… get close to the Zabis, find allies, build up to something over the years.”“We’re back to it then, aren’t we?” Ramba asks Hamon, and she flashes a small smirk, willingness tempered by experience. “One last run at them then?” Hamon asks playfully, a determined look in her eyes, “Oh, now I do like the sound of that. Quiet living doesn’t suit me.”“No, it doesn’t, but… Last run?” Ramba asks, a hint of worry in his voice. “We’ll win this time.” Hamon says with a shrug, pushing past Ramba’s concern, “I could write a song about this too, once the dust settles - Romantic, isn’t it? One last ride against an old enemy. I’ve always loved that sort of story, they never fail to excite. …Come on, Ramba, how about it?” “Mm, damn, this is why I love you, Crowley.” Ramba says, something low and excited in his voice, almost a growl.
>>5534980“Do you two need a minute?” You joke, holding back a laugh; they’re really quite the pair, it’s almost impossible to imagine them doing anything but this… Well mannered at times, but really not the type to just fade away. No, they’d never be happy with a quiet life. “Hah!” Ramba barks, “He has a point though. We shouldn’t just sit here, I’m sure that tail that was on us earlier is… They’re back. The room is going to be bugged, Felix, we didn’t pick it.” “Then let the games begin.” Hamon says mischievously, opening her door and stepping out into the neon lit early night of Von Braun.You and Ramba are out a moment later, getting your luggage from the trunk and making your way into the nearest building. Ramba exchanges a few words with someone over the intercom and get you buzzed in, and after a brief elevator ride you arrive at a relatively spacious apartment. The furniture is sleek and neo-modern, definitely stylish but almost alien looking in comparison to the baroque pieces you become used to at the Zabi palace.“Nice place.” You comment, surveying the living room and connected kitchen approvingly, “Is this just for me or…?”“For the week. We’ll be two rooms down.” Ramba says, fishing around in his jacket pocket for a few seconds and then throwing you a keycard, “That’ll let you in, and…”He throws a set of keys to you, “...And that’s for the car. You can drive, right?”You catch the keys and then open your palm, looking down at them, “Of course, how hard can it be?”That causes him to pause for a moment, but only a moment, before carrying on, “We’re going to be very hands off, Felix. I’m sure they have another team watching from the shadows, but Hamon and I aren’t going to hover over your shoulder all week. Go have fun, just don’t be a fool. If you get into trouble we shouldn't be far.”“Right. Yes, sir.” You say, smiling and standing a little straighter, glad to have them for your ‘main’ guards, “And how should I signal you if there is trouble?”He walks over and hands you a small radio, “Good old fashioned shouting, or this. You know how to work it?”You nod, “It looks pretty standard.” “It is. Frequencies are pre-set, check in every few hours or if you’re going someplace new. What name are you going by for the week?”“Maxime Mass.”Ramba nods, “Good. That should be everything… Did they give you a card?”“For money? Yes.” You answer, pulling your thin wallet from your pants pocket and checking that the card is still there; it is. You put the access card for the apartment in while you’ve got it out, and then slide it back away.
>>5534984He pats you on the shoulder, “You’re good to go then. The girl’s expecting you, right?”“I sent a letter last week, but I wasn’t sure about the exact days I’d be here… She’s been getting ready for a while though so I can probably just drop by. The public terminals have maps here, right? I should be able to figure out how to get to her place.”“They’re just like on colonies.” Hamon confirms, stalking on over to Ramba, a bottle of wine in hand, “The night’s very young, go ahead and run off. We’ll follow along in a little while.”Hamon’s not quite kicking you out of the apartment, but it would probably be best to get out sooner rather than later.>Walk over to Elena’s place. It’s more fun to surprise her.>Drive. Prove your mastery of the automobile. It can’t possibly be harder than a mobile suit, right?>Call Elena, let her know you’ve just arrived.>Write-in.
>>5534985>Drive. Prove your mastery of the automobile. It can’t possibly be harder than a mobile suit, right?THE THING GOES SKRRRTTT
>>5534985>Drive. Prove your mastery of the automobile. It can’t possibly be harder than a mobile suit, right?
>>5534985>Walk over to Elena’s place. It’s more fun to surprise her.
>>5534985>>Drive. Prove your mastery of the automobile. It can’t possibly be harder than a mobile suit, right?What could possible go wrong?
>>5534985>Drive. Prove your mastery of the automobile. It can’t possibly be harder than a mobile suit, right?Where's Felix's scorpion jacket?
>>5534985>>5534991Changing to>Drive. Prove your mastery of the automobile. It can’t possibly be harder than a mobile suit, right?You know what, this is probably pretty dumb. But a good reality check might be needed if we don't want to get ourselves killed.
>>5534996In other words, this is going to be fun or funny.
>>5534985>>5534996Changing once more to>Walk over to Elena’s place. It’s more fun to surprise her.Let's not disappoint Ramba the very second we come to Von Braun.
>>5534985>>Drive. Prove your mastery of the automobile. It can’t possibly be harder than a mobile suit, right?>>Call Elena, let her know you’ve just arrived.Call throught the bluetooth so we dont get pulled over!
>>5534987>>5534989>>5534992>>5534995Drive.>>5535034Call and drive.>>5535023>>5535033>>5535043Walk.Writing.
Is this the same car that doesn't have any bugs in it? And there's a big chance of totalling it?Oh no...
>>5535061Speedy speed boy~
>>5535061I'm sure there will be a replacement for it provided by Ramba/Hamon.
>>5535066No wait, scratch that. We probably won't be allowed into a car anytime soon if we do crash it.
>>5535061
>>5535080>>5535061>Why won't this self driving car crash already! We have its throttle stuck open!>Felix a new-type"Car goes ZRRRROOOOM"
You wave farewell and head off, a spring in your step as you exit the apartment and make your way to the elevator; for once the weight of the world just doesn’t seem so bad, and it’s not just Luna’s lower gravity. It’s been years of letters, hundreds of the things, but you’re finally going to get to see Elena again! The elevator doors shut and the ride goes by quickly, the lights of other levels flashing by the glass door as it descends, but your mind is a thousand miles distant. When you exit you make sure to stop at one of the public terminals nearby, input Elena’s address and do your best to memorize how to get there… worst case scenario you stop and ask for directions. Does the car have a navigation system? You can’t remember. Oh well.Hands tucked in your jacket pockets you stroll back on out to the car, unlock it, and get behind the wheel… There’s no master switch or startup procedure, you just turn a key. Easy! Lights flash on across the dash, little digital displays winking to life, and take a few moments to look everything over. Pfff, this is nothing compared to flying. You tap the accelerator... and nothing happens. Oh, that’s right, got to shift into drive. Should’ve expected that. Tapping the accelerator again, the car jolts forward, nearly slamming into the van parked a few meters ahead - You barely manage to brake at the last moment, tires screeching to a stop. …Okay, so it’s a little sensitive. That’s fine. Letting out a deep breath you focus, taking the task more seriously. You back up a hair and then pull out, merging into the slow traffic of the street without issue, rolling along. Von Braun’s pretty at night, lots of neon and bright lights cutting through the dark. Now which way was it to Elena’s again? Her place isn’t that far, only a few kilometers, but it’s down a level - closer to the university. There was a lift you could have taken if you walked, but cars have to get back on the main highways to go down - That might take awhile, probably best to drive faster. …The handling on this car is actually pretty good, and after an initial cautious experiment you find that it’s not hard at all to move between other cars! You can drive a lot faster than traffic, they’re all moving so slow.
>>5535162A few minutes later.You screech to a stop just outside of the Elena’s apartment building, an almost menacing looking concrete structure with angles that are a bit too sharp for your taste and lots of balconies. The university is off in the distance, its iconic glass pyramid towering over much of the surrounding landscape. You shut off the car and exit, making sure to lock it - Driving is easy! A few people honked, but they must have just been panicky, there’s no way you were going to hit them. Most of the people moving along the sidewalk are close to your age, a handful of years older at most, late teens and early twenties - probably students. You blend right in, though you might be a touch overdressed. Walking to the door of the building you find that someone has just left a brick jammed in it to keep it slightly ajar. Convenient, but what’s the point of the buzzer then? You shake your head and continue inside, making your way up the stairs and along brightly colored hallways, until you arrive at room 304.You knock lightly. A few moments pass. And then a few more. You can hear footsteps on the other side.The door just barely opens, a blond haired girl peeking out to look at you, surprise and confusion written across her face. She looks a bit frazzled, her shoulder length hair is wet and clinging to her head, and it looks like she must have just changed - clearly she’s not ready for company. She squints at you, as if there's something just not quite computing in her head, looking you up and down for a moment with her blue eyes. She’s pretty, or at least easily could be if she wasn’t a mess right now, but she’s definitely not Elena.“Hello? Who are you?” She asks, “Did admin send you? I didn’t rewire much, it was just inefficient, there’s nothing to throw a fit-”>”I’m not from admin, calm down. Here to see Elena, I just got in from Side Three. Name’s Max.”>”I’m Maxime Mass, I believe Elena is expecting me.”>”...You must be Nina, right? I’m Max.” and then, in Spanish, “Hey, Elena, are you in there?”>Write-in.
>>5535169>”I’m not from admin, calm down. Here to see Elena, I just got in from Side Three. Name’s Max.”
>>5535169>>”...You must be Nina, right? I’m Max.” and then, in Spanish, “Hey, Elena, are you in there?”
>>5535169>”I’m not from admin, calm down. Here to see Elena, I just got in from Side Three. Name’s Max.”We probably should have called ahead.also as someone who is currently leaning to drive I know what this feels like
>>5535169>”...You must be Nina, right? I’m Max.” and then, in Spanish, “Hey, Elena, are you in there?”
>>5535169>>”I’m not from admin, calm down. Here to see Elena, I just got in from Side Three. Name’s Max.”
>>5535171>>5535174>>5535186>>5535198Not from admin.>>5535172>>5535178>>5535183Spanish.Writing.
“I’m not from admin, calm down.” You assure the frazzled looking girl, “Here to see Elena, I just got in from Side Three. Name’s Max.”The words only seem to confuse her even more, and she opens the door a little wider to take a better look at you, “...You’re Max?”“Yeah. Is Elena here? I think this is the right room.” You confirm, smiling to try to put her at ease; there’s something just subtly off about her mannerisms, it’s difficult to place what exactly though.“You’re real?” She questions, her expression shifting from confusion to one of near total shock, eyes going wide in disbelief as she opens the door a bit wider, “Oh my god, I thought she was making you up.”“...What?” You ask, scratching at the back of your head and trying not to laugh, “Why’d you think something like that?”“I just… Would you like to come in?” She asks, avoiding the question and looking terribly embarrassed, cheeks bright red, “I’m Nina. Elena’s out on a grocery run, she’ll be back in a few minutes.”“Thanks, Nina.” You say, stepping inside as Nina allows you to pass by, a faint cinnamon scent in the air as soon as you enter, “Elena mentioned you a lot in her letters. You live together now?”It’s a relatively spacious apartment, the entranceway leading right into the small kitchen, a living room visible just beyond; the entire area is meticulously cleaned, a few books and scattered papers on the kitchen counter next to a backpack but otherwise spotless.“Roomies as of two weeks ago.” Nina says, still befuddled by your presence, “...How long are you in for?”“A week, then it’s back to Side Three.” You inform her, stopping to look at one of the framed pictures on the wall, a painting that you’ve seen vaguely similar versions of in the past - A glass horse reflecting the cosmos within it.“A week? Oh god, our project’s going to be ruined.” Nina groans, “I told her we didn’t have time to waste going out tonight, but she insisted I get ready anyways, and now this?”“Did she not say I’d be visiting?” You ask, moving past the kitchen and into the living room. It’s all pretty standard fare, bright colors and comfortable furniture, a decent television, and a few burning candles that must be the source of that wonderful smell in the air. The only real oddity is a work bench along one of the walls, just next to the sliding glass doors leading out to the balcony; it has half disassembled electronics on it and a few books left open, an inactive computer on one end. …Is that a model kit?
>>5535321“She’s been saying you might show up for weeks and weeks, I thought she was lying.” Nina admits sheepishly, “We have an engineering project due soon, I thought we’d be working on it all week.”All week? >”...So why exactly did you think I wasn’t real, Nina?”>”What kind of engineering project?”>”You were both going out tonight? Sounds like a good time.” >Write-in.
>>5535322>”What kind of engineering project?”
>>5535322>”...So why exactly did you think I wasn’t real, Nina?”
>>55353221)>”...So why exactly did you think I wasn’t real, Nina?”>”What kind of engineering project?”2)>”...So why exactly did you think I wasn’t real, Nina?”
>>5535322>>”What kind of engineering project?”>>Write-in."Lemme take a look."
>>5535322>>”What kind of engineering project?”
>>5535359+1
>>5535322>”...So why exactly did you think I wasn’t real, Nina?”Let's get Elena to tell us instead.
>>5535322>”...So why exactly did you think I wasn’t real, Nina?”>”What kind of engineering project?”>"Is that a model kit?"Did Elena get into it because we are a pilot, and it's one of our hobbies? Or is it Nina's?
>>5535564Asking about that model kit could be a fun interaction.>>5535458Tell us about what? The engineering?That might not be a bad idea, since I bet Nina wouldn't trust us enough to tell us the details (and might even warn Elena if we start asking about it now).
>>5535325>>5535360>>5535454Engineering project.>>5535359Engineering + Take a look.>>5535327>>5535328>>5535343 (second option)>>5535458Not real.>>5535564Not real + Engineering + Model kit.Writing.
“...So why exactly did you think I wasn’t real, Nina?” You ask, walking around the living room a bit and taking a closer look at things; seems like a comfortable enough place, very welcoming if still a bit slapped together.“Well, to be frank it’s because she never shows off pictures, and she’s so cagey whenever I ask about things.” Nina says, frustration clear in her tone as she trudges back toward one of the closed doors at the edge of the living room, “I can understand being embarrassed about doing things long distance, but she really took things to extremes. A tall, handsome, athletic young pilot who’s a very good friend with her but never visits, there are no pictures of him, his name doesn’t show up in a records search, and he can’t be talked about much without making her clearly nervous - but he’ll fly her around the city one day when he shows up? I thought she just made it all up so I wouldn’t bother her about not having a man, sort of like guys claiming to have a girlfriend in the Jupiter fleet.”You grin at that, you just can’t help it; of course Elena wasn’t talking people’s ears off about you or flashing pictures, that would hardly be a safe habit. You hold your arms out and shrug, “...Well, here I am. Can’t begrudge somebody for being private, can you? She said I’m handsome?”Nina facepalms, “Oh god, she wasn’t lying, was she? This is going to be such a disaster. …Make yourself at home, Max, Elena should be back in a few minutes. I need to finish getting ready.”“Right, right. I’ll just-”Nina disappears into the other room before you can finish speaking. What a weird girl. A little too focused on her studies and clearly not much of a people person, but not that bad - You did just sort of barge in from out of nowhere, at least from her perspective.>Just settle in and wait, Elena shouldn’t be long now.>Check out that work bench nearby. That definitely looks like a model kit of somekind near all the electronics.>Head out onto the balcony, enjoy the view of Von Braun at night. Maybe you can catch sight of Elena on her way back.>Write-in.
>>55357271)>Check out that work bench nearby. That definitely looks like a model kit of somekind near all the electronics.>Head out onto the balcony, enjoy the view of Von Braun at night. Maybe you can catch sight of Elena on her way back.2)>Check out that work bench nearby. That definitely looks like a model kit of somekind near all the electronics.3)>Head out onto the balcony, enjoy the view of Von Braun at night. Maybe you can catch sight of Elena on her way back.
>>55357271)>Check out that work bench nearby. That definitely looks like a model kit of somekind near all the electronics.2)>Head out onto the balcony, enjoy the view of Von Braun at night. Maybe you can catch sight of Elena on her way back.3)>Just settle in and wait, Elena shouldn’t be long now.
>>5535727>Head out onto the balcony, enjoy the view of Von Braun at night. Maybe you can catch sight of Elena on her way back.
>>5535727>Check out that work bench nearby. That definitely looks like a model kit of somekind near all the electronics.
>>5535731 (second option)>>5535734>>5535739Writing.
Absent any company and with a few minutes to burn, you make your way over to the workbench near the balcony, taking a closer look at. The bench itself is various shades of blue, an Anaheim hobbyist model, a number of power and data ports running along its sides and back, a few of them connected to the computer setup on the left and others leading to small tools lined up in neat little racks. Scattered across the center of the table is what you think might be a robotic arm of some kind, a skeletal thing of servos and wires, half assembled up to the elbow. The few sections sporting external panels are chunky, not sleek at all, almost reminding your of the utility arms pods sometimes sport, or simplified mobiles suit limbs… of course those aren’t public knowledge, and they rarely incorporate old fashioned servos like this, the fluid pulse system handles most of the work of moving something like a Waff around.You don’t recognize any particular model of robot that the arm belongs to, small humanoid robots are pretty uncommon on the market due to creeping people out, and the general preference is for friendlier household assistants that come in non-threatening but shapes; spheres, little rovers, generally small and cute things. One of the books left open on the bench is a programming guide for servo-controllers.Interesting work. Maybe this is the project they’re working on?Off the corner is the model kit you spotted from across the room, an empty box for a Saberfish model, a few clipped sprues slid neatly back inside of it and no sign of the assembled model itself. Looking down on the ground nearby you find several other boxes for various models, neatly stacks and… as you pick one of them up you can tell immediately that it’s mostly empty as well. You set it back down and back off a step, not wanting to disturb whatever organization the workbench has; it’s all fairly tidy, in its own way. The models are probably Nina’s, Elena has never sent you pictures of them before and she’s pretty open with you about her art…
>>5535884The door to the apartment opens, and you can hear faint footsteps as someone enters.“Nina, they still don’t have the drinks you wanted! Nobody called while I was out, did they? Some jerk with colony plates parked in your spot on the road, I had to use the side lot - thanks for letting me borrow your car though!” A very familiar voice shouts, just a little huskier than you remember, and you can hear something heavy being set down on the kitchen table; there’s no line of sight from where you’re at to the apartment’s entrance or most of the kitchen.There’s no response from Nina’s room. She probably didn’t hear it with her door closed; it sounds like she might have a hair dryer running or something.>”I decided not to call ahead, hope you don’t mind.” Stroll on over into the kitchen.>Move quietly over to the kitchen while she’s unloading things, ”...Hey, Elena.”>Wait for her to come around the corner; that’ll be a reaction to remember.>Write-in.
>>5535886>”I decided not to call ahead, hope you don’t mind.” Stroll on over into the kitchen.This is the choice we'd make if we're set on being her friend, I think.
>>5535889Honestly it shouldn't make much of a difference, except the other choices might emphasize on the whole 'handsome mysterious stranger' type.They could still be fun to do, unless something unexpected happens (like her fainting).
>>5535886>Move quietly over to the kitchen while she’s unloading things, ”...Hey, Elena.”
>>5535886>>5535889Changing vote to1)>Move quietly over to the kitchen while she’s unloading things, ”...Hey, Elena.”On second thought let's make this a surprise. We already came here without calling her, might as well commit.2)>”I decided not to call ahead, hope you don’t mind.” Stroll on over into the kitchen.
>>5535886>>Move quietly over to the kitchen while she’s unloading things, ”...Hey, Elena.”
>>5535886>>Wait for her to come around the corner; that’ll be a reaction to remember.Stand there looking good, ultimate romantic option
>>5535886>Wait for her to come around the corner; that’ll be a reaction to remember.
>>5535886>Write-in.spill spaghetti
>>5535892>>5535899>>5535901>>5535955Hey, Elena.>>5535906>>5535918>>5535946Stand around looking good.>>5535945Spaghetti.Writing. Might not get the update out for a few hours, got a class in a bit.
A few quiet steps carry you most of the way across the living room, moving along the wall to stay out of sight of the kitchen and entranceway. Glass clinks together, and you can hear the seal of the refrigerator opening; she’s putting away groceries, distracted. The faint whirring of Nina’s hair dryer can be heard even through her closed door, doing a lot to help mask your steps, and you get just the edge of the kitchen and peek around……And stop to admire the view for a moment. Elena’s turned away from you, busy sorting a few things in the open fridge, tight jeans with a few torn holes clinging close to shapely legs, drawing your gaze all the way up their length - that slight gap between her thighs, the swell and curve of her hips that you don’t remember at all the last time you saw her - It’s hard not stare. She’s wearing her hair in a braided ponytail and longer than she used to, warm red satin wrapped around itself, draping down to just above the small of her back, a few loose strands hanging down by her face. Her light green jacket is a slightly exaggerated style you’ve seen a few people wearing on the streets of Von Braun, but its vibrant look suits her, hanging open and just a bit loose.You lead against the wall with one arm, smirking just slightly, “...Hey, Elena.”She freezes for a moment, glass clinking on metal as she drops the drink she was putting into the back of the fridge, and slowly she turns around, her slightly upturned emerald eyes wide in surprise, one of the most beautiful smiles you’ve ever seen slowly spreading across her face.
>>5536204“Hi, Max.” She whispers, one pale hand covering her mouth in shock; half a moment later and she’s running to you, arms wide - You’re ready for it, but she still nearly knocks you over, a lot more excited than you were ready for, practically jumping onto you.“I’ve missed you so much.” Her words barely come out, choking back tears of joy and relief, “You wrote.”“I said I would, didn’t I?” You ask in a low voice, pulling her a bit tighter with one arm, surprised by the firmness of her back, still soft and yet more muscled than you would have expected, a tight fitness, “I keep my promises.”“You do!” She exclaims, emerald eyes gazing into yours as she moves much closer, the shared gaze deep enough to easily get lost in, the swell of her chest close, “I think that deserves a reward~”There’s an almost intoxicating aroma about her, a subtle cinnamon similar to that which pervades the entire apartment, seeming to make it harder to think of anything but her with every breath, a sort of frantic energy carried with her touch. It’s electric, pure physicality, a sudden intimacy that she’s clearly burning to share, your own hormones and blood sent pumping - How long has this been building up in her? It’s a dim thought, pleasantly clouded. It would be easy to drift off in the moment, to ride this wave; she moves to your touch, natural and easy.“...Elena, what did you say about the - Oh my! Sorry, sorry!” Nina sputters out from her room, the door slightly cracked open, “Wow!”Elena pulls back from you, cheeks flush and emerald eyes flashing, waving Nina off with a hand, “Shoo, Nina!” “Sorry!” Nina squeaks, disappearing back into her room like a mouse fleeing a cat, door shutting loudly.“...I didn’t want to wait too long this time.” Elena says, biting at her lower lip, words just spilling out, “I’ve been thinking about you for years, Max. Every letter. Every night. Getting ready for this. I’m so happy you’re here, I... God, it’s hard to even talk.”>Kiss her!>”Hold onto this for when we’re flying, Elena. Let’s not rush in.” An effort of will, but that might be better.>”I’ve missed you too.” Back off a little more, even if it’s a struggle. Just a friend, right?>Write-in.
>>5536210>Kiss her!Fuck, I can't cockblock Felix here
>>5536210>”I’ve missed you too.” Back off a little more, even if it’s a struggle. Just a friend, right?Emotions are pretty strong here, but we shouldn't just jump into a relationship in the third thread.I know some anons are against being with her since she's the first girl and an earthnoid, but I don't see the relationship coming to anything good due to different worldviews and opposing sides.
>>5536210>”I’ve missed you too.” Back off a little more, even if it’s a struggle. Just a friend, right?
>>5536210>”Hold onto this for when we’re flying, Elena. Let’s not rush in.” An effort of will, but that might be better.
>>5536217>different worldviews and opposing sides.Well, this is just an assumption on my part. I think it would be smarter to know what her personality is like and what her beliefs on spacenoids/contolism are before we do anything.Also there's the question of Tryphosa. I don't know how Elena would react to another girl literally being in Felix's head (or about the bond in general).
>>5536210>(1. Kiss her!>(2. ”Hold onto this for when we’re flying, Elena. Let’s not rush in.” An effort of will, but that might be better.
>>5536226She works for Anaheim, and has lived most of her life in earth or earth-aligned colonies. So it's a fair assumption to believe she's against Contolism in some way.
>>5536210>”I’ve missed you too.” Back off a little more, even if it’s a struggle. Just a friend, right?This is the second time I'm posting this, since it looks like 4chan just ate my post.
>>5536253Like I said, it's an assumption. But you're probably right, it does make sense. This isn't to say she can't be our friend, or even our best friend. That and I still think it would be cruel not to tell her that there's another girl we're emotionally bonded with before leading her on.I'm not saying we shouldn't go with her, in fact she might be the ideal waifu, but I'd like to get to know her first after all this time has passed before doing anything we might regret.
>>5536216Kiss!>>5536217>>5536218>>5536219>>5536262"I've missed you too.">>5536220>>5536221>>5536223>>5536228"Hold onto this for when we're flying, Elena."Looks like we've got a tie, I'll give it another hour.
>>5536318I shall amend my vote to >1)Kiss her!>2)”Hold onto this for when we’re flying, Elena. Let’s not rush in.” An effort of will, but that might be better.
>>5536318'Tis this vote >>5536216 I am amending. Forgive my mobile-voting
>>5536324Looks like your ID switched, which was your other vote?
>>5536327>>5536325Never mind. Thanks for jumping right on that before I even asked, anon.
The first girl curse lives on
>>5536210Hold onto this for when we’re flying, Elena. Let’s not rush in.” An effort of will, but that might be better.
>>5536363I wouldn't go as far as that. Contolist said that he wouldn't route lock.Besides I feel like the "Hold onto this" as more of a seeing how things will turn out, maybe after a few dates.
>>5536370I know, I'm just meming around.
>>5536370chances are one or both of them are going to die in the OYW, so just go for the one that lives.
>>5536379Sigmanon detected
>>5536379I'm worried that we'll be a two-timer if we settle for someone long term now (and there's a good chance of that, since that's just how qst works) since we won't get either if we do that.>>5536380Accurate
>>5536324>>5536323>>5536220>>5536221>>5536223>>5536228Writing.
“Hold onto this for when we’re flying, Elena.” You back off a step, her hands settling to your hips, “Let’s not rush in.”“Rush in?” She asks, lips scrunching up for a moment as she looks you over, considering the suggestion, “...Alright, I can wait a little longer; good things come to those who wait, don’t they?~”An excited, subtle shudder runs through you at her words; it’s a primal reaction, a motor running, revving, turned on with a word and a wink - An entire week of this. You’ll go insane at this rate, this ache is isn’t like anything like you’ve felt before. It’s not a desire so much as a demand from your body, waist down anyways, but with tremendous effort you manage to push through the hormonal fog - the excitement is far from gone though, your heart still racing.“...So I’ve heard.” You smirk, Elena pulling away from you slowly, eyes still locked - She gives your butt a farewell squeeze - Your eyes go a little wider in surprise and she laughs, a rich tone to her voice. “You’ll like what I’ve got planned - For flying, too.” Elena teases, absolutely relentless, “I’ve got a surprise for you down on the industrial level, I’ve been working on something special for when you got here.”“What is it?” You ask, though it’s already clear she’s not going to give a straight answer, she just has that look in her eyes.She puts a finger to her lips, “Shh, now don’t go asking my questions - I just might answer them. It’s a surprise. I think I might even have you wear a blindfold, that’d be fun, wouldn’t it?”Well, there’s only one way to follow up a tease like that, “When do we go?”“It isn’t quite ready yet.” Elena says, leaning back against the wall, her long braid draped over one shoulder, “Another day or two - I wasn’t sure when you’d be getting here.”“Neither was I, didn’t have much of a say in when I showed up.” You admit with a shrug, settling into something a little more like a normal conversation, that fever in you slowly burning off. Achingly slowly.
>>5536469“You’re… back in Side Three now, with them, right?” Elena asks, her voice quiet, emerald eyes glancing toward the door to Nina’s room, “They put tails on me sometimes, I don’t think they know I’m onto them. I can slip them pretty reliably now. We’re going to be followed around all week, right?”You blink, surprised by her… competence? She was always bright and quick to notice things, on the same highly accelerated education program you were back in Spain, or at least a very similar track, but she was never quite this switched on - There’s something much more alert about her in general, really alive, ready to go; or maybe you’re just seeing things you want to be there. “...Not too closely. I lucked out, my guards are old family friends, good people - they’ll be keeping their distance. There’s another team though, I’m not sure how nosy they’re going to get. We might be able to lose them… They’ve sent people to follow you though?” You nearly wince as you ask the question, a pang of guilt shooting through you - Your family’s political troubles got Elena shot before, and now Kycilia is practically holding a sword over her head.Elena nods, still speaking in a hushed voice, wary of the door, “Ever since… Ever since what happened in Spain I’ve tried to be more alert. I was useless, so scared I couldn’t think, I still have nightmares about it… I hate that feeling, not being able to do anything. Things were really bad for a while there with... with mom and dad. I had a lot of time alone, so… so I sort of took a few self-defense classes, read some old intelligence manuals, had a soldier back in Brazil show me how to shoot a bit - I didn’t want to worry you, and writing it down didn’t seem smart, but I… I want to help.”She trails off, one hand drifting to her side, right where she was shot all those years ago.>”This isn’t something you want to jump in on, Elena. It’s life and death. You should already know that.” She’s just smart enough to get into serious trouble, try to warn her off. >”...You already are. Just keep playing it safe, alright?... So where are we off to tonight? Nina mentioned you were both going out.” If she’s on board then she’s on board, but it’s probably not smart to stand her discussing things for ages with Nina just a door away.>”God, you’re hot.” Okay, maybe not the most intelligent response, but this is a level of dedication that’s just hitting like a freight train.>Write-in.
>>5536474>>”This isn’t something you want to jump in on, Elena. It’s life and death. You should already know that.” She’s just smart enough to get into serious trouble, try to warn her off.
>>5536474>”God, you’re hot.” Okay, maybe not the most intelligent response, but this is a level of dedication that’s just hitting like a freight train.Elena is proving herself to be more based by the update. What a comeback!
>>5536474>”...You already are. Just keep playing it safe, alright?... So where are we off to tonight? Nina mentioned you were both going out.” If she’s on board then she’s on board, but it’s probably not smart to stand her discussing things for ages with Nina just a door away.
>>55364741)>”...You already are. Just keep playing it safe, alright?... So where are we off to tonight? Nina mentioned you were both going out.” If she’s on board then she’s on board, but it’s probably not smart to stand her discussing things for ages with Nina just a door away.That plan of making her a spy is looking more and more realistic with each post.2)>”This isn’t something you want to jump in on, Elena. It’s life and death. You should already know that.” She’s just smart enough to get into serious trouble, try to warn her off.
>>5536540I wanted to vote for the first choice, but honestly warning her off might be more of an insult to her than otherwise. And even if she does back down, she'll still be trailed by Kycilia for the rest of her life (and that's being optimistic about it).Best if she does something to make sure she's safer in the future than pretend everything is alright now.I didn't think there would be much competition to Tryphosa, but man you're full of surprises Contolist.
>>5536474>”This isn’t something you want to jump in on, Elena. It’s life and death. You should already know that.” She’s just smart enough to get into serious trouble, try to warn her off.Ah shit man how many teams are involved shadowing this one (you know what) project? How many cells are grouped up here for someone to repeatedly notice them?
>>5536474>>5536540To stay committed to my reasoning, I'll change my vote to just>”...You already are. Just keep playing it safe, alright?... So where are we off to tonight? Nina mentioned you were both going out.” If she’s on board then she’s on board, but it’s probably not smart to stand her discussing things for ages with Nina just a door away.
>>5536474>”God, you’re hot.” Okay, maybe not the most intelligent response, but this is a level of dedication that’s just hitting like a freight train.>”...You already are. Just keep playing it safe, alright?... So where are we off to tonight? Nina mentioned you were both going out.” If she’s on board then she’s on board, but it’s probably not smart to stand her discussing things for ages with Nina just a door away.I always believed in Elenacoin
>>5536474>”...You already are. Just keep playing it safe, alright?... So where are we off to tonight? Nina mentioned you were both going out.” If she’s on board then she’s on board, but it’s probably not smart to stand her discussing things for ages with Nina just a door away.This is the second time 4chan seems to have eaten my post. Maybe this is a problem on my end?
>>5536598At least Kycilia is involved. The Jovians probably know about something, since this involves Felix.
>>5536636It's been happening on and off recently, you aren't alone.
>>5536477>>5536598Warn her off.>>5536480Hot! >>5536487>>5536548>>5536605>>5536636 Happens to me sometimes too.>>5536753Already in.>>5536611Hot + Already in.Writing. I have a long class starting soon, might take a bit to get the post out.
>>5536388I was going to say how Felix is clever enough to get away with cheating, but then I realized Tryphosa and Artesia will know because of psychic fuckery.
>>5537036Yeah, Artesia is a living lie detector (and can probably feel our thoughts/emotions) and Tryphosa knows everything we're thinking (consciously or subconsciously) just by being near us.
>>5537047But beyond that it just doesn't feel right to cheat on one of the waifus. Felix is probably emphatic enough to realize that being a two-timer is heartless, and is smart enough to know that it will probably cause problems in the future (for his family, politically, and for his relationships as well).
>>5537036>>5537053Is it really cheating if Felix makes no promises though?
>>5537079Maybe not overtly, but leading on someone while getting it on with another is manipulative (even if the leading on is unintentional, which it clearly isn't seen from Felix's reactions and the votes).Besides its pretty clear that Elena is going for an actual relationship between just herself and Felix. Not telling her that we might have a side girl(s), while still having her believe that we're only with her is just begging for a disaster to happen either Kycilia or some other Zabi/enemy will use it as blackmail if they find out and it probably won't go well with anyone.
>>5537095>and it probably won't go well with anyone.All the more reason to spend time with Blanche, then.I don't see no issues
>>5537079>technically it wasn't cheatingTell that to Tryphosa/Elena/Artesia.If we (try to) keep either side in the dark if we do this it'll be bad. Fallout from this will be hell, I've seen it happen before.
“...You already are, Elena. Just keep playing it safe, alright?” You assure her quietly, her willingness to leap into the fray really striking something in you, but lingering on the topic overlong seems unwise with Nina just a door away, “...So where are we off to tonight? Nina mentioned you were going out.”Elena’s smile returns and she slinks over to the backpack left in the kitchen, unzipping it, “It took weeks but I finally convinced her to go, I thought I was bad, but Nina’s a real shut-in. There’s this club down a level, good music but sort of hidden, a little rough around the edges, but they’ve got…” She produces a red rattle can from the backpack, a few others with colorful caps visible just inside, “...Walls outside that they don’t mind people tagging up - I don’t really go to talk or dance, it’s mostly older students and local so I don't really... fit in. I go for the art, it changes every week or so - there’s always something new.”“Sharing your art with the world then? It’s about time.” You smile, thinking back to just how shy and secretive about her art she’d been when you last saw her, too embarrassed to show anyone else her work.“Not quite. It’s anonymous, you just spray and pray someone likes it before it gets covered up - It’s liberating, no one knows who did what unless they sign it. You get an eye for styles, it’s obvious some people come back, but I couldn’t put names to faces. I like to think of it as practice for the s… Mm, never mind that.” Elena trails off rather cryptically, lips scrunched up again for a moment, “You’re going to love it.”“Practice for the surprise?” You guess, a bit more intrigued, and her smirk does more than enough to confirm your suspicion, “So when do we go?”“When Nina’s ready. I don’t think she understands what kind of place it is, I tried to tell her not to dress up too much but she wouldn’t listen - She’s got a guy she’s supposed to meet there, from one of the classes we don’t share.”
>>5537128“Oh? Well, good for her.” You say, shrugging but finding the prospect of even an unexpected sort-of double date better than having Nina as a complete third wheel, “She got all worked up worrying over an engineering project earlier.”“Ugh, that. She’s been trotting it out as an excuse not to go on her date. We barely even have the arm done.” Elena groans, “She’s been obsessing over it, I swear she loves robots more than life…”You chuckle sympathetically, “Careful now, your excitement might rub off on me.”“Pfff, right.” Elena rolls her eyes and moves over to Nina’s door, tapping on it lightly, “Ready to go?”“Almost!” Nina’s muffled voice responds, “Green or blue?”Elena cracks open the door and looks inside, “Turn… Blue for sure. Oh come on, what’s with that look? You’ll knock him out.”“How can you be sure though?” You faintly hear Nina asks. Elena says something you don’t quite catch, and then looks back to you with a sigh. “Give us a minute, okay?” Elena asks, her tone apologetic, “She’s terrible at picking when things get down to a few options.”“Take all the time you need.”Twenty minutes later.While you’re waiting, occasional muffled voices heard from Nina’s room, you take the time to send a short message to Ramba and Hamon; it’s a quick exchange, just enough to keep to security protocol.…And you’re beginning to realize that telling Elena to take ‘all the time you need’ might have been a poor choice of words. Eventually the two of them emerge, Nina looking almost completely different from the mop haired girl you saw half an hour ago - rather gorgeous really, wearing a blue dress that really suits her - you only barely take note of it, eyes settling on Elena.“All ready! Nina looks good, doesn’t she, Max?” Elena asks you, motioning to the rather nervous looking Nina; she’s just looking for a confidence boost for her friend. You flash a smile and nod, “Looking great. Who’s it all for?”“Harin. He’s in one of my advanced robotics courses, it's mostly theory…” Nina says, glancing back to the workbench near the far end of the living room - Really can’t make up her mind, can she?“He won’t stand a chance.” Elena says amusedly, moving past you and toward the apartment’s door, “How’d you get here, Max, bus or…?”“I drove.”“Oh?~” Elena questions, that glint in her eyes again, “Want to go in separate cars? Nina, you know the way, right? Max can drive me there.”“Of course, I saw the map yesterday.” Nina says, almost sounding insulted, “You left mine around the side, right?”“Yep, not too far. So how about it, Max?”>”Absolutely. I’m parked just out front.”>”I drive you both, no need to split up.” >”...Was sort of hoping we’d walk, haven’t gotten to take in the sights yet. There are lifts to go down levels, right?”>Write-in.
>>5537098Imagine how shit she will feel if when she finds out that she's a side dish if we do that.Also it'll cause tension if we decide to put her in our team once the OYW starts.>spoilerYou might not, but people around Felix will. And at least Tryphosa and Artesia will notice because of newtype weirdness (I don't know how Tryphosa will react, but Artesia will probably hate us if we keep Elena in the dark like that. It might be enough to cause a rift in the family, especially since she's now probably thinking about a relationship with Garma), and Elena will probably be devastated.Also do you really want to give Gihren/Kycilia good blackmail material to use against us?But if you're saying that we should tell any waifus about Tryphosa before being officially in any relationship (not giving away too much information of course, just that we're newtype bonded with her) then I'm a bit more open to it.
>>5537136>>”Absolutely. I’m parked just out front.”
>>5537136>”Absolutely. I’m parked just out front.”
>>5537136>”Absolutely. I’m parked just out front.”As funny as it would be to take them both, getting the chance to talk with Elena alone is important.
>>5537137>spoilerIf it gives them a specific and "easy" set of leavers to pull on they are less likely to go after other things immediately and they may well feel more content that they still have control and "allow" us more rope to hang ourselves with. >it'll cause tension if we decide to put her in our team once the OYW starts.Depending on what exactly we end up getting up to I doubt there will be anywhere safer to be while still within our influence, and at least we are likely to be able to exert some control over things with her "under" Felix.
>>5537136>”Absolutely. I’m parked just out front.”Can anyone think of anything that might potentially be worth mentioning on the drive over there.Eb the Rear Admiral might be a good idea to help close the loop on the Federation's awareness of Newtypes / the Jovian connection and our continued survival
>>55371361)>”I drive you both, no need to split up.”2)>”Absolutely. I’m parked just out front.”
>>5537151>spoilerPlaying with other people's hearts for political leverage is a very machiavellian thing for Felix to do. Maybe Casval might, but Felix actually seems to care about other people's feelings.>Depending on what exactly we end up getting up to I doubt there will be anywhere safer to be while still within our influence, and at least we are likely to be able to exert some control over things with her "under" Felix.Emotionally and politically compelling people to work for us, or being 'safer' option to unwillingly follow is Zabi-tier (see Ramba and Hamon, they were ready to betray the Zabis the moment we told them of our plans). That's not to mention the possibility that she'll even be under us.And don't forget she's loyal to Dozle first, not Felix. If act romantically with her, then pressure her to follow our orders (or worse, keep pressuring her into being romantically active with us even if she wants to break up), she won't trust us and there will be easily avoidable drama with political ramifications. Having herself and her father against us for something we could've avoided just doesn't make sense. It's better to have good friends that trust us than a bitter ex and her angry father.Also the issue of Artesia and Elena being angry at us and the potential family rift still stands.I'm not against going with Blanche (or any of the waifus for that matter), but we have to make sure we don't do things in a way that will ruin everything.
>>5537141>>5537144>>5537146>>5537170>>5537174>>5537184Writing.
Well, there’s no turning down an offer like that, “Absolutely. I’m parked just out front.” “Let’s get moving then!” Elena says, moving alongside, your arm finding its way around her almost on its own, that wonderful cinnamon aroma drawing you in again, focusing your attention on the moment and nothing else; this feels right.Nina smiles a little awkwardly, watching the two of you for a moment and then sighing, deflating just a little, “...I’ll see you both there. Try not to get too… distracted. Ugh, what a pair of lovebirds…” Nina grumbles to herself as you make your way to the door, most of it too quiet even for you to discern.“...We’ll be waiting for you there!” Elena replies cheerfully before speaking to you in almost a whisper, “...I’m so glad you’re here.”[A minute or so later.]Elena stands next to the car Ramba gave to you, slightly bent over with one hand resting on the dark hood, head turned toward you with a look of bemusement, “I should have known.”You scratch at the back of your head, cheeks warming a bit in embarrassment, “Didn’t realize this was Nina’s spot.”“Missed the sign then?” Elena’s emerald eyes glance to a nearby ‘residents only’ sign that you absolutely didn’t see earlier, “...Well, better you than someone else; I almost keyed your car for being here with colony plates, thought it might have just been a lazy spy.”“No, you didn’t.” You chuckle at Elena’s joking threat anyways, opening the passenger door for her to get in, and then moving around the widely spaced wheels of the rover car to settle into the driver’s seat. As soon as your door shuts you feel a sense of freedom that you’ve never had outside of a cockpit. It’s just you and Elena, the whole of Von Braun a possible destination, or even the flats outside the crater the city rests in - You’d want normal suits for it, but the car itself is sealed just like most others on Luna. And sure, you have a destination in mind right now, but there’s no one actually stopping you from just going… anywhere. No immediate threats, no siblings to watch after, nothing. You really needed this, a long deserved break from a false life.
>>5537344“Can we talk in here?” Elena asks, and you nod, focusing for a moment on the slow but unpredictable university traffic as you get the car moving and pull out into the road.“There aren’t any bugs. Might not be safe tomorrow though, the other set of guards can’t be happy that I’m using it.” “...Is it bad that I find that really exciting? I know I shouldn’t, but…” Elena asks, biting her lower lip and looking altogether far too distracting even out of the corner of your eye, “Anyways, I can check the car over for bugs, I do checks of my apartment with my microscanner every so often.”“Really, a microscanner? Ever find any?” You question, stopping at a light briefly, the neon lights of storefronts and gaudy advertising covering much of the buildings along the street.“It's for my engineering projects, or at least that was the excuse I used to buy it. Only found bugs a few times here.” Elena answers, leaning back in her seat and sighing, arms crossed, “They probably think I’m the clumsiest girl on Luna, all those spills ruining cushions and clocks falling off walls.”“Gave them a nice speech a few times too, I’m guessing.” You chuckle, all too familiar with the game of cat and mouse but never having found quite so much joy in it - maybe you’ve been missing out, “I’ve gotten so used to it by now that I don’t even think about hiding things. I’m not used to being able to just… talk. It’s rare, especially where we live now.”“And where do you live now? I know it’s back in Zeon, but you’ve never said.” Elena asks.“The Zabi palace.” No way around that piece of news.There’s a few moments of shocked silence before she manages to find her words, “...You’re serious, aren’t you? You live with them?”“For a little over two months now.” You admit, “Which way from here?”“Left, then forward for two lights and take the exit ramp down on the right.” Elena relays, focusing on the simple task of giving directions for a moment, visibly trying to make sense of things, “...So you mean the giant spiky fortress, right? The one that’s always on the news when there’s some problem with Zeon?” “When isn’t there a problem?” You question, the news almost being a 24/7 feed of Zeon and Federation disputes these days, many of which you hear about before Gihren even starts them up, “...And yeah, that’s the one. It’s actually quite nice inside, for a prison. Sort of a Versailles look, but… ominous. Everything is monitored.”“A gilded cage then. That does explain those pictures you sent, I was wondering what place looked so nice - But you did live in a castle when I met you, so I just sort of chalked it up to secret space prince stuff.” Elena says with a sigh, understanding at once, and you let that ‘space prince’ comment slide for the moment, “...Why’d they let you come here then?”
>>5537351“They still have Casval and Artesia, and my mother. They’re practically hostages, and they’ve got those guards following me around… but I also helped out with a problem the Zabis had, I think they’re trying to buy me off, stockholm syndrome or something… It won’t work, but I really couldn’t pass up on seeing you.”“Your mom is alive?” Elena gasps, her face alight with joy, “Max, that’s amazing news! …How is she doing?”“Recovering well,” You grip around the wheel tightens, knuckles white, “...they had her locked up on her own for years, she barely made it.”“Fucking assholes.” Elena nearly spits the words out, and a silence settles over the car for a few seconds before she speaks more gently, one slender hand finding its way over to your thigh, “I’m glad she’s okay, Max. I know how bad you must have missed her. ...Is there anything else you couldn’t put in the letters? There’s so much I know we couldn’t write about, it’s just been burning a hole in me for years!”Well, there’s a mountain of things to talk about, but just how much do you really want to dump on her right now?>”...I’ll be going to the Zeon military academy in a few months. Casval and Artesia will be too.”>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?” >”...I'm more interested in you, Elena. What’s on your chest?”>Write-in.
>>55373551)>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?”2)>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?”>”...I’ll be going to the Zeon military academy in a few months. Casval and Artesia will be too.”3)>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?” >”...I'm more interested in you, Elena. What’s on your chest?”Talking about newtypes could save her life down the line (or at least help us both out in some way), I think.
>>5537355>1)”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?”>2)>”...I’ll be going to the Zeon military academy in a few months. Casval and Artesia will be too.”
>>5537355>>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?” >>”...I'm more interested in you, Elena. What’s on your chest?”
>>5537361Though it's implied that Elena will take us to some sort of incognito mask party. I'm guessing she'll ask us not to cheat. It'll be a shame to not use our powers to make everyone impressed by the 'handsome mysterious stranger' Elena brought with her.Still we got our [Perception] so it should still be fun.
>>5537355>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?”My heroic space-prince childhood friend is a psychic???
>>55373551)>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?”>”...I'm more interested in you, Elena. What’s on your chest?”2)>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?”3)>”...I'm more interested in you, Elena. What’s on your chest?”
>>5537355>1. ”...I'm more interested in you, Elena. What’s on your chest?”>2. ”...I'm more interested in you, Elena. What’s on your chest?”>2. ”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?”2. Is a combination.I wanna see if she opens up more about Anaheim.
>>5537355Switching my vote >>5537381 to just>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?”This is probably more important for now.
>>5537367kek
....oh my fucking god.I finally figured out who her roomie is.AND WHO SHES MEETING. Its fucking gatooooo
>>5537420We should try to be his bud if we meet him.
>>5537355>”...I’ll be going to the Zeon military academy in a few months. Casval and Artesia will be too.”>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?”
>>5537355>>5537361Changing my vote to:1)>”...I’ll be going to the Zeon military academy in a few months. Casval and Artesia will be too.”>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?”2)>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?”3)>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?” >”...I'm more interested in you, Elena. What’s on your chest?”At least telling her where we'll be for the next few months could be vital.
>>5537425I'd almost rather we did the universe a favour and remove his existance
>>5537435But where's the fun in that?But really, this gives us some things to think about.
>>5537355>>>”...I’ll be going to the Zeon military academy in a few months. Casval and Artesia will be too.”>>”...Have you ever heard of newtypes?”>>5537435Eat your carrots, Kou.
>>5537362>>5537367>>5537383>>5537434 (second option)>>5537379 (second option)Newtypes?>>5537365Newtypes+What's on her chest.>>5537428>>5537467Academy+Newtypes.Writing.>>5537420Correct, but wrong on the second count. Gato does happen to be seventeen right now though, which is the normal age for entering the academy...
“...Have you ever heard of newtypes?” You ask, eyes steady on the road as you take the exit down to the lower level of Von Braun.“Like in your father’s books?” Elena asks with a smile, “I read all of them as soon as I could after we got separated. It was actually pretty funny, the librarian on base got worried when I checked out so many of them at once…”“Well, they’re not really light reading. You were what, thirteen?”“I’ve never done light reading, Max.” Elena scrunches up her lips again and gives you an ‘oh come on now’ look, and you can’t do much other than shrug in concession, “No, it wasn’t that - she thought I was getting radicalized and somehow got it into her head that it was a good idea to tell my mom, it was nearly a big mess. I still ended up reading them a couple of times. I was buried in books as much as I could be with everything that was going on…”“...So what did you think of them?” You ask, the gentle curve of the ramp rolling out ahead of you, the twinkling lights of the lower level in the distance.She considering your question carefully before speaking, fidgeting a bit with the end of her braided ponytail, "Well… It didn’t really make much sense at the time. It’s not a hard line of reasoning to follow, at least not broadly, but it, uhm… I guess it didn’t click until I moved up here.”“Oh?”“...The first time I saw the earth from up here I felt… I don’t quite know how to describe it… I just felt that everything I’d seen down there was so small, like earth was just a little orb that could vanish into the black. Not that everything else was petty, but just that people have been less than what they could be.” Her words cause your heartbeat to quicken, the answer far more than you hoped or expected, “I’m not sure if that means much, or if it’s really what it was about, but it started to make some kind of sense then... I thought of you too, Max. So, yes - I’ve heard of newtypes. Why?”
>>5537617“Would you believe it if I told you they exist?” You ask, exiting the ramp and merging into the faster traffic of the lower level.“...It’s only a change of viewpoint, right? So sure, of course they can exist.” She answers almost casually, simultaneously touching upon the truth and yet leagues away.“It’s not just that, Elena. When a person’s mind opens and they become a newtype it… it’s an entirely new existence, not just a change in viewpoint but a change in their ability to perceive at a basic level. Everything is different.”“So something more… mystical then?” She questions, intently curious but lacking in understanding, her voice softening, quieting nearly to a whisper, “This means a lot to you, doesn’t it? You believe it?”You nod. How do you tell her just how much further it goes than belief?“Did you have an experience or…?” She asks hesitantly.“Experience?” “You know, a mystical one? Some people talk about having out of body experiences, or feeling others around them… seeing things. You looked so intense a moment ago, like you were reliving something.” She bites nervously at her lip, waiting for a response, emerald eyes watching you intently.“Would you believe me if I said I did?” You ask, and the words are barely past your lips before she responds.“Yes. I trust you, Max. What happened?”>”...I met a Jovian girl who was visiting Texas colony, her name is Tryphosa…” The whole story, start to finish. Stop the car if you have to.>”I… awakened. For a moment I could see everything stretching out around me, time didn’t have a meaning, and my awareness expanded so far beyond my body that I didn’t feel like myself, I shared my soul with someone else... I’m not sure how else to describe it. Maybe mystical isn’t a bad word for it.”>”Maybe an example will get it across better than a story. Could you think about which direction I need to go next? Try not give it away with an expression, just think about it loudly.”>Write-in.
>>5537619>>”Maybe an example will get it across better than a story. Could you think about which direction I need to go next? Try not give it away with an expression, just think about it loudly.”
>>5537619>”Maybe an example will get it across better than a story. Could you think about which direction I need to go next? Try not give it away with an expression, just think about it loudly.”
>>5537619>”I… awakened. For a moment I could see everything stretching out around me, time didn’t have a meaning, and my awareness expanded so far beyond my body that I didn’t feel like myself, I shared my soul with someone else... I’m not sure how else to describe it. Maybe mystical isn’t a bad word for it.”
>>55376191)>”...I met a Jovian girl who was visiting Texas colony, her name is Tryphosa…” The whole story, start to finish. Stop the car if you have to.>Write-in>"...she's being experimented on as we speak.">Don't just talk about Tryphosa and your bond, warn her about the Jovians and their plans, as well as some of the experiments you've seen. They are also a factor to watch out for.2)>”...I met a Jovian girl who was visiting Texas colony, her name is Tryphosa…” The whole story, start to finish. Stop the car if you have to.3)>”I… awakened. For a moment I could see everything stretching out around me, time didn’t have a meaning, and my awareness expanded so far beyond my body that I didn’t feel like myself, I shared my soul with someone else... I’m not sure how else to describe it. Maybe mystical isn’t a bad word for it.”The Jovians are important enough to mention.
>>5537640+1
>>5537640Does the write in talk about Flanagan? Well supporting this either way. Elena can be trusted, and I'm sure she'll understand the bond was out of Felix's control.
>>5537619>>>”Maybe an example will get it across better than a story. Could you think about which direction I need to go next? Try not give it away with an expression, just think about it loudly.”
>>5537667The question is if she will think the bond is romantic or not.But I get that it's better to tell her now than have it explode in our face.
>>5537640+1Vote didn't seem to go through, again.
>>55376191)>”...I met a Jovian girl who was visiting Texas colony, her name is Tryphosa…” The whole story, start to finish. Stop the car if you have to.>Write-in>"...she's being experimented on as we speak.">Don't just talk about Tryphosa and your bond, warn her about the Jovians and their plans, as well as some of the experiments you've seen. They are also a factor to watch out for.2)>”...I met a Jovian girl who was visiting Texas colony, her name is Tryphosa…” The whole story, start to finish. Stop the car if you have to.3)>”I… awakened. For a moment I could see everything stretching out around me, time didn’t have a meaning, and my awareness expanded so far beyond my body that I didn’t feel like myself, I shared my soul with someone else... I’m not sure how else to describe it. Maybe mystical isn’t a bad word for it.”
>>5537619>”...I met a Jovian girl who was visiting Texas colony, her name is Tryphosa…” The whole story, start to finish. Stop the car if you have to.>Write-in>"...she's being experimented on as we speak.">Don't just talk about Tryphosa and your bond, warn her about the Jovians and their plans, as well as some of the experiments you've seen. They are also a factor to watch out for.Fuck it I'll support thi
>>5537624>>5537625>>5537630>>5537681>>5537847Example.>>5537635Awakened>>5537875>>5537640 >>5537645 >>5537844Everything+write-in.Example wins. Barely. Writing.
>>5538012OP you missed a couple of votes I think.
>>5538038Yeah, he missed these two>>5537667>>5537695So, it was thw write-in that barely won
>>5538038>>5538049...So I did. Fuck. Well, time to scrap that entire post. Rewriting, give me a bit.
>>5538081Maybe you can do both?Give her an example and then talk about tryphosia
>>5538081Sorry for making it harder Contolist.
>>5538091Nah, already deleted the other one. It's my fault for not counting correctly.
“It’s a long story, Elena. …I met a Jovian girl who was visiting Texas colony, her name is Tryphosa…” As you recount the long tale, careful to leave nothing out, Elena listens intently, growing a bit more nervous and fidgeting with her ponytail a little more but reserving any questions or judgment; occasionally she gives you directions to keep on track to the club, but otherwise she’s silent as a statue. A while later, parked in an alley near the club.“...And so as far as I know they’re running experiments on her right now, but she’s a fighter; I still worry about her but she can handle it.”“And that’s everything?” Elena asks hesitantly, brow furrowed and biting nervously at her lip, “So you’re a newtype and… and bonded with this girl, Tryphosa, and she’s a clone?” “...Yeah. It’s a lot to take in, I know.” You nod, reaching out to take her hand, finding it still more than ready to grip your own, gentle and soft, “I wanted to tell you as soon as I could, I don’t want to keep any secrets from you. None.”Elena’s breath catches in her throat for a moment but she eventually manages a tiny nod, her emerald eyes soft and wet but no tears are yet flowing, “...Are you and her… together?”You shake your head, “No, no, it’s not like that at all. It’s a… spiritual bond, I guess. I understand her, and she understands me, sometimes I’ve even felt like I was her, but it isn’t… It’s not romantic, if that’s what you mean. Bonds aren’t like that.”“Could they be though?” “...I suppose they could, but ours isn’t.” You assure her, tightening your grip just a hair; you’ve definitely felt the urge to push things further with Tryphosa before, and you know she’s felt the same at times, but neither of you have actually done anything, “She’s a friend, Elena.”
>>5538135“Good.” Elena sighs in relief, tension just easing out of her, “...Do you think she’d like me, max?” “Yes, absolutely.” The answer comes out immediately, there’s no need to even consider it, “I’m not sure when you’d meet though, even Artesia probably won’t be seeing her much off in that lab… Why?”“She’s on your side, so she’s on my side.” Elena says, her voice growing more firm, a determined look settling over her, “Maybe she can show me how to be a newtype… I’d settle for just being friends though, it doesn’t sound like she’s going anywhere.”You smile at the idea but shake your head, a touch amused, “That’s… I don’t think that’s how becoming a newtype works, Elena. I wish it was that simple.”Elena scrunches up her lips at that, giving you a look, “Well, I’m a spacenoid now, so what’s the next step?”“You’re a spacenoid now, are you?” You question, the declaration surprising you a bit but not entirely unwelcome; there’s not really a hard definition of who is and isn’t.“I live in space, don’t I?” Elena asks, crossing her arms, “...There’s not much back on earth anyways. I don’t think I’m going back… Maybe to visit, I miss dad a lot, but…”There’s a tapping on the window of the car, startling Elena and causing her to jump a bit in her seat, Nina’s face peering through the tinted window.“There you two are! How long have you been in there?” Nina demands, clearly miffed.You roll down the window, the faint sound of muffled music a little more clear from the building nearby as you do so, “We needed some time to talk, Nina, we’ll be right out.”“I’ve been alone out here for twenty minutes!” Nina protests, refusing to look at either of you.“Sorry, Nina. We’ll be right out.” Elena gives her friend an apologetic look, opening her door and stepping out into the alley, “Where’s Harin?”“Inside, getting drinks.” Nina answers, “Are you two staying out here?”You open your own door and step outside, the faint scent of cigarette smoke and drying paint hitting you immediately, clinging all about the alley strongly; there are colorful, almost garish murals and images of all sorts stretching out over the walls. A few bright spotlights overhead, clearly rigged up haphazardly, provide the otherwise shadowed alleyways with a bright source of light to work by.
>>5538138The muffled racket from inside of the building sounds only barely like music, and you can see a few people standing around near the far end of the alley, close to an emergency exit and a dumpster. Or maybe 'standing' is the wrong word, it looks more like one guy is getting pushed around by the others, though they aren't really managing to move him. "Fucking Zeek lover, get the hell off of Luna!">”Let’s head in for a bit, Elena.”>”...This is where you do your art, right Elena? We’ll swing inside in a little while, Nina.”>”Are they fighting over there? Give me a minute, both of you.”>Write-in.
>>55381391)>”...This is where you do your art, right Elena? We’ll swing inside in a little while, Nina.”2)>”Let’s head in for a bit, Elena.”It's really tempting to intervene, but we did say we'd stay out of trouble.
>>5538139>1. ”Let’s head in for a bit, Elena.”>2. ”...This is where you do your art, right Elena? We’ll swing inside in a little while, Nina.”
>>55381391)>”Are they fighting over there? Give me a minute, both of you.”2)>”...This is where you do your art, right Elena? We’ll swing inside in a little while, Nina.”Alright, I'll bite the bait
>>5538139>”Are they fighting over there? Give me a minute, both of you.”Gotta save our subjects.
If we fight them we'll get too beat up to go to the club.
1)>”...This is where you do your art, right Elena? We’ll swing inside in a little while, Nina.”2)>”Let’s head in for a bit, Elena.”
>>5538168I don't think we'll get beat up but we might get shanked or shot.>>5538139Contolist, do we have any weapons with us?
>>5538173No. Other than your mind and years of physical training. There's some junk near the edges of the alleyways, pieces of pallets and other trash.
>>5538139>”Are they fighting over there? Give me a minute, both of you.”JUSTICE calls
>>5538141Who did we say that to again?
>>55381391.>”...This is where you do your art, right Elena? We’ll swing inside in a little while, Nina.”2.>”Let’s head in for a bit, Elena.”If we fight them we'll get too beat up to go to the club.
>>5538168I'm agreeing with this anon by the way.
>>5538177That makes me feel a bit better about it.>>5538219It was Artesia.>>5538221I think Contolist implied that wasn't going to happen (unless something unexpected occurs or a gun gets pulled on us, I imagine).
>>5538141>>5538143 (second)>>5538146 (second)>>5538170>>5538220Art.>>5538148>>5538200Intervene.
>>5538239Writing.
>>5538139>”Are they fighting over there? Give me a minute, both of you.”
“...This is where you do your art, right Elena?” You look over the murals on the wall, a real mess of different works layers deep, the old replaced by the new just like Elena said, “We’ll swing inside in a little while, Nina.”“Abandoned. That’s what I thought.” Nina complains, though she smiles a little when she sees how Elena’s looking at you, a bit of the edge dropping from her voice, “You weren’t planning to go in at all where you?”“Not for long anyways, at least not until Max got here, didn’t want to be a third wheel - why’d you think I packed the bag?” Elena asks, shaking the backpack a bit in her hand, the spray cans inside rattling a little, “Go on, knock him out! You look great.”Nina gives her a pleading look, “But what do I even say?”“You managed to ask him to come here, figure it out! I can’t talk for you.” Elena’s practically pushing Nina back toward the end of the alley, “Go, go, come on, the longer you wait the more nervous he’ll be - that’s probably not good with a guy like him.”“Oh, alright! Fine. Have fun with your… Oh my god, are they fighting over there?” Nina gasps and comes to a halt, covering her mouth with one hand and staring down to the far end of the alley where the group of guys have broken into a small brawl.“It happens, just don’t stare and you’ll be fine.” Elena says rather nonchalantly, still guiding Nina along after the brief stop; Nina gets scurries on off, disappearing back around the corner and presumably into the club.
>>5538284You keep an eye on the developing fight in the meantime. There are four taller guys up against a short one who looks like one of his parents must have been an armored vehicle, or at least had one in their family tree somewhere; wide, immensely muscled, a cross between a particularly squat rugby player and a tank - he’s absolutely going to town on the five guys who were yelling at him a moment ago. …Just four now, actually.“Great at engineering, terrible at life. She’s been a good friend but I still don’t know how Nina functions outside of class.” Elena says bemusedly as she returns to you, “So… what do you think of the art? See that one over there, the horse that’s half covered up by the green clown? I did that last week.”You follow her gaze along the wall, squinting to make individual works in the chaos of it all, but eventually you settle on it; it’s exaggerated and a little harsher than usual, a limitation of her tools, but you can see part of the familiar image clearly enough - A horse at full gallop reflecting the cosmos across its skin, looking almost to be made of the void and stars.“It’s beautiful.” You whisper, trying to ignore the sounds of the fight in the distance.”Come on, you bastards, four to one and ye can’t even touch me! Three to one! Ahahaha!”“It’s terrible.” Elena scoffs, “...But I appreciate it.”“Going to paint something new then? I’ve never gotten to see you work.”“Absolutely… How about one of those mobile thingies you were talking about? The robots that grabbed you?”“Uh… Maybe not those.” You shake your head, “I barely even mentioned them, I just thought you’d want to know how I got back to Zeon-”“A giant robot abducted you, Max. Come on, describe it. They’re secret, right? No one will know what it is, it’ll be gone in a week anyways! I could even spray over it when it’s done. Let’s make something together, come on.””And two!... Ah, more of ye bastards? Just crawling out of holes, aren’t ye? Alright, lets go!”Hell of a fight going on over there, very distracting.>”...Alright, so it’s mostly gray, and the feet are sort of shaped like this, and they’ve got thrusters recessed in them…” Walk her through it, this should be fun.>”How about Von Braun from above the city? When we go flying we can see if it’s ‘terrible’ too. You’re too hard on yourself about your art, Elena.”>”Maybe give the horse another try? I’ve always really liked it, I had it up in my room back at Texas colony.”>Write-in.
>>55382851)>”How about Von Braun from above the city? When we go flying we can see if it’s ‘terrible’ too. You’re too hard on yourself about your art, Elena.”2)>”Maybe give the horse another try? I’ve always really liked it, I had it up in my room back at Texas colony.”3)>”...Alright, so it’s mostly gray, and the feet are sort of shaped like this, and they’ve got thrusters recessed in them…” Walk her through it, this should be fun.
>>5538285>”Maybe give the horse another try? I’ve always really liked it, I had it up in my room back at Texas colony.”
>>5538285>1).Write-in.>Excuse yourself and intervene in the fightI'm doubling down. Spacenoids stick together.>2)>”How about Von Braun from above the city? When we go flying we can see if it’s ‘terrible’ too. You’re too hard on yourself about your art, Elena.”
>>5538285>”How about Von Braun from above the city? When we go flying we can see if it’s ‘terrible’ too. You’re too hard on yourself about your art, Elena.”
>>55382851.>”How about Von Braun from above the city? When we go flying we can see if it’s ‘terrible’ too. You’re too hard on yourself about your art, Elena.”2.>”Maybe give the horse another try? I’ve always really liked it, I had it up in my room back at Texas colony.”
>>5538285Actually, fuck it. Switching >>5538291 to support >>5538289
I'm kind of concerned that the fight is going to get out of control, and get the cops called. and I don't think that the contents of Elena's backpack are entirely legal.
>>5538303Spray-paint is illegal?
>>55382851)>How about one of the service pods? I pilot them, and they work more or less like one of the mobile suits.2)>”How about Von Braun from above the city? When we go flying we can see if it’s ‘terrible’ too. You’re too hard on yourself about your art, Elena.”
>>5538309Changing to1)>Excuse yourself and intervene in the fight2)>How about one of the service pods? I pilot them, and they work more or less like one of the mobile suits.3)>”How about Von Braun from above the city? When we go flying we can see if it’s ‘terrible’ too. You’re too hard on yourself about your art, Elena.”
>>5538303Seems like it already is spiraling. And you make a good point with the spray cans, I feel like graffiti artists are probably looked down on (even if it probably isn't strictly illegal).Though the chances of the cops getting called by one of the thugs is pretty high. We could probably make a good witness and vouch for the spacenoid if we don't intervene in the fighting.
>>5538315>>5538303I don't think we're getting in trouble for tagging.>She produces a red rattle can from the backpack, a few others with colorful caps visible just inside, “...Walls outside that they don’t mind people tagging up - I don’t really go to talk or dance, it’s mostly older students and local so I don't really... fit in. I go for the art, it changes every week or so - there’s always something new.”
>>5538315>We could probably make a good witness Couldn't Elena do that?
>>5538285>”...Alright, so it’s mostly gray, and the feet are sort of shaped like this, and they’ve got thrusters recessed in them…” Walk her through it, this should be fun.
>>5538307"Tagging" something that isn't yours without explict approval, might well be.And the last thing we want is for part of our week off to be wasted running around avoiding the law or get caught and have our Identity(s) come under further scrutiny.>>5538319>Walls outside that they don’t mind people tagging up.Don't mind doesn't mean that it's a good idea to do in front of law enforcement, especially if they are already in the area for enforcement purposes, and it also assumes that the owner of the building has provided their approval, not just those who are operating out of it as the location may well be being rented or otherwise not owned by them.
>>5538319We won't, but she might. That's not to mention how this will put a spotlight on us (whether its by the cops or spies).>>5538322The difference here is that she'd be the only person that isn't involved. And one that might not be seen in the best of lights, given the spray paint.Better to have two neutral witnesses (and one that might be taken seriously) than just one.
>>5538327Except we already have approval as it's a dedicated wall for tagging in that exact same sentance.>...Walls outside that they don't mind people tagging up-Tagging itself is not a crime, vandalism is. And vandalism is determined by the affected owner.>>5538328>We won't but she might.She never has before and already informed us that this wall is specifically for it.
>>5538285>1. ”How about Von Braun from above the city? When we go flying we can see if it’s ‘terrible’ too. You’re too hard on yourself about your art, Elena.”>2. ”Maybe give the horse another try? I’ve always really liked it, I had it up in my room back at Texas colony.”>3. ”...Alright, so it’s mostly gray, and the feet are sort of shaped like this, and they’ve got thrusters recessed in them…” Walk her through it, this should be fun.I'm so fucking tired of 4chan eating my posts.
>>55383344chan is hungry and your posts are tasty
>>5538333Ah, you're probably right on that. Still I don't want to make us too conspicuous at least not yet.>>5538334It's never been that bad for me, but I feel for you.
>>5538338>SpoilerI get that. The way I'm thinking is we get a new friend. Nothing brings people closer together than a good 'ol street fight.
>>5538327>have our Identity(s) come under further scrutiny.This is what I'm fearing will happen if we get ourselves involved.I want to see if we can find information discreetly while we're here, and then use it to our advantage in the future.>>5538339That's fair. But other than wanting to do things more secretively, my view also comes from us promising our sister that we'd be cautious and not make ourselves known.Besides we can always take him with us after the fight to the hospital or someplace where he can recover.
>>5538287 >>5538292 >>5538334>>5538289 (2nd option)>>5538296 (2nd option)>>5538311 (3rd option)Von Braun >>5538288Horse>>5538323MSVon Braun wins. Writing.
“How about Von Braun from above the city?” You suggest instead, not wanting to leave something quite as obvious as a painting of a mobile suit even if Elena’s looking cute as hell asking for it, “When we go flying we can see if it’s ‘terrible’ too. You’re too hard on yourself about your art, Elena.”“Pfff, of course you think it’s good.” She rolls her eyes but can’t hide her smile, shaking her head as she kneels to sort through her backpack, pulling out a few cans, “Von Braun it is then, flyboy. You saw it on the ride in, didn’t you?”“Just part of the city, the shuttle didn’t have a good angle.” You say with a shrug, still glancing over to the fight, another trio having joined in to try to take down the short shouting spacenoid; for being as stout looking as he is he’s pretty fast, arms working like pistons, using the dumpster and some of the trash piles to keep from being surrounded. You don’t have much time to watch though, the rattling of a can bringing your attention back to Elena. “They never do, I was so disappointed when I first got here…” Elena says, shaking a can with a black cap, “Good thing I know a pilot~”“You know it. So, start with the crater edge?” You ask, accepting the can from her as she moves onto another, “Or get a canvas down first?”“Look at you, acting like you know what you’re doing. Pilot and an artist.” Elena teases, standing up, “Just stand back and watch, and… try not to judge too ear-””Agh! Zeek bastard - My arm! You broke my arm! Kill the bastard!””A pipe? Yer joking! Ahahahaha, righty then! First the arm, now the face! COME ERE!” The stout spacenoid roars in return; it doesn’t look like his opposition is used to the lower gravity of Luna, he’s nearly sending some of them flying with his punches - Even in the lower gravity it’s an impressive display of strength.”Get him!”“Could they possibly be any louder?” Elena complains with a sigh, stopping before she even starts spraying, “I can barely even think, normally it’s not this bad. What are they even fighting over?””Aaagh! Mhy fhugcking fashe! Bashtad goht mhy teef!””Kick their asses, Rix! Woo!” A tiny, almost shrill girl’s voice cheers, far too enthusiastic about the violence unfolding in the alleyways. You can’t see where her voice is coming from, maybe the far side of the brawl.>”Hey, assholes, can’t you see we’re trying to have a moment over here! Get your teeth knocked out more quietly!” >”...Give me one of the cans you’re not going to be using, I’ll deal with the noise.” >”...Federation ROTC picked on the wrong spacenoid, I think. Wish I had popcorn.”>Write-in.
>>5538408>”...Give me one of the cans you’re not going to be using, I’ll deal with the noise.”
>>5538408>>”...Give me one of the cans you’re not going to be using, I’ll deal with the noise.”Feddie spray. lmao
>>55384081)>”...Federation ROTC picked on the wrong spacenoid, I think. Wish I had popcorn.”2)>”Hey, assholes, can’t you see we’re trying to have a moment over here! Get your teeth knocked out more quietly!”
>>55384081)>”...Federation ROTC picked on the wrong spacenoid, I think. Wish I had popcorn.”>”Hey, assholes, can’t you see we’re trying to have a moment over here! Get your teeth knocked out more quietly!”2)>”Hey, assholes, can’t you see we’re trying to have a moment over here! Get your teeth knocked out more quietly!”3)>”...Federation ROTC picked on the wrong spacenoid, I think. Wish I had popcorn.”4)>”...Give me one of the cans you’re not going to be using, I’ll deal with the noise.”
>>5538408>>>”Hey, assholes, can’t you see we’re trying to have a moment over here! Get your teeth knocked out more quietly!” >>”...Give me one of the cans you’re not going to be using, I’ll deal with the noise.”
>>5538416Adding to my vote5)>”...Give me one of the cans you’re not going to be using, I’ll deal with the noise.”>”Hey, assholes, can’t you see we’re trying to have a moment over here! Get your teeth knocked out more quietly!”
>>5538408>”...Give me one of the cans you’re not going to be using, I’ll deal with the noise.”Goddammit, bite the plothook already anons!
>>5538408>>5538415Changing my vote to:1)>”...Federation ROTC picked on the wrong spacenoid, I think. Wish I had popcorn.”2)>”...Federation ROTC picked on the wrong spacenoid, I think. Wish I had popcorn.”>”Hey, assholes, can’t you see we’re trying to have a moment over here! Get your teeth knocked out more quietly!”3)>”Hey, assholes, can’t you see we’re trying to have a moment over here! Get your teeth knocked out more quietly!”
>>55384081.>”...Federation ROTC picked on the wrong spacenoid, I think. Wish I had popcorn.”2.>”Hey, assholes, can’t you see we’re trying to have a moment over here! Get your teeth knocked out more quietly!”
>>5538408>”...Federation ROTC picked on the wrong spacenoid, I think. Wish I had popcorn.”
>>5538421I would, but I've seen Contolist dangle tempting votes that will bite us in the ass somehow that carry on after updates.This fight started three posts ago, there's got to be something that will fuck with us if we join in.
>>55384081)>”Hey, assholes, can’t you see we’re trying to have a moment over here! Get your teeth knocked out more quietly!”2)>”...Federation ROTC picked on the wrong spacenoid, I think. Wish I had popcorn.”
>>5538411 >>5538414 >>5538421 Get involved.>>5538422>>5538423>>5538430>>5538416 (third option)>>5538462 (second option)Popcorn.>>5538418Yell+Get involved.Writing.
“...Federation ROTC picked on the wrong spacenoid, I think.” You comment, eyebrows raising as you see one of the feddies get his leg knocked out from under him, a stamp kick bringing his face smashing into the dirty pavement half a moment before he can finish dropping in the low gravity, “Wish I had popcorn.”“Enjoying the show?” Elena crosses her arms, can still in her left hand, “I just wish they’d shut up already, this is a street gallery not a fight club.””Bro, behind you! Feddie with a shank!” The unseen girl shouts, her voice piercing and full of exuberant violence. That’s all the warning the stout spacenoid needed apparently, turning rapidly and side stepping the awkward knife thrust, pushing the arm away with a quick strike - and forcefully enough to send the blade tumbling across the alley, flipping slowly in the low gravity as it nears the end of its flight. “Can you still work like this?” You ask Elena idly, looking at the knife on the ground just a few meters away and the fight that the lone spacenoid is somehow managing to stay in - He’s taken a couple of blows to the back, a hit from a plank, but he’s just pushing through it all; most of the feddies never land a hit, at least not a solid one. If they fought properly as a group this would probably all be over, even with the spacenoids careful awareness of his surroundings and the shouted warnings, but they’re a disorganized rabble - A truly shameful display for the federation military.“No, not with that mess. …Is that a knife? God, Max, I think they really are trying to kill him.” Elena says, annoyance drifting quickly into concern, “...Should we call the cops?””Hey! Get your grubby earth paws offa me! Fuckin’ creep!” The girl shouts, her voice a bit hoarse, a couple of the feddies having broken off to deal with her; she must be near the edge of the alley, you still can’t catch sight of her, ”Dance time then, Mr. Handsy! ”There’s a sharp cry of pain and one of the men stumbles back, grabbing at his hand; fingers aren’t supposed to bend that direction. Something small and faintly burning is flicked at him from out of sight as he hits the wall of the alley… a cigarette?“...Maybe, maybe not.” You shrug, considering the option for a moment, “Who's side do the police usually come down on around here? I think our side is winning.”“Federation, I’ve seen spats like this get broken up before… smaller ones though.” Elena answers without missing a beat, a hint of amusement in her voice, “…It is our side, isn’t it?”
>>5538526”Shit, bro, they’re draggin’ me-mmmgghjfhfh- I’ll bite your fuckin’ fingers off!” ”AAAGH! LITTLE BITCH!””Get yer hands off of Tiff!” The stout spacenoid roars, but he can’t push through the four men blocking his way, a united front finally beginning to form up after he’s run wild for the last minute or so.“Does she need help?” Elena asks, looking to you worriedly, “I think she needs help.”>”Let’s go inside and call the cops.” Snitch on your fellow spacenoids.>”...I think so. Give me a moment, Elena. This is getting out of hand.” Feddies have crossed the line.>”Let’s just go inside, it’ll sort itself out.” >Write-in.
>>5538528>”...I think so. Give me a moment, Elena. This is getting out of hand.” Feddies have crossed the line.
>>55385281)>"Wait, I know someone better to call." Phone Ramba's help.2)>”Let’s just go inside, it’ll sort itself out.” This isn't fair, Contolist!
>>5538528>>55385311)+12)>”...I think so. Give me a moment, Elena. This is getting out of hand.” Feddies have crossed the line.
>>5538528>”...I think so. Give me a moment, Elena. This is getting out of hand.” Feddies have crossed the line.>Have Elana call Ramba
>>5538528>”...I think so. Give me a moment, Elena. This is getting out of hand.” Feddies have crossed the line.VIOLENCE AGAINST THE EARTHNOIDS. PUNISH THEM FOR CRIMES OF EXISTING.
>>55385281.>”Let’s just go inside, it’ll sort itself out.”2.>"Wait, I know someone better to call." Phone Ramba's help.Christ, Contolist REALLY wants us to break our promise to Artesia and blow our cover holy shit.
>>5538528>>”Let’s just go inside, it’ll sort itself out.”
>>5538528>>”...I think so. Give me a moment, Elena. This is getting out of hand.” Feddies have crossed the line.
>>5538537Still love ya though.
I'm actually kind of surprised. A woman's being dragged off, a dude's being attacked with a knife, and anon's still want to pussy out and act like nothings happening. I will reiterate from last thread that some of you are way to risk adverse.
>>5538528>”...I think so. Give me a moment, Elena. This is getting out of hand.” Feddies have crossed the line.These dudes are indeed getting clowned but it's going a bit far
>>5538537We didn't promise Artesia anything. We told her we wouldn't go hunting around for terrorists.
>>5538528Supporting>>5538531
>>5538548How do we know that this wasn't targeted? It seems like an awfully large group of people to just be random foot traffic getting involved.
>>5538552>How do we know this wasn't targeted?>It seems to be an awfully large group of people to just be random foot trafficYeah, man, crazy. It's almost like we're standing outside a club full of people or something and witnessing the targeted assault of a spacenoid by earthnoids. Hell, I'd even go on to say that perfectly fits the MO of the mass murder talked about in the last thread.
>>5538548We didn't say we'd exclusively not hunt terrorists, we told her we'd stay safe. Going into the fray, especially now that they're more organized, is the opposite of that.>>5538552I would say you're being paranoid, but knowing the things the Zabis do it's entirely possible this is staged or some sort of trap.
>>5538555You're right, we should just knowlingly let someone get at best stabbed, and at worst gang beat to death and a girl kidnapped and/or killed.
>>5538556Would it be to much to ask that we wait for Ramba / Hamon who might be a little better equipt to handle so many people at this point is their absence at all odd, they might even be armed and be able to deescalate / wind down the situation.
>>5538556That's why I want to call Ramba and not just jump into the fray.
>>5538569>WaitYes, it is too much to ask to wait around for someone else to solve a situation when we're right here and perfectly capable of doing it.>>5538572I wanted to call Ramba AND jump into the fray. All the good in the world making the call will do if the dude gets killed.
>>5538542I'm too stubborn to change now.And this scene has been dragging for long enough, I want out.
>>5538531+1
>>5538573>to solve a situationI'm not to sure Felix would be any more useful in a Hostage situation, I have a feeling that things proceeding to this point means its going to end in tears regardless of how it resolves.
>>5538580Didn't you already vote? Make sure to link back to your original choice>>5538578Fair enough. I just really don't like passiveness.>>5538581Which is why we should have jumped in earlier to stop it from progressing to this point. Additionally, do you not remember Felix squaring off with a Zeon kill team in the first thread?
>>5538580?God pleas don't tell me...
>>5538580???????? Link your old post and what not. All these fucking newfags to the thread.
>>5538586>>5538580Oh wait, you were just changing your vote.I almost had a heart attack.
>>5538584>jumped in earlierEarlier was different and Rix had the situation well in hand, until they>Felix squaring off with a Zeon kill team in the first thread?We had a gun, others, the element of surprise, and knowledge of the layout of the area. None of which we would have here. Assuming that similar things will happen isn't such a good idea especially if these guys are part of the ROTC as they would have some level of training, even with their poor performance they will work together to win.Especially considering we probably don't want to kill anyone.
>>5538597You make a very fine point on the gun. For future reference, we need to be strapped at all times.>Assuming that similar things will happen isn't such a good idea especially if those guys are part of the ROTC as they would have some level of training.Clearly they don't otherwise they wouldn't have had to pull a knife on one guy. And as current events go, I doubt they have very strong teamwork skills as they can barely even fight one guy.>Especially considering we probably don't want to kill anyone.Who's we? I'm all for curb stomping some feddie skulls and thinning out our potential future rival pool.
>>5538597>even with their poor performance they will work together to winEven though they haven't this whole time? C'mon anon, they're feddy scumbags. They're almost as incompetent as they are cowardly. I can't believe any of you are voting to stand aside while a kid is being assaulted by grown men.
>>5538603>Who's we? I'm all for curb stomping some feddie skulls and thinning out our potential future rival pool.And this is how we get detective/police teams on us. I get wanting increase the violence against them, but we already have to deal with the Kycilia Agency and/or the terrorists.>>5538604I imagine most of the votes to stand aside are really just to get reinforcements or just to keep our word with Artesia.
>>5538619>increase violence against them>Them who are already attempting to kill someone.My man the violence escalated without us.
>>5538624That is correct. So should we do what they're doing? Aren't we better than a bunch of Feddie thugs?Besides that, I don't think you get it. The situation is skewed in their favor. Even if we win the fight, we still lose in the long run. The government/police will turn a blind eye to them, the spooks will know our face, and we'll have a criminal record here. There's the potential to have this traceable from Maxime to Felix.You made a good point in that these people might be the real terrorists, whether they were hired by the Zabis or just average Feddie soldiers is irrelevant. They'll get away with it.And if we kill them, they'll just become martyrs. You think the press will put them in a bad light?
>>5538637Are you implying killing someone in self defense is as morally reprehensible as murder?How is the situation skewed in their favor if, for one they can't even fight one guy. And two, the government or police our problem if we leave as soon as possible? We don't need to dick around and wait for the authorities, we call Ramba and scoot.Martyrs? They're assaulting an individual, and we came in to rescue them. This will endear this individual to us which IMO is far more valuable because he's reading like a secondary character. We need male friends, we have none. Dozle doesn't count.
Bros let's just call Ramba. He's a cool guy, and he'll have tips for how to not have this happen to us.
>>5538645Does this post need to be linked to count as a support?
>>5538530 >>5538534>>5538536>>5538540>>5538543>>5538532 (second option)Fight.>>5538531(second option)>>5538549 (second option)>>5538580 (second option)>>5538539Go inside.>>5538645Call Ramba.Fight! Writing. Probably won't finish until sometime tomorrow morning, not sure though.
>>5538637>If you fight your enemies, they win>Implying the cops are going to catch Felix
>>5538645He can make sure we don't look like ||a gouf||
>>5538644>Are you implying killing someone in self defense is as morally reprehensible as murder?No, but I can see why you'd think that. Killing them is playing the role of the vigilante, and probably getting ourselves mixed up in something bigger.>How is the situation skewed in their favor if, for one they can't even fight one guyThey seemed to be winning. Interesting, this looks like an allegory to Zeon vs Federation, with Zeon getting the upper hand and then getting overwhelmed by the increased numbers/resources the Feddies have. I;m not arguing that the probably can't fight well.>And two, the government or police our problem if we leave as soon as possible? We don't need to dick around and wait for the authorities, we call Ramba and scoot.If even one of them sees us (which is very likely since we don't have a Char mask or something like that) they will remember and probably tell the police to open an investigation. Unless we kill them all, which means that detectives/cops get involved.>Martyrs? They're assaulting an individual, and we came in to rescue them.Tell that to the people that favor them (which according to Elena at least involves the police).>>5538646I don't know man, I'm too tired to think and this whole situation is making me annoyed.
>>5538644>Dozle doesn't count.I take offense at this.
>>5538665Don't get me wrong, Dozles great. But Felix is currently what, 14? He needs people his own age to get along with. Our only friends include our siblings, a newtype clone who's stuck in a lab, a socially stunted mil autist, a (probably) violent psychotic pilot autist, and Garma who's... well Garma.
>>5538658Nice Discord spoiler
>>5538673Dolze nii-san
>>5538674I lurk this site 99% of the time so i forget to ctrl s to spoiler unfortunately.
>>5538663Vigilantism is unauthorized law enforcement. Defending someone about to be killed isn't vigilantism, it's a moral duty.They don't seem to be winning shit other than a pyrrhic victory and criminal charges.Again, the only people's favor I care about is the person we'd be saving.>>5538676Now you're making me think how different the quest would have been if we took the Zabi kid route.
>>5538658kek>>5538663It is definitely a play on the classic Zeon vs. Feddie numbers dilemma.>>5538673Felix is currently well into being 16. Casval is 17, Artesia is 15. Felix is Irish twins with Casval and Artesia but in different directions.
>>5538681It would be us seducing a scion of daikum and fucking his brains out to produce a heir of both bloodlines. A fit ruler for SUPER ZEON.
>>5538705The Habsburg solution to the political feud between Zabis and Deikuns.
Oh boy, I can't wait for this have unforeseen consequences in the future just like fighting for Tryphosa put her on Kycilia's sight.>>5538673>siblings*siblingArtesia has the potential to hate us now that we broke our word with her.>a socially stunted mil autistBlanche? She's more of a sexually repressed acquaintance.>a (probably) violent psychotic pilot autistIf you mean Vivima she is not our friend, and she never will be. Even if we were to abandon our family and swear complete loyalty to the Zabis, she'd probably only see us as a useful tool to make sure Gihren/Kycilia are cooperating.Garma and Tryphosa are cool.>>5538681>Vigilantism is unauthorized law enforcement. Defending someone about to be killed isn't vigilantism, it's a moral duty.You literally said you wanted to kill them for attacking a stranger. A (not literally, but basically) racially similar stranger, but a stranger nonetheless. If that isn't taking the law in our own hands then what is.>They don't seem to be winning shit other than a pyrrhic victory and criminal charges.The police is on their side, they will get away with it. We're the ones getting the (very temporary) phyrric victory. The other guy might get out of this, but we decided to step in. It would be pure irony if our intervention fucked them over in the long run. Because it will affect us badly.>Again, the only people's favor I care about is the person we'd be saving.You're not looking at the big picture. Think about the trust you broke with your little sister. We promised we'd stay safe, but instead we decided to play the hero the very night we came to this place.We're going to have a record on us for this, the cops will see to it. Our cover could be practically blown out. Again what part of the law favoring the Feddies don't you understand?Also, as a side note, do you actually want to get on good terms with the Zabis? As in, legitimately be on their side?
>>5538709>Gihren/Kycilia are cooperating.*Gihren and Kycilia are cooperating.I need to sleep soon.
>>5538702>Felix is 16Where did the time go? Weren't we supposed to start at the academy already?>>5538709>Broke our word with ArtesiaBut we didn't, we're not performing vigilantism either definitionally or in spirit. I'm convinced she'd be much angrier with us if we watched someone die instead of helping them. Also, are you the same guy who was convinced Dozle was going to seriously injure us in the fencing spar?Also, I said I want to kill them for attempting murder. Proportional defense. 'Taking law into our own hands' isn't vigilantism. Stopping a violent crime, i.e murder, isn't vigilantism. Vigilantism is outright seeking crime in an effort to perform law enforcement duties. We are as it stands witness to a crime by happenstance of which is in our power to stop. Your risk aversion and adherence to some make believe promise is going to get someone killed.
>>5538709>Do you actually want to get on good terms with the Zabis? As in, legitimately be on their side?For pure utility? Absolutely, and then I want to leverage that trust to kill them off.
>>5538721The academy begins in early June, Felix has only been with the Zabis since early January. The rest of the time disappeared in big time skips on Texas colony. There have been a lot of updates about the last couple of months, initial relationships with the Zabis are pretty important, so that might be distorting how things feel. After this Elena stuff we'll probably be getting back to chunkier timeskips.
>>5538730Ahhh, Texas was messing with my perception of time. I didn't realize how long Felix actually spent there.
>>5538656>If you fight your enemies, they winAnd in that logic we should stop lying to the Zabis and fight them openly.I just want to bide our time until we actually have the power to change things without giving us a spotlight.>Implying the cops are going to catch FelixThey won't, but the we thugs will identify us. I wanted to see if we could've even made a difference in a more subtle and permanent way, but now we'll just have a quick catharsis before things incrementally start to get worse.>>5538721I hope you're right. Now that I think about it, there's a big chance you might be. Though really we didn't actually keep it, since we said we would be safe. Not that we wouldn't look for terrorists, but that we'd be cautious and know what to look out for.>Also, are you the same guy who was convinced Dozle was going to seriously injure us in the fencing spar?Yeah, I'm that shadowrunner.>We are as it stands witness to a crime by happenstance of which is in our power to stop. Your risk aversion and adherence to some make believe promise is going to get someone killed.Yes, and the Feddies will attest to that now that we've jumped into the fray. The police will take their side, even if it's not the truth.And you're giving the Feddies too much credit. Even if would've waited for Ramba I bet things would at least be salvageable. I doubt they could've killed them, even with the advantage.Though there is a chance we can get out of being identified by the Feddies, but that would require enough luck for no one to see our face well, and us to immediately dip out without giving so much as our name or address to anyone.>>5538723Then we're on the same page, sweet.
>>5538702Then is saving them symbolic of us swooping in to help current day Zeon after watching the Federation and Zeon beat each other up for a while? That would be funny.
>>5538721>I'm convinced she'd be much angrier with us if we watched someone die instead of helping them. Always saw her as more of the type to not want to not see us get hurt instead. Maybe she'd try some other way to stop the fighting, but actually participating? She doesn't seem like the type.
>>5538702Alright Contolist, I have a controversial question. Is intervening in this vigilantism?Both in the law's view, and in Felix's view.
>>5538655I missed the vote, but I would have voted for what won.The feds kept crossing lines, first with it being 5 on 1, then the pipe, then the knife and then going after the girl that was not fighting.
>>5538950Certainly not, it fails definitionally - He's intervening to defend what he views as a victim of a crime currently in progress which he has witnessed by happenstance. He is not patrolling the streets like some sort of self-appointed cop or hunting down criminals after the fact and punishing them based on legal authority he doesn't possess. It just isn't vigilantism.The law doesn't have much to say about vigilantism itself, it isn't itself a crime and I don't believe there are any doctrines in tort to distinguish it from any other sort of foolish patterns of behavior that might cast a person in bad light. The more infamous acts vigilantes sometimes carry out are crimes (or their tort equivalents), such as assault, battery, murder, and kidnapping. What Felix is doing (about to do) might very well be a crime, but that depends heavily on the jurisdiction and its self-defense laws.
>>5539057>Certainly not, it fails definitionallyAh so I was dead wrong on that. Man I stirred up so much shit for no reason.>What Felix is doing (about to do) might very well be a crime, but that depends heavily on the jurisdiction and its self-defense laws.Huh, that's a bit worrying. Hopefully we're lucky.Anyway, thank you for responding Contolist!And if it isn't too spoilery, would Artesia see this as breaking our word? Would she approve of us intervening?
“...I think so.” You say in a low voice, placing a firm hand on Elena’s shoulder, a powerful urge to protect her, to protect anyone, gripping you as the fight transforms in your mind from an entertaining distraction to a crisis to be solved, a problem to be put down, “Give me a moment, Elena. This is getting out of hand.”Elena’s emerald eyes widen a little at your words, her breath deepening, an unthinking half step carrying her closer to your body, some subtle change wrought over her entire being, pale face flushing with color. Your heartbeat quickens to a pounding drumbeat, a surge of adrenaline and sudden arousal seizing you; she likes this.How does she see you?“Win.” She urges, pushing you forward to the fight, following along beside for a moment as your pace quickens but stopping long before you reach the chaotic brawl. …Sneaking its way up through your pounding heartbeat, nearly lost in the cacophony, a single purely rational thought slips through; Ramba probably needs to be warned. You slow and then turn back for just long enough to press the small radio into Elena’s hands.“Press this,” You instruct her, gripping her soft hands in your own as you show the controls, “Let them know what’s happening. Quietly.” “Got it!” She nods quickly, already speaking as you bolt off to the fight, “Hello? Can you hear me?”
>>5539250Down the alley the stout and heavily muscled spacenoid, Rix if the girl’s shouts earlier were anything to go by, is putting up a desperate defense as the four feddies still on their feet rain blows down on him, two of them threatening to land blows with pieces of wood grabbed from the broken pallets laying the the walls of the all. He’s being forced into a slow retreat, narrowly avoiding the worst the group can dish, striking at their forearms and hands as the move to attack, making up for his lack of reach with the most aggressive parrying you’ve ever seen, attacking into attacks; it’s violent, rapid, unrelenting - He’s good, incredibly good, but no one can fight a group like that for long, outnumbered and without a weapon. He’s already put three guys on the ground, crumpled in dazed stupors or groaning in pain and gripping at injuries near the walls.He just needs an opening. ”Wanna lose more? Pffftgh, fuckin’ bastard, you’re gonna need a hook for a hand!” The girl shouts again from beyond the alley, voice hoarse and shrill “How’re you gonna give your boyfriends a handy with a hook- mmmmghhhhhgg!”You’ll give him an opening. It might take earthnoids considerable time to adjust to the oddities of Lunar life, but the lesser gravity of the moon is nearly as natural to you as the drifting weightlessness of microgravity - A second home almost. You bolt down the alley, legs pumping as you more leap than run toward the brawl, angled aggressively low to keep from getting caught in a high bounding arc, the lower gravity an aid rather than a hindrance to your speed as explosive footfalls launch your forward. Slamming into the nearest feddie, a brown haired youth who can’t be more than a couple of years older than you, your fist crashes into his gut hard enough to send him flying off of his feet, stumbling and nearly tumbling in the low gravity, a gasping cry of pain escaping his lips as his limbs twist and he tries to reorient during his short fall. “Tiff! I’m comin’!” Rix roars off to your side.Landing that first blow did a lot to slow you down, you twist to the side just in time to duck a swing by another screaming feddie wielding one of those pallet pieces, a couple of rusted nails sticking out of its far end; bastard! You move in under the swing, dropping low and sweeping his leg, the sudden force of your kick all the more effective in the awkwardness of low gravity. As soon as he loses his footing Rix is on him, a blur of heavy muscle and short red hair, huge fists hammering away like industrial machinery.
>>5539252Sharp, focused, you note that both feddies wielding makeshift clubs have been disarmed. Three are on the ground, one getting a bill worked up for his dentist by Rix and the other two barely recovering from your sudden entry to the fight. You waste no time, leaping at the fourth feddie - the only one still standing. He slips a few punches past your guard as you reach him, fists striking your chest and shoulder; it’s less than nothing, Casval hits harder. “I’ve got these guys, go get her!” You shout to Rix, understanding flashing across his wide face as you exchange a look. He’s rough looking, scarred up, a real ugly ogre looking son of a bitch, but he’s not old - In fact he might not even be older than you .In the corner of your eye you see Rix moving again, roaring his way toward the end of the alley, slowing for a just moment to grip one of the recovering feddies by their shirt collar, slamming his head into the corner of the nearby dumpster. The feddie’s face splits, a bloody gash torn into his cheek, hands desperately covering the wound as he cries out in agony.Voiding your own opponents next strike, you try to close in on the already bruised up man but find that he’s faster than you expected, not nearly Casval's speed but quick enough to cause trouble, feet carrying him back and nearly matching your advance. He grins through bloodied teeth, one hand reaching to a sheathed knife at his belt; there’s a blurring flash of steel and it’s in your gut, a hot, sharp pain, blood welling, pumping with every beat of your heart.No. It hasn’t happened yet. You grab his arm before he even begins the motion, step to the side and twist, breaking his wrist in a single smooth motion, his every reaction know before he even begins to make them. He never gets near the blade, and soon he’s on his knees, crying in agony; you kick him to the ground, and then give him another to the head for good measure. He’s not the first man to try to kill you. He’ll live.Something hits your back and you stumble forward, mind blanking in pain. You land on the ground, bouncing off the pavement, but manage to break your fall somewhat gracefully and begin to recover at once, scurrying to your- Another blow to your back lands, but you keep your footing, rising and spinning about in place. The next blow lands against your upper arm, sending you stumbling a few steps away. You can see the feddie now, the one you punched in the gut moments ago, and he’s wielding a new piece of scrap wood - No visible nails this time though, and it’s flimsy enough that it’s already mostly splintered scrap; not a good club to begin with, rotting cheap material and awkwardly shaped for a fight.
>>5539257A metal cylinder hits him in the side of the head, a blur of neon pink and metallic gray, and he turns angrily to look down the alleyways; that’s all the opening you need, and before you even realize what you’ve done you’re slamming him into the opposite wall, a leaping tackle carrying you both across the short distance, hand grabbing at the back of his head - You give him a good knock into the wall, breaking his nose, and then another, and another - A distant part of your mind wonders if this is how Casval felt. You stop before it gets too far, leaving the young man making strange moaning gurgling noises and clutching at his bleeding face, blood gushing from his shattered nose and mouth. Old cement walls aren’t kind to faces. Standing fully, exhaling deeply and trying to block out the pounding of your heart, you glance around at the alley. Six feddies laying on the ground, tan hats scattered about here and there, jackets stained with blood, many cursing and groaning in pain, trying to stumble away from you. A lot of this was Rix’s work from before you joined in, even the ones you’ve put on the ground were already a bit roughed up. Elena’s jogging over, another spray can ready to throw, the radio held in her off hand - Not that another can would be much good other than a distraction, it couldn’t have hit all that hard.>Wave Elena back again and join Rix in finishing the fight, it isn’t quite over. In for a penny.>”I won.” Embrace with Elena, but keep an eye on these wounded feddies. A couple of them might be able to still cause trouble, they’re just in a lot of pain. A LOT of pain.>”What they hell were you thinking, you idiots?! Go! Get out of here before we kick your ass again!” Roughly ‘encourage’ the wounded feddies to scurry off, they can probably all still manage to limp away.>Write-in.
>>5539262>Wave Elena back again and join Rix in finishing the fight, it isn’t quite over. In for a penny.
>>5539262>Wave Elena back again and join Rix in finishing the fight, it isn’t quite over. In for a penny.>Felix's precog kicking in>Elena is attracted to Felix's heroismYooooooo
>>5539262>”I won.” Embrace with Elena, but keep an eye on these wounded feddies. A couple of them might be able to still cause trouble, they’re just in a lot of pain. A LOT of pain.
>>55392621)>”What they hell were you thinking, you idiots?! Go! Get out of here before we kick your ass again!” Roughly ‘encourage’ the wounded feddies to scurry off, they can probably all still manage to limp away.>Wave Elena back again and join Rix in finishing the fight, it isn’t quite over. In for a penny.2)>”What they hell were you thinking, you idiots?! Go! Get out of here before we kick your ass again!” Roughly ‘encourage’ the wounded feddies to scurry off, they can probably all still manage to limp away.3)>Wave Elena back again and join Rix in finishing the fight, it isn’t quite over. In for a penny.
>>5539280I messed up, 2 and 3 were supposed to be switched
Leaving Elena alone with a bunch of Feddies, even though they're hurt, sounds like a bad idea.
>>5539262>”What they hell were you thinking, you idiots?! Go! Get out of here before we kick your ass again!” Roughly ‘encourage’ the wounded feddies to scurry off, they can probably all still manage to limp away.
>>5539290My understanding is that>Wave Elana back againImplies us telling her to get away from the fight. We wouldn't be waiving her back again to come sit with the feddies because she's on her way over for the first time after throwing the can.
>>5539295So we're telling her to get out of danger? But having her fight with us would be a good way to see each other's styles (and could make her awaken her powers too), and the Feddies might get back up again if we just leave them.
>>5539300>So we're telling her to get out of danger?I think so, yeah. I'm personally fine with her staying and helping, I just want to help Rix finish the fight.
>>55392621.>”I won.” Embrace with Elena, but keep an eye on these wounded feddies. A couple of them might be able to still cause trouble, they’re just in a lot of pain. A LOT of pain.>”What they hell were you thinking, you idiots?! Go! Get out of here before we kick your ass again!” Roughly ‘encourage’ the wounded feddies to scurry off, they can probably all still manage to limp away.2.>”I won.” Embrace with Elena, but keep an eye on these wounded feddies. A couple of them might be able to still cause trouble, they’re just in a lot of pain. A LOT of pain.
>>5539295>Implies us telling her to get away from the fight.I was seeing getting that from the post too. Feels like it would be a bit disappointing for her to keep her out of the action.>>5539300>the Feddies might get back up again if we just leave them.Federation soldiers have a bad habit of not staying down even when outclassed, if I'm remembering the show right.
>>5539308Given her reaction to us jumping in, yeah I can agree. I'm interested in how she handles herself in a fight.
>>5539309Maybe se could start a training regimen for her while we're here? I'm sure there's a gym somewhere in the city.
>>5539309She said she taught herself self-defense, so she's average at least.>>55392621)>”I won.” Embrace with Elena, but keep an eye on these wounded feddies. A couple of them might be able to still cause trouble, they’re just in a lot of pain. A LOT of pain.2)>”I won.” Embrace with Elena, but keep an eye on these wounded feddies. A couple of them might be able to still cause trouble, they’re just in a lot of pain. A LOT of pain.>”What they hell were you thinking, you idiots?! Go! Get out of here before we kick your ass again!” Roughly ‘encourage’ the wounded feddies to scurry off, they can probably all still manage to limp away.Probably better this way
>>5539323>se *we
>55392621>”What they hell were you thinking, you idiots?! Go! Get out of here before we kick your ass again!” Roughly ‘encourage’ the wounded feddies to scurry off, they can probably all still manage to limp away.2)>”I won.” Embrace with Elena, but keep an eye on these wounded feddies. A couple of them might be able to still cause trouble, they’re just in a lot of pain. A LOT of pain.>”What they hell were you thinking, you idiots?! Go! Get out of here before we kick your ass again!” Roughly ‘encourage’ the wounded feddies to scurry off, they can probably all still manage to limp away.3)”I won.” Embrace with Elena, but keep an eye on these wounded feddies. A couple of them might be able to still cause trouble, they’re just in a lot of pain. A LOT of pain.I'm so fucking tired rn sorry
>>5539262>>5539278Changing my vote to:1)>”I won.” Embrace with Elena, but keep an eye on these wounded feddies. A couple of them might be able to still cause trouble, they’re just in a lot of pain. A LOT of pain.>”What they hell were you thinking, you idiots?! Go! Get out of here before we kick your ass again!” Roughly ‘encourage’ the wounded feddies to scurry off, they can probably all still manage to limp away.2)>”I won.” Embrace with Elena, but keep an eye on these wounded feddies. A couple of them might be able to still cause trouble, they’re just in a lot of pain. A LOT of pain.3)>”I won.” Embrace with Elena, but keep an eye on these wounded feddies. A couple of them might be able to still cause trouble, they’re just in a lot of pain. A LOT of pain.>”What they hell were you thinking, you idiots?! Go! Get out of here before we kick your ass again!” Roughly ‘encourage’ the wounded feddies to scurry off, they can probably all still manage to limp away.>Wave Elena back again and join Rix in finishing the fight, it isn’t quite over. In for a penny.
Ah didn't realize the voting ended, my bad.
>>5539529Sorry, >>5539282 should actually have gone to finishing the fight, mislabeled it when counting votes.The actual results are:>>5539265>>5539268>>5539350>>5539282 (2nd option)Finish the fight.>>5539532>>5539279>>5539333>>5539302 (2nd option)Embrace.We have a tie. I'll give it an hour.>>5539542Didn't alter the result any.
>>5539548Ah, Contolist. I think you forgot >>5539382
>>5539552I don't blame you for missing it, he should've quoted and replied properly.And I'll just change my vote back to simply>EmbraceJust to move things along if that even makes a difference now.
>>5539552So I did, god dammit. The link being messed up must have caused me to just glaze over it or something.Never mind, embrace wins. Writing.
>>5539552He did, and only that one.
“I won.” The words barely leave your lips before Elena is tight in your arms, nearly jumping forward to embrace you, resulting in a small almost dance-like half spin as you hold onto her and turn in place to work off the excess momentum, her feet settling lightly on the ground opposite the side she ran from. She lets out a bubbling, rich laugh, thrilled at being moved, at being held, the radio slipping away into her jacket pocket, spray can clinking against the ground.“You did!” She presses her forehead gently against yours, breath shallow and excited, her hands moving tantalizingly across your back, gripping at the muscle beneath your jacket and shirt. The scent of sweet cinnamon hangs enticingly about her as she meets your eyes, a pair of adoring emeralds right there in front of you, noses practically touching, her lips so very, very close. The pure thrill of the moment carries her forward that last achingly small distance; she kisses you, soft lips locking against yours, her eyes closing as your grip instinctively tightens, pulling her closer - she melts against you, soft femininity demanding the whole of your being, a slender leg slipping around your own, as you hold her there. You’re harder than you’ve ever been in your life; a part of you screams to take this further.Slowly Elena pulls back, a beautiful smile of her own to match the grin spread across your face, her cheeks burning red, reverting to speaking in hurried Spanish, “I… uh… I really… m-my god, I loved that, you were… they way you move, Max, I…”“I can tell.” You laugh, exhilarated beyond belief, fighting that urge to continue, to press her lips against yours once more, to slip her of that jacket, her shirt, everything; not here though, not a dirty bloodstained alley, even if it excites her so terribly… your eyes drift to your car at the far end, focusing upon it. No, no, you push through the haze. There is still danger. Wounded men still lie about, groaning in pain, the sounds of fighting coming from around the corner leading to where Rix ran off to aid Tiff. None of the men around you look like they’re in any condition to fight, though one is watching your embrace with Elena, his bloodied face filled with hatred - His forearm is bet the wrong way though, just a hair, so you doubt he’ll be causing any trouble.”Lick the fuckin’ concrete, perv! Ahahaha!” You hear the girl’s hoarse command and cackle from around the corner, cutting over the groans of pain, the sound of fighting having died down, “Good boy, stay down! Bro, Rix my man, you took all of em’? Woah, fuckin’ burner!”“Cannae say ‘twas all me, Tiff. Hell o’ a fight though!” >Kiss Elena again, fuck that’s good; make it yours this time.>”We should check on who we helped, come on.”>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”>Write-in.
>>5539646"his forearm is bent the wrong way" rather.
>>55396461)>”We should check on who we helped, come on.”>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”2)>”We should check on who we helped, come on.”
>>55396461)>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”>Write-in.>Leave before anything else happens, make sure nothing unexpected will come out of the Feddies.2)>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”3)>Kiss Elena again, fuck that’s good; make it yours this time.>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”
>>5539646>”We should check on who we helped, come on.”
>>5539658+1
>>5539646>>5539658Changing my vote to1)>Write-in.>Leave before anything else happens, make sure nothing unexpected will come out of the Feddies.2)>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”>Write-in.>Leave before anything else happens, make sure nothing unexpected will come out of the Feddies.3)>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”4)>Kiss Elena again, fuck that’s good; make it yours this time.>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”5)>Kiss Elena again, fuck that’s good; make it yours this time.
>>55396461.>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”2.>Write-in.>Leave before anything else happens, make sure nothing unexpected will come out of the Feddies.3.>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”>Write-in.>Leave before anything else happens, make sure nothing unexpected will come out of the Feddies.The fight was cool and all, but I hate how this whole situation went.I'm just sick of this, supporting it in this way just to end this whole thing.
I guess QM will have to wait until we are at the academy to introduce us to the two characters.
>>5539705I'm confused. What do you find distasteful of the situation? That we stepped in an evened the fight or that we got involved at all?
>>5539646>1)”We should check on who we helped, come on.”>2)”We should check on who we helped, come on.”And>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”
>>5539646>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”>”We should check on who we helped, come on.”
>>5539712...That would honestly be a nice surprise, and might be more powerful than meeting them here.>>5539717I can't speak for him, but I think it's part of the whole ordeal with how things might be worse in the future.Just the whole thing with promises that may or may not be broken, and possibly being hunted down by the Feddies for the rest of the week.Probably nothing against actually saving them.Or maybe it's just people getting tired by all the arguments and stuff, I don't really know man.
>>55396461)>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”>Write-in.>Leave before anything else happens, make sure nothing unexpected will come out of the Feddies.2)>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”Going with version of votes.
>>5539646>”We should check on who we helped, come on.”>Leave before the Feddie cops come.BE GONE FIRST WHORE.
>>5539652>>5539659>>5539729>>5539745>>5539780Check on them.>>5539731Check + message.>>5539661 >>5539742 >>5539778 >>5539669 (2nd) >>5539705 (3rd)Message + leave.Looks like a tie, unless I've managed to miss a vote again somewhere. I'll give it an hour. Hope everyone else is having a good Friday night too.
>>5539823>”...Did you get a message out, Elena?”>Write-in.>Leave before anything else happens, make sure nothing unexpected will come out of the FeddiesI'll go with simply this then.
>>5539823 >>5539646I'll change >>5539731 to Message + leave.
>>5539824Is this a vote change? Could you link to your previous post?
>>5539825>>5539824>>5539661>>5539742>>5539778>>5539669 (2nd)>>5539705 (3rd)Message + leave.Writing.
“...Did you get a message out, Elena?” You ask, speaking low as you struggle to calm your breathing and properly take stock of the situation. It’s hard to look at anything but Elena, she’s more than enough to fill your entire mind, but you push past that throbbing ache for now.“Uhm… Y-yes, here, they said to put you on…” She stumbles with her words, reaching into her jacket pocket and drawing out the small radio, shifting her position a little to stand between the prying eyes of the wounded feddies and the small device. You take the little black box and hurry Elena along back toward the end of the alley where the car waits, the harsh white of the makeshift spotlights overhead casting deep shadows as you both get away from the blood and grime.Once you’re clear you take the radio and transmit, “Ramba?””Felix, finally! The girl said there was a fight, what did you get yourself into?” Ramba voice crackles over the small speaker, and you lower the volume a little - There’s no one in earshot other than Elena, but it never hurts to be cautious.“Uh, it was a street fight, near the club I said we’d be going to. A group of federation soldiers, well, actually I think they’re students, one of those officer programs - they were messing with a guy, called him a Zeek lover, things escalated fast. When they started to lose they tried to kill him and grab a girl he was with, so I intervened.”“...Damned fool, could have gotten yourself killed. Get out of the area, keep us informed. …Did you win?” Ramba questions, his initial scolding fading quickly into a fighter's curiosity.“Yes, I did.” You smile proudly as you give the news, Elena squeezing your arm even as she’s keeping watch to make sure no one walks up on you from the nearby sidewalk along the street.“How do the feddies look?”“Worse. Broken bones, some gashes; nobody’s dead thankfully.” You can hear some sounds of movement on the other side of the radio, scuffing and what might be a door. A woman’s voice asks something, Hamon, too quiet to be picked up clearly.“The boy won. Saved a couple of people.” Ramba tells her, and you can hear what you think might have been congratulations from Hamon, but Ramba soon turns back to business, “Did they get a good look at your face?”
>>5539898“At least one did. They’ve seen the car too.” You inform him, wishing the fight could have happened just around the corner or something, thoughts already flooding with what kind of problems this might cause.“Car’s black and a common make and model, that’ll be fine. We’ll swap the plate.” Ramba says, voice coming through a little more garbled for a moment, and you feel a rush of relief, “Any of the other guys run off?”“I don’t think so. They’re all on the ground.”Ramba chuckles, “Good, you’ve got more time then. Get going.” “Right, we’re moving! Sorry about the mess, Ramba.”There's a delay before his response comes through, “...Probably would have done the same thing if it was me. Your girl alright?”“I’m fine! It was amazing! He took out three of them, and I hit one with a can!” Elena says excitedly, reaching over to press to transmit, and you can hear more of Ramba's laughter from the other end. Hamon says something again which frustratingly still just isn’t clear enough.“Sounds like a good girl you’ve got there, Felix. Let us know when you’re clear of the scene. Ramba out.” As the conversation ends you slip the radio back into your pocket and quickly unlock the car, you and Elena getting in quickly; a bit of awkward backing out of the alleyway and hasty checking of mirrors and you’re out on the street. Just before you pull out of sight of the alleyway entirely you catch sight of two silhouettes at the far end, Rix and a short girl who is probably that foul-mouthed Tiff you kept hearing shout, she’s waving at your car but you don’t linger to get a better look. The drive away from the club is easy, slow, and you slip quickly into traffic on this level of Von Braun. It’s strange to look up and see natural rock instead of the sky, or space, or even the distant landscape of a colony’s interior. “...Nina’s going to be so angry we just left.” Elena says with a sigh, looking out the window at the traffic around you, her buzz of excitement seeming to have mostly left her, “I wish we could have painted something, but… that, god, Max, that was amazing, and… and the kiss… I…”Okay, so maybe she’s still a bit hot and bothered, but truth be told so are you. Police sirens whine past, flashing red and blue on the opposite side of the road, a single car heading off toward where you came from - Maybe it’s for the club, maybe not, but it definitely isn’t after you. >”...It was my first. You?” Smile like an idiot. [Skip to meeting with Ramba and Hamon]>”I’m sure we can come up with some excuse Nina will buy, I do feel a bit bad about it though. Hopefully she’ll have a good time on her own.” >“…Want to just stop and tag up a different building? Some of those are up for rent, see the signs? If we’re quick it should be fine, nobody’s home.” Spray up the back of a disused strip mall.>Write-in.
>>5539899>”...It was my first. You?” Smile like an idiot. [Skip to meeting with Ramba and Hamon]
>>5539899All of the options involve still telling Ramba and Hamon that you're clear, I just forgot to slip that in. No need to add it with write-ins or anything unless you have something really specific in mind.
>>5539899>“…Want to just stop and tag up a different building? Some of those are up for rent, see the signs? If we’re quick it should be fine, nobody’s home.” Spray up the back of a disused strip mall.
>>5539899>”...It was my first. You?” Smile like an idiot. [Skip to meeting with Ramba and Hamon]The only thing I feel like mentioning is that since names may have been overheard, and the thrown spray paint can / her painting style may an identifiable trait and so we aren't completely clear of later reprisal especially if Elena frequents the surrounding area, or Forensics / law enforcement gets involved and start cracking down on street artists and others get coerced, once we leave things could very well get out of hand since I doubt they are going to take such a drubbing lying down.
>>5539899>”I’m sure we can come up with some excuse Nina will buy, I do feel a bit bad about it though. Hopefully she’ll have a good time on her own.”
>>55398991)>>”I’m sure we can come up with some excuse Nina will buy, I do feel a bit bad about it though. Hopefully she’ll have a good time on her own.”2)>”...It was my first. You?” Smile like an idiot. [Skip to meeting with Ramba and Hamon]
>>5539899>>”...It was my first. You?” Smile like an idiot. [Skip to meeting with Ramba and Hamon]
>>5539930In that case we'll just have to warn her not to come by the area anymore and be more secretive in general.
>>5539900>>5539930>>5540038>>5540047>>5540110>>5540013 (2nd)Writing.
“...It was my first. You?” You ask, smiling like an idiot as you glance over to Elena. She nods coyly, a little smirk spreading slowly into a dimpled grin, and you have to resist the urge to laugh, the feeling just welling up from within you - You’re happy. It’s a rare feeling these days.“I… I was going to wait until you took me flying, but…” She starts to say, changing her mind mid way through, “You’re going to love it, I just know it.”“Back to that surprise of yours again?” You eye her, still positively beaming, “Alright then, keep your secrets.”“Had a lot of practice doing that.” She teases, a hint of pride in her voice.“...Yeah. I guess you have.” You don’t quite wince, but that does take you out of the moment a little. It’s good that she’s as switched on as she is, aware of the risks of and making real effort to not just survive but actually be of help, but she shouldn’t have to be. Damned Zabis.Fifteen minutes later.You pull into the empty parking garage, making your way down to the third level, the entire structure wedged between two of the vast layers of Von Braun, reaching down into the start of the industrial levels nearer to the bottom. Headlights sweep across another dark car in the dimly lit building, a pair of silhouettes caught in the light, a man and woman; Ramba and Hamon. Parking near their car you get out, giving Ramba a nod and then looking over the surrounding area - You’re alone here.Ramba’s wearing a well fitted suit, Hamon’s in a purple and rather attention grabbing tight dress, and it’s pretty obvious that they were both about to go enjoy a night out“It’s clear, we made sure of it.” Ramba speaks at a normal volume, his gravelly voice traveling easily, his face set and determined, “Get over here, Felix.““...Yes, sir.” You answer a bit quietly, but you don’t avoid his gaze; he’s not quite angry, but he certainly isn’t happy. You motion with one hand to Elena as she steps out of her side of the car, curious and nervous in equal measure, “This is Elena. Elena, this is Ramba and Hamon.”“It’s nice to meet both of you.” Elena says politely, “You’re his guards? He said you were old family friends.”
>>5540404“I’ve known his mother since we were girls.” Hamon answers, moving to the trunk of their car and opening it, “How much has Felix told you?”“A lot. Not everything though.” Elena answers honestly, “There hasn’t been time.” “Not enough time?” Hamon considers the words for a moment before smirking, “Well, if you’re going to know everything then I hope you won’t mind being an accomplice. I can’t work in this dress.”“Accomplice?” Elena asks curiously, moving to the open trunk and looking inside, “Oh, I see. I can do that.”“Hamon, the first aid kit.” Ramba requests, and a moment later she leans over past the trunk and throws him a small white and red bag which he deftly catches, “Alright, let me see those knuckles.”“Not going to reprimand me?” You ask, letting him look at the small splits, spots of dried blood caked around them. It’s really not that bad, the little knicks are small, the dull painful ache of the bruises on your upper arm and back hurting far worse, tight knots of pain that are more than ready to remind you of their presence whenever you move. “Stumbled across the fight by chance?” He asks, looking you in the eye; you nod, and that seems to satisfy him, “Then no, not if they were going to kill a man. Less bloodied than I thought you’d be, not bad, not bad.”Hamon and Elena are chatting pleasantly, moving to your car with a small tool bag and a set of metal plates in hand; the replacement license plates for the car.“Been in a lot of fights?” You question while Ramba dabs at your hands a bit with an ointment covered bit of cloth, the medical kit opened up on the roof of the car. “Hah, you could say that. Hands aren’t nearly bad enough to need a real bandage, you’re lucky. Get them under ice when you can, and take…” He pulls a small bottle of pills from the kit, “A couple of these. They’ll be sore for a while but it’s not bad. Take any other hits?” “Plank of wood to the arm and back.” You answer, and he lets out an impressed whistle.“Anything feel broken?” Ramba questions.“No, bad bruises is all. Not my first time with that.” You down the pair of pills he gave you, “Nothing next to getting shot.”He nods slowly, “...I suppose not. It’s a damn shame you kids are caught up in this at all. Always has been.”“I’m not much of a kid anymore, Ramba.” You say with a sigh, not challenging his point but rather acknowledging the truth of it, “Academy starts soon, and that’ll be the end of things.”“Enjoy the time you’ve still got, you can afford to be a bit young and stupid sometimes.” He says in a low voice, finishing treating your hands and quickly putting the contents of the medical kit away, “Try not to get into any more fights if you can help it… At least not without me there. Use your judgment.”
>>5540406“Right. Thanks, Ramba.” You grin, it’s good to have him watching out for you, but then he pats you firmly on the shoulder and you can’t help but wince a bit. Might not have broken anything but that bruise hurts.You turn your attention back to Elena and Hamon, the two of them look to have made short work of changing the plates, already done with both. Elena’s head pops up from behind the back of the car, one hand extended up with the old plate, and Hamon takes it away back to the open trunk of her and Ramba’s car. “She's a good one, Felix.” Hamon smirks, glancing between you and Elena, “...Ramba, are we done here? The show starts in half an hour.”“He’s as patched up as he’s going to get.” Ramba answers her, tossing the medical kit back into the trunk, “Felix, planning anything else we should know about?”>”I was thinking we’d take things a little slower. Go enjoy your show, I’ll make sure we don’t need to drag you out of it… probably.” [Skip to the next day]>”...We’ll be taking things a lot easier… probably for a few days. Go have your fun.” [Skip to the surprise in two days]>”...I think we’ll be fine. Elena, want to go back to my place?”>Write-in. (Discuss something briefly?)There will be a vote to cover what happens during skips, but it’ll be a summary.
>>5540410>1)”...I think we’ll be fine. Elena, want to go back to my place?”This is a good option for whatever else we'd want to tell her.>2)>”...We’ll be taking things a lot easier… probably for a few days. Go have your fun.” [Skip to the surprise in two days]
>>55404101)>”...We’ll be taking things a lot easier… probably for a few days. Go have your fun.” [Skip to the surprise in two days]2)>”I was thinking we’d take things a little slower. Go enjoy your show, I’ll make sure we don’t need to drag you out of it… probably.” [Skip to the next day]Keeping it on the low side could help us make sure this whole ordeal with the Feddies blows over.
>>5540410>”...We’ll be taking things a lot easier… probably for a few days. Go have your fun.” [Skip to the surprise in two days]
>>5540410>>”...We’ll be taking things a lot easier… probably for a few days. Go have your fun.” [Skip to the surprise in two days]
>>5540410>”I was thinking we’d take things a little slower. Go enjoy your show, I’ll make sure we don’t need to drag you out of it… probably.” [Skip to the next day]2>”...I think we’ll be fine. Elena, want to go back to my place?”
>>55404101)>”...I think we’ll be fine. Elena, want to go back to my place?”I just want to hang out. I feel like I have to clarify because these votes always turn into flirting. Although Elena is best girl2)>>”...We’ll be taking things a lot easier… probably for a few days. Go have your fun.” [Skip to the surprise in two days]
>>5540429I feel like it'll be too tempting to just hold-hands with her for everyone here instead of doing anything productive.>spoilerShe's turning out to be that.
>>5540410>>”...I think we’ll be fine. Elena, want to go back to my place?”
>>5540410>>55404101.>”I was thinking we’d take things a little slower. Go enjoy your show, I’ll make sure we don’t need to drag you out of it… probably.” [Skip to the next day]2.>”...We’ll be taking things a lot easier… probably for a few days. Go have your fun.” [Skip to the surprise in two days]Even if it's for one or two days it should be alright.
>>55404101)>”...We’ll be taking things a lot easier… probably for a few days. Go have your fun.” [Skip to the surprise in two days]2)>”I was thinking we’d take things a little slower. Go enjoy your show, I’ll make sure we don’t need to drag you out of it… probably.” [Skip to the next day]Feels like this is better for now.
>>5540410>1)”I was thinking we’d take things a little slower. Go enjoy your show, I’ll make sure we don’t need to drag you out of it… probably.” [Skip to the next day]>2)”...We’ll be taking things a lot easier… probably for a few days. Go have your fun.” [Skip to the surprise in two days]
>>5540416 >>5540420>>5540421>>5540483 >>5540415 (2nd)>>5540429 (2nd)>>5540488 (2nd)Writing.
Sorry about the delay for the summary votes, got caught up doing some stuff. Please pick one option from each. We'll be on to the surprise after this.“...We’ll be taking things a lot easier… probably for a few days.” You reply, crossing your arms as you look from Ramba to Hamon, “Go have your fun.”The rest of the night passes by…>Relaxingly. You just hung out together back at Elena’s apartment and then went to one of the restaurants nearby to talk, looking to all the world like just a couple of happy students.>Excitingly. You went back to Elena’s apartment and she wanted to see the bruises from the fight, and then your old scars, and you ended up pretty distracted for a while until Nina showed later in the night. Her date went alright, but she was miffed that you both ditched her. Nothing past second base.And the next day was spent…>Seeing the sights around Von Braun with Elena, making some nice memories and just having a good time together.>Attempting to help Elena and Nina with their project. Robots are neat! You’re not an engineer, but you’re very well educated and sharp witted enough to bring some of your practical experience with spacecraft mechanics to bear.>Talking. There was so much talking; you spent most of it shut away in your apartment discussing much of what has happened over the last few years, things that can’t be sent by letter. Plots, plans, some big base under construction for years in Brazil called Jaburo… Lots of things.
>>5540561>Excitingly. You went back to Elena’s apartment and she wanted to see the bruises from the fight, and then your old scars, and you ended up pretty distracted for a while until Nina showed later in the night. Her date went alright, but she was miffed that you both ditched her.>Talking. There was so much talking; you spent most of it shut away in your apartment discussing much of what has happened over the last few years, things that can’t be sent by letter. Plots, plans, some big base under construction for years in Brazil called Jaburo… Lots of things.The Jaburo thing will help us during the OYW. We don't need to destroy it, at least not until after we set up NeoZeon.
>>5540561First vote:>Relaxingly. You just hung out together back at Elena’s apartment and then went to one of the restaurants nearby to talk, looking to all the world like just a couple of happy students.This is mostly not to make Nina too annoyed with Elena, them being good friends could prove to be best.Second vote:1)>Talking. There was so much talking; you spent most of it shut away in your apartment discussing much of what has happened over the last few years, things that can’t be sent by letter. Plots, plans, some big base under construction for years in Brazil called Jaburo… Lots of things.2)>Attempting to help Elena and Nina with their project. Robots are neat! You’re not an engineer, but you’re very well educated and sharp witted enough to bring some of your practical experience with spacecraft mechanics to bear.
>>5540561>Excitingly. You went back to Elena’s apartment and she wanted to see the bruises from the fight, and then your old scars, and you ended up pretty distracted for a while until Nina showed later in the night. Her date went alright, but she was miffed that you both ditched her.>Talking. There was so much talking; you spent most of it shut away in your apartment discussing much of what has happened over the last few years, things that can’t be sent by letter. Plots, plans, some big base under construction for years in Brazil called Jaburo… Lots of things
>>5540561>>Relaxingly. You just hung out together back at Elena’s apartment and then went to one of the restaurants nearby to talk, looking to all the world like just a couple of happy students.>Talking. There was so much talking; you spent most of it shut away in your apartment discussing much of what has happened over the last few years, things that can’t be sent by letter. Plots, plans, some big base under construction for years in Brazil called Jaburo… Lots of things.
>>5540561>Relaxingly. You just hung out together back at Elena’s apartment and then went to one of the restaurants nearby to talk, looking to all the world like just a couple of happy students.>Talking. There was so much talking; you spent most of it shut away in your apartment discussing much of what has happened over the last few years, things that can’t be sent by letter. Plots, plans, some big base under construction for years in Brazil called Jaburo… Lots of things.
>>5540577Just to be clear: Nina is annoyed either way. She was still ditched, she just interrupts Felix and Elena when she arrives back at the apartment in the exciting option.
>>5540607Thanks for telling me Contolist. In that case I'll change my first vote >>5540577>>5540561>Excitingly. You went back to Elena’s apartment and she wanted to see the bruises from the fight, and then your old scars, and you ended up pretty distracted for a while until Nina showed later in the night. Her date went alright, but she was miffed that you both ditched her.I might not care that much for the romance, but I don't want us to be seen publicly so soon after the fight.
>>5540561>Relaxingly. You just hung out together back at Elena’s apartment and then went to one of the restaurants nearby to talk, looking to all the world like just a couple of happy students.>Attempting to help Elena and Nina with their project. Robots are neat! You’re not an engineer, but you’re very well educated and sharp witted enough to bring some of your practical experience with spacecraft mechanics to bear.Could the crazy lady in the Zabi's had set that fight up?
>>5540649>Could the crazy lady in the Zabi's had set that fight up?Kycilia? It's possible.My reasoning is that it might've been a ploy to make us 'break' our promise to Artesia about staying safe or just outright kill us, though even saying this sounds like a stretch but this is the Zabis we're talking about, there's always a possibility they're doing this sort of thing.Well she might at least know we got into a street fight here, her spies knew about our fight in Texas.
>>5540671Anon, calm down your shadowrunning. Remember what happened to Mink?
>>5540680You're right. It's probably just the Feddies being Feddies.And Felix's would've probably noticed with his perception if someone was watching.
>>5540682>>5540680>This is what Kycilia wants you to think
>>5540561>>Relaxingly. You just hung out together back at Elena’s apartment and then went to one of the restaurants nearby to talk, looking to all the world like just a couple of happy students.>>Attempting to help Elena and Nina with their project. Robots are neat! You’re not an engineer, but you’re very well educated and sharp witted enough to bring some of your practical experience with spacecraft mechanics to bear.
>>5540687Well it'll be revealed in due time either way, through Artesia's worry/anger (if it's the theory of telling her) or Kycilia's arrogance. If neither of those things happen some time after we return, we're probably in the clear.
Vote One:>>5540574>>5540578>>5540617Excitingly.>>5540579>>5540580>>5540599>>5540649>>5540701Relaxingly.Vote Two:>>5540574>>5540577>>5540578>>5540579>>5540580>>5540599Talking.>>5540649>>5540701Project.Relaxing wins, talking wins. Writing. Got caught up on a long phone call, didn't mean for this to be quite this long for just a vote.>>5540701>pickek
…Parting ways with Ramba and Hamon, allowing them to return to what was clearly a night out on Von Braun, you drive off into the electric night of the city; it’s a peaceful drive, back up toward the university a level up, far away from any suspicion of involvement in the fight below. Retiring to Elena’s apartment for a time you spent an hour or so talking, reminiscing on old times and events which have occurred since your separation, things too large or small to discuss by letter. It’s pleasant, a truly relaxing experience after the blood pumping alleyways fight, and at Elena’s suggestion the two of you go out for food nearby, a little hole in the wall Asian restaurant that students frequent but tourists often miss entirely; it’s fantastic, and you sit outside chatting away much of the night, kissing again but only briefly. Before parting ways you invite Elena come over to your apartment tomorrow, intending to discuss all manner of things…The next morning comes quickly. There’s a knock at the door, and you find Elena dressed in darker clothes, a bag slung over one shoulder and her braided ponytail over the other, a beautiful dimpled smile greeting you more warmly than any words ever could.“Morning, Felix.” She says, trying out your real name, almost teasing with it, “...I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to calling you anything but Max.”“I don’t mind it all, I did pick the name.” You answer, giving her a brief hug and motioning her into the overly modern apartment’s stylish interior, “What’s in the bag?”“Insurance.” She answers cryptically, almost in a whisper, dropping the bag down on the glass kitchen table and unzipping it, pulling out a strange pistol-gripped device with a small trigger and bulky screen attached to it.
>>5540828“Your microscanner?” You whisper, used to seeing sleeker versions of similar devices in spacecraft hangars, “Good thinking.”“Could you get me something to drink?” She asks a little too loudly, “I’m so thirsty after that walk.”You have to stifle a laugh, she’s hamming that up on purpose - Not enough for a stranger to notice though. You get her the glass as requested while she sets about going over the appliances and furniture in the kitchen, working quickly and silently. She really must have practiced this a lot. No bugs here. She moves on to the living room, stops at one of the chairs and then again at a lamp, making quick notes about both on a small yellow pad she brought with her, and then moves onto the adjoining spaces; all the while she talks about how impressive the apartment is and other inane topics. Soon the check is complete, only a handful of bugs across the room. Unfortunately there’s no need for her plan to short them out with water, if they even could be, and you both settle on quietly moving the offending furniture into the bedroom’s adjoining bathroom and shutting the door, announcing that you’d be going out soon before doing so. None of them are transmitting, they just seem to be recording devices, so the ruse should work just fine. She double, and then triple checks the living room. It’s clean.Settling in among the remaining unbugged furniture, music playing over the living room’s sound system to mask your conversation even if it might be picked up through the walls, you begin to talk. And what a talk it is! The day is eaten up by it, minutes turning easily into hours, every topic imaginable covered. You tell her everything. Everything. About your siblings, about your mother, your time learning to fly, what it’s like to be a newtype and the close friendship you’ve formed with Artesia through it, your plan hatched with Casval to eventually betray the Zabis (though here you do still talk in some code on this), and so many more things. Elena’s secret preparations aren’t too much more extensive than what she told you last night, though you do hear of them in much greater detail, and much of her own life was able to be discussed by letter so there’s far less time spent on it barring a single topic - Her time in Brazil.
>>5540833“...We lived at a small federation base near this massive construction site, they were building something absolutely huge underground.” Elena explains, sitting legs crossed alongside you, leaning close against your shoulder and sipping at a glass of wine, “There was a section already operational, that’s where mom went to those awful meetings. The missile defense ones.”“I remember that, I was actually pretty surprised you sent anything about them at all… I know it was a really bad time.” You comment, thinking back to the letters you received on Texas colony and the distressing news of her mother’s slow and stress filled spiral into despair and eventual marital disaster.“I knew a lot more than I put in the letters. Mom told me about things, she’d get drunk sometimes and she came in crying… and…” Elena presses against you a little more, and you tighten your arm around her just a bit, “...And she told me about what they were doing. All of it.”“All of it?”“Well, as much as she could get out. It wasn’t much of a secret that all the digging and construction were for a big base, but it’s not just big… it’s… Max, I’m not sure how to get the scale across, but it goes through a bunch of caves beneath the Amazon… miles and miles and miles of them, factories and barracks and missile silos, everything they need. The whole federation military is going to be run from it eventually.”Your eyebrows raise in astonishment - that’s quite a scale to work with but not totally unheard of. Colonies are rather gargantuan projects themselves and many hundreds of those exist, but building something in orbit and tunneling in secret beneath a massive rainforest are pretty different engineering challenges, “What’s that have to do with missile defense?”
>>5540835“It’s to stop nukes.” She says grimly, “It would… it would take a lot to get through all the rock and concrete and steel, it goes deep and they were reinforcing everything, or… that’s what she claimed anyways. Missile defenses too, to intercept bombs before they got there. They… they’re convinced that if a big war ever breaks out with the Sides that nowhere else on earth is going to be safe. She called it Jaburo.”“Seriously? Nowhere at all? What about the bases in California and Australia, they’re huge-”“All gone in a couple of weeks if it’s a full exchange. Everything. Everyone. And the colonies won’t do any better, they had a term for what they’d be afterwards, ‘shoal zones’, and they only cared because they’d interfere with further missile launches and fleet movements. They even thought Luna would get hit… by both sides. I… God, it’s all so awful, they were just planning it out so coldly, no mention of trying to stop it… Maybe that’s a different group's job, politicians or diplomats or something, but… It tore mom apart.”“...Zeon’s been planning for a war too. The secret fleet I mentioned earlier? Most of the cargo ships you see coming out of Side Three are going to be converted into cruisers. So this Jaburo base, it’s going to house everything?”“That’s what she said. Everything to run the war, whatever that even looks like… how could they fight if everything is just… gone? That’s not a war, Max, it’s just mutual genocide. But it’s worse than that… they were going to build an orbital defense system, stations for intercepting missiles and asteroids, and they… they didn’t build it for budgeting reasons. That’s what pushed her over the edge, I think. How did she say they put it… ‘Low probability of sufficient interception, serious cost overruns likely.’ Cost overruns. They wrote off almost everyone on the planet due to it maybe being too expensive. Billions of people. Families. Little kids… And no one even knows about it.”
>>5540838“...What heartless bastards… Some people are just like that, Elena. They’re too weighed down by grav... by their own immediate concerns to ever take a wider view of things. Your mom… has a heart. I’m sorry it happened how it did.”“...It makes me sick to even think about, Max. I think about it every few days.”“Let’s hope they were wrong about a war like that happening at all.” You comfort her, struggling to find any silver lining, knowing what you do about Gihren’s plans even in only their roughest forms, “It could be smaller, a lot smaller. …A war probably is inevitable though.”“...Can we stop it from getting that bad then?” Elena asks, voice quavering but not quite to the point of tears; she’s cried about this many times in the past, too many times. You can feel it, even without your newtype perception, the pained look in her eyes giving it all away.“I don’t know, but we can try. I’m trying to do something about the Zabis, but it’s slow, and the independence movement isn’t just them. People want out of the federation, and bad, Zeon’s just ahead of the pack. I want out, the federation has only been holding us back for decades now - But not… not like that. Never like that.”The rest of the day went by more happily, conversation slowly returning to cheerier topics, but the warning of a hellish future passed down from Elena’s mother still haunts your thoughts.
>>5540843The next morning, on the lowest industrial level of Von Braun.The air smells of metal, and oil, and rot; an terrible stench of decaying machinery, cushions and upholstery fester unattended, rats climb between the detritus of thousands of wrecked cars and spacecraft piled high, even a few armored vehicles - the remains of an old model of guntank. A vast junkyard stretches out before you, and you double check the address Elena gave you the day prior before leaving your car. A rusted sign with bullet holes in it confirms that this is indeed the place:Hogo Salvage and Scrap, no trespassers or solicitors welcome!You sigh and begin the long walk inside, Elena instructed you to walk from the gate, and so you do, hands in your jacket pockets and head on a swivel as you move past the huge heaps of trash and mangled machinery. It might just be something out of old novels, but places like this supposedly have nasty guard dogs…Elena ran off yesterday after your talk, worried about not having enough time to complete your surprise, and warned that she’d probably need to pull an all-nighter… What that could possibly have to do with all of this junk you have no idea, but you follow her instructions and make your way down the narrow road to a series of five metal barns. They’re big, but one looks to have already been totally overrun by the collection of half scrapped vehicles piled about the area, and another looks like it’s been converted into a makeshift house of some kind, smoke coming from a rusted chimney.As you near the huge barns a sudden crack of thunder fills the air, a snapping pop sounding from the ground to your left, and you instinctively duck low and find cover behind an old rusted car, getting its engine block between you and the source of the shots; loud barking follows a moment later. You peek around your cover, and slightly crazed sounding man shouts to you from the house-barn, “Who goes there? Some rat here to steal my metal?”“Maxime Mass!” You shout back, “I’m with Elena!”“Oh? Oh! What didn’t you say so?” The man shouts back, one of the windows to the house-barn slamming shut the door on its side opening a moment later, a huge dog running out across the trash filled mud road toward your hiding spot. It’s kicks up dirt as it comes skidding to a stop feet away from you, head low and shoulders set wide, snarling.
>>5540847“Ease, boy, ease!” The man’s voice sounds from the doorway, though you don’t dare look away from the massive hound to see him, a few quick footsteps barely audible over the dog’s growling, “He’s with the girl, come on now, ease up.” …And the dog relaxes, turning its head slightly and walking on over to you to deliver a big lick to your face; you fend off the worst of its slobbery assault, rising to greet your erstwhile attacker. He’s a scrawny, scraggly fellow, middle aged at least and wearing old stained grey coveralls, his tan face wrinkled like a shriveled prune and two big suspicious brown eyes searching over you carefully. A crumpled old hat sits atop his balding head, bearing the same logo as the sign out front did.“You’re Max then?” He asks, extending a hand to shake, his other holding onto a rather large single-action revolver, “Handsome fellow… See why she took a liking to you. I’m Hogo.”You shake his hand, finding the situation stranger by the second, “...Nice to meet you, Hogo. Elena’s here, right?”“She is, poor girl’s just tuckered out. Worked all night, had to help her some with the last of it.” Togo says, thin lips pursed as he nods, “She was sleep on a cot last I saw, but that was an hour ago or so. Want some joe? Got a pot brewed up.”>”Uh, sure, coffee sounds good. Elena’s inside the house then?”>”I’ll pass, I appreciate the offer though. …Nice iron, didn’t realize those were legal here. Had one just like that on the colony I used to live on.” >”...Getting shot at woke me up enough, but thanks. What’s your dog’s name? Pretty well trained.”>Write-in.
>>5540858>”I’ll pass, I appreciate the offer though. …Nice iron, didn’t realize those were legal here. Had one just like that on the colony I used to live on.”
>>55408581)>”I’ll pass, I appreciate the offer though. …Nice iron, didn’t realize those were legal here. Had one just like that on the colony I used to live on.” >”...Getting shot at woke me up enough, but thanks. What’s your dog’s name? Pretty well trained.”2)>”I’ll pass, I appreciate the offer though. …Nice iron, didn’t realize those were legal here. Had one just like that on the colony I used to live on.”
>>55408581)>”...Getting shot at woke me up enough, but thanks. What’s your dog’s name? Pretty well trained.”>”I’ll pass, I appreciate the offer though. …Nice iron, didn’t realize those were legal here. Had one just like that on the colony I used to live on.”2)>”I’ll pass, I appreciate the offer though. …Nice iron, didn’t realize those were legal here. Had one just like that on the colony I used to live on.”
>>5540858>>”I’ll pass, I appreciate the offer though. …Nice iron, didn’t realize those were legal here. Had one just like that on the colony I used to live on.”
>>5540860>>5540864>>5540865>>5540903>>5540905>>5540915Writing.
“I’ll pass, I appreciate the offer though.” You say, reaching down for a moment to scratch as the scruff of the black haired dog’s neck but your eyes remaining on Hogo’s revolver, “...Nice iron, didn’t realize those were legal here. Had one just like that on the colony I used to live on.”“Legal? Haha! That's a good one, that’s a good one!” Hogo lets out a deep belly laugh, bending over to slap his knee, “Hahaha! This is my yard, son - She’s a grade one certified junk zone, damned near everything is legal here. Benefits of being a scrapper.”You furrow your brow, never having heard of such a thing, “...Certified junk zone? That’s a thing?”“Not really, just made it up. Ahaha!” Hogo laughs even harder, his hound moving over to him and giving a single excited woof, “Nobody checks in around here, tanhats and Anaheim gotta dump their junk somewhere! Why, I could probably hide a whole battleship here and nobody would look twice so long as I didn’t blast holes in the roof! …Eh, I kid, but the yard’s mostly legal anyways, think I got a permit for weapons grade scrap somewhere… probably expired. Lot of stuff isn’t demilled, no one minds.”You glance over at the wrecked guntank and notice the peculiarly intact cannons, your eyes widening a bit in shock - Do they really just let this stuff collect down here? It seems so.“So, you had one of these?” Hogo questions, flipping the revolver and grabbing it by its barrel to hand it to you, the hammer rather alarmingly already cocked, and then pointing to a red car door near the middle of one of the great scrap piles maybe forty meters away, “Hit that window then! Up there on that red elecar door.”You shrug and raise the worn old gun, and line up the tiny sights and and then squeezing the feather light trigger mid exhale; thunder cracks and the window shatters.Hogo lets out an excited hoot, hollering as loud as can be, “Ahahaha! Look at that! So you did own one! Where at?”“Texas colony.” You answer, not seeing much reason to conceal that part of your past, “Shot every few days for a couple of years.”“Texas… colony? Never heard of it! Sounds like a wild place.” He accepts the revolver back from you and holsters it smoothly, waving for you to follow as he turns back toward the odd makeshift house-barn, “Come on, let’s get inside, fireworks probably woke the girl up.”
>>5541023He lets out a whistle and the dog is at his side, panting and happy. You follow quickly. Hogo opens the screen door, and then the metal one behind it, and you enter his dingy house's, colorful shelves with all sorts of strange objects covering the walls. Among the mess is a framed picture of what looks like a young Hogo in a mechanic's uniform, a few similarly dressed men standing with him in front of a race plane of some kind, the background a barren desert. The inside of the house is nearly as chaotic as the scrapyard outside, but there’s an oddly intuitive layout to the mess, not quite one of those horrible hoarder situations you’ve seen sometimes on television, more of a quirky collector situation. He leads you into a side room, a makeshift little bedroom of a sort with a cot and some badly mismatched furniture. Elena’s rubbing groggily at her eyes, her red hair a bit of a mess, oil and grease smudging her face and fingers, wearing a stained white crop top and baggy cargo pants secured only by a dark belt. She sits up on the cot and lets out a long yawn as she sees you enter, stretching her arms up languidly and sticking her chest distractingly far forward - The mechanic look really, really suits her, gives her a more energetic and hands-on look than usual, but that might just be the tight crop top talking.“Morning, handsome.” She greets you, the big dark haired dog immediately jumping up to sit next to her along the cot, the light frame bending under the friendly beast's weight, “Enjoy meeting the locals?”“Managed to survive.” You answer, scratching at the back of your head a bit, “...Definitely awake now at least.”“Gave him the normal welcome.” Hogo says with a laugh, “Really had him going, I think. Still in one piece.”“You’re going to get someone killed doing that someday,” Elena scolds, though she doesn’t sound particularly worried, “Unless you already have, crazy old man.”“Haha! You know it, you know it.” Hogo jokes, “I just feed them to Zammy, he eats em’ right up.” The dog tilts its head at that, probably just responding to its name.>”So, did you get everything finished in time?” The surprise!>”...So how’d you two meet?” It’s a bit odd.>”...Zammy? That’s… Heh, I know someone who’d like your dog, Hogo.” It’s even the right size, looking more like a short haired bear than a dog.>Write-in.
>>5541033>”...So how’d you two meet?” It’s a bit odd.
>>5541033>”...So how’d you two meet?” It’s a bit odd.>”...Zammy? That’s… Heh, I know someone who’d like your dog, Hogo.” It’s even the right size, looking more like a short haired bear than a dog.We must mass produce Zammy
>>5541033>”...So how’d you two meet?” It’s a bit odd.>”...Zammy? That’s… Heh, I know someone who’d like your dog, Hogo.” It’s even the right size, looking more like a short haired bear than a dog.Sieg Zammy!
>>5541033>”...Zammy? That’s… Heh, I know someone who’d like your dog, Hogo.” It’s even the right size, looking more like a short haired bear than a dog.>”...So how’d you two meet?” It’s a bit odd.
>>5541052>>5541236>>5541391>>5541402Writing.
“...Zammy?” You ask, and the big pooch swivels its head over to you now, “That’s… Heh, I know someone who’d like your dog, Hogo.”“Everyone likes Zammy!” He replies, crossing his arms, “Well, not thieves, got a few of them, isn’t that right, Zammy?”Zammy woofs, nearly as thunderous as the gun earlier, and Elena flinches a bit but then gives him some good scratches behind the ear. He’s probably just watching Hogo’s body language for when to react, or maybe the question is a learned command to bark - Still, you can’t help but feel on some level that it was responding to the question.Hogo continues with a crooked smile, “Rambunctious little rascal when he was a pup, didn’t train easy, but here we are! Swear he eats more than my tiger used to.”“...You owned a tiger?” Elena asks, eyebrows raised in disbelief, and the scraggly junkyard man sticks a scarred and slightly too short thumb up in the affirmative. “Held onto one for about a year, back when I was on earth! Started small… didn’t end that way.” Hogo reminisces, “Burnt through most of my cash keeping him fed, real cuddly fellow until he got big. Client was happy when they finally picked him up though, took him to a big reserve on one of the colonies, out in Side Two I think… so all's well that ends well, right? That’s what I always say.”“...Client?” You question, finding the use of the word a bit odd and Hogo’s past more than a tad suspicious. You move over to Zammy, unable to resist the huge hound’s gaze for long, big blue eyes luring you in. He’s soft for living as rough as he does - must be taken care of well to have fur this clean.“Eh, you didn’t hear that part.” Hogo waves at you dismissively. “Hogo, it’s okay, he’s with me.” Elena says, tapping lightly at your shin with a bare foot, just enough to draw your attention back to her, “I trust him.” “...So how’d you two meet?” You ask. It doesn’t take a newtype to sense that there’s something strange going on here, especially after a comment like that. It does make you feel a little tingly surge of happiness though, her words just lightening the whole world; you trust her too.“Know her uncle, and her pa.” Hogo answers, “Used to run together for a few years, split up a while ago though, Georgi went clean, I mostly did…”“My uncle’s an arms dealer, apparently.” Elena says with a shrug, “I uh… didn’t think that should go in a letter. That’s the last secret, I swear! I just didn’t want to risk spoiling… Mm, well, you’ll see in a few minutes.”
>>5541442“So you met each other through Georgi then? Well, friends of the family then, makes sense.” You conclude, seeing the pieces starting to fall into place now; he mentioned something about smuggling once, it was only implied but it sure made it sound like he knew a lot about the practice. Of course he was very protective of Elena and seemed more than a little secretive about his past, hardly proud of it, so perhaps…“Actually she found Zammy here, that’s how we met!” Hogo laughs, “Came wandering in with him on a lead, white as a sheet, scared the junk was going to fall on her or something. Glad she found him though, he used to run off a lot as a pup, thought I had it trained out of him but…”“It was just a little after I came to Von Braun,” Elena explains, “I was coming down to the lower levels to try to find parts for one of my first projects for class, and to practice avoiding people following me… and Zammy just came running up to me on the street. I thought… I thought he was going to eat me, but the worst he did was try to give me a bath with that tongue of his-”Zammy turns and licks her face, eliciting a small noise and look from Elena as she leans away, trying to hold him off with both hands.She recovers after a moment, Zammy’s sudden playful assault abating, “...After I realized Hogo wasn’t actually crazy we ended up talking for a while and it turned out he knew dad. They both used to come here on smuggling trips-”“Runs.” Hogo corrects.“What?” Elena asks.“Smuggling runs. A smuggling trip is when the cargo leaks and funny fumes come out.” He cackles at his own odd joke, and though you don’t find it all that humorous you’re still grinning a little; he’s a bit unhinged, or maybe more than a bit, but he doesn’t seem all that bad so far. “...Sure, smuggling runs then, Hogo. My mom and dad met on one of them, well, they met on Von Braun after one, and then again after another, and things…”“Still not sure how Georgi managed any of it, had a way with the ladies…” Hogo strokes his small scraggly beard, as if he was contemplating one of the universe’s deepest questions, “Probably the tequila! Haha!”Elena snorts and shakes her head, and then turns to you with an mischievous and excited look, “...So, Max, want to see what I’ve been working on?”>”Still planning to blindfold me? Come on, what are we waiting for?” To the surprise!>”...Soon - I’m excited. You look exhausted though, maybe some food would be a good idea first. Hogo, do you still do runs or just take in… uh, questionably legal junk like that guntank out there?”>Write-in.
>>5541443>”Still planning to blindfold me? Come on, what are we waiting for?” To the surprise!>Write In: You feeling up to it? Don't want to grab some food or something first?
>>5541443>”...Soon - I’m excited. You look exhausted though, maybe some food would be a good idea first. Hogo, do you still do runs or just take in… uh, questionably legal junk like that guntank out there?”
>>5541443>>”...Soon - I’m excited. You look exhausted though, maybe some food would be a good idea first. Hogo, do you still do runs or just take in… uh, questionably legal junk like that guntank out there?”
>>5541443>>5541501Changing my vote to support >>5541446
>>5541443>”Still planning to blindfold me? Come on, what are we waiting for?” To the surprise!
>>5541446>>5541530Surprise+Get the poor girl some food.>>5541505>>5541509>>5541550Take care of Elena and talk with Hogo.>>5541543Mystery box!Writing.
”...Soon - I’m excited. You look exhausted though, maybe some food would be a good idea first.” You say, extending a hand to help her up from the cot which she happily accepts, giving you a weary little smile, the mask she was trying to put on to hide her exhaustion slipping away.“Food sounds amazing…” She practically groans, leaning onto you to rest her head softly on your shoulder, smelling more of sweat and oil than cinnamon, “I was up all night…”“That settles it then.” You answer, putting an arm around her waist and turning to look to the scrappy scrap man, “Hogo, how about that coffee and something to eat. I can help cook if there’s-”“No need, still got some donuts to go with the joe, if that’s fine with the lady.” Hogo cuts you off, already turning to make his way to what’s probably the kitchen, “Know you’ve been watching things, Elena.”“Donuts? I shouldn’t… But I will.” Elena says as both begin to follow, a little shudder running through her, and then she tilts her head just a little to look at you, “...I’ve been trying to get more in shape.”“You look great!” You practically blurt out, and she smirks happily and gives you a quick kiss on the cheek, “...If I keep talking do I get more?”“Maybe.” She teases, but you let things settle there; she really does look worn out, bags under her eyes. Making your way through the chaotically organized house, past shelf after shelf of odds and ends, including a cabinet of various firearms both modern and antique, you’re soon in a small kitchen. You let Elena sit at the small table and go to get her the donuts and coffee from the nearby countertop, Zammy eyeing you the entire time; using your potent newtype abilities you deduce that the dog probably wants a donut… You resist the mighty hound’s mental assault, ignoring the wide eyes and expectant look it gives as you pass by, setting the napkin wrapped donut and mug in front of Elena. She takes a sip of the coffee, makes a disgusted face, and then takes a much larger sip, drinking it more aggressively; it’s dark black, nothing added, but that seems to suit her just fine despite the faces.“Ugh, it’s like a slap in the face,” She says, stopping to look at the already half empty mug, “Perfect.” You leave Elena to her morning awakening, and turn to speak with Hogo for a moment, “Hogo, do you still do runs or just take in… uh, questionably legal junk like that guntank out there?”
>>5541609“Runs? Not for years, no. Had a close call on my last one,” He pulls at the collar of his coveralls, exposing a nasty looking jagged scar on his wrinkled tan neck, “Decided to call that chapter of my life quits. Still take delivery sometimes though, if you get my meaning, and I warehouse some of the junk until others run it, but mostly I’m an honest scrapper. Why? Looking to buy something? Got all sorts of things if you’re good for it. Cash or trade only.”“Uh, maybe, I hadn't considered that. I’ll think about it.” You say, unsure of what you’d even do with anything at the end of the week, “Mostly I was just curious, haven’t ever really seen this side of things before.”“Oh? Funny, I had you pegged as the bad one, not her.” He comments, his slightly too wide eyes looking you over as he takes a sip of his own coffee, “Never worked around the law before? Eh, I don’t buy it.”“Not that, I'm just more used to bribes for people to look the other way than something like smuggling.” You admit, thinking back to the low level corruption that you’ve taken for granted nearly your entire life: Teabolo bribing the police to ignore your shooting practice with Casval, Rafferty pulling strings for your flight training and getting colony security to look the other way, Jimba and his definitely illegal collection of guns… it’s actually a pretty long list, those are just the first things to come to mind. The guns on Texas colony probably weren’t fully legal either, now that you think about it, even if they were antiques. ...Although you have been smuggled you don't intend to bring up that particular tale.“Well, that’s half the way to smuggling!” Hogo replies with that crooked grin of his, “The other half is scooting along too fast or quiet for anybody to catch you. And the other other half is knowing people. It’s a sort of mutant centaur looking thing, more than two halves.” >”...So how much for a gun? I miss my old revolver.” Can probably get Ramba and Hamon to get it back to Zeon for you, you know they’ve got their own guns on them anyways. Maybe Ramba could hold onto it until you're a little more free of the Zabis, though Dozle might actually just let you have it if you approached him about it correctly...>”When’d you get that guntank out there? Looked pretty intact.” It’s a primitive thing compared to a mobile suit, but you’ve got plenty of… not so great memories of being in one of those things. >Sit with Elena and eat for a bit, and then get on to that mysterious surprise of hers.>Write-in.
>>55416111)>”...So how much for a gun? I miss my old revolver.” Can probably get Ramba and Hamon to get it back to Zeon for you, you know they’ve got their own guns on them anyways. Maybe Ramba could hold onto it until you're a little more free of the Zabis, though Dozle might actually just let you have it if you approached him about it correctly...>”When’d you get that guntank out there? Looked pretty intact.” It’s a primitive thing compared to a mobile suit, but you’ve got plenty of… not so great memories of being in one of those things. 2)>”When’d you get that guntank out there? Looked pretty intact.” It’s a primitive thing compared to a mobile suit, but you’ve got plenty of… not so great memories of being in one of those things. Knowing where/how the Feddies get rid of their guntanks could be useful information.3)>”...So how much for a gun? I miss my old revolver.” Can probably get Ramba and Hamon to get it back to Zeon for you, you know they’ve got their own guns on them anyways. Maybe Ramba could hold onto it until you're a little more free of the Zabis, though Dozle might actually just let you have it if you approached him about it correctly...
>>5541611>”When’d you get that guntank out there? Looked pretty intact.” It’s a primitive thing compared to a mobile suit, but you’ve got plenty of… not so great memories of being in one of those things.
>>5541611>1)”...So how much for a gun? I miss my old revolver.” Can probably get Ramba and Hamon to get it back to Zeon for you, you know they’ve got their own guns on them anyways. Maybe Ramba could hold onto it until you're a little more free of the Zabis, though Dozle might actually just let you have it if you approached him about it correctly...>”When’d you get that guntank out there? Looked pretty intact.” It’s a primitive thing compared to a mobile suit, but you’ve got plenty of… not so great memories of being in one of those things.>2)>”When’d you get that guntank out there? Looked pretty intact.” It’s a primitive thing compared to a mobile suit, but you’ve got plenty of… not so great memories of being in one of those things.
>>55416111)>”When’d you get that guntank out there? Looked pretty intact.” It’s a primitive thing compared to a mobile suit, but you’ve got plenty of… not so great memories of being in one of those things.2)>”When’d you get that guntank out there? Looked pretty intact.” It’s a primitive thing compared to a mobile suit, but you’ve got plenty of… not so great memories of being in one of those things.>”...So how much for a gun? I miss my old revolver.” Can probably get Ramba and Hamon to get it back to Zeon for you, you know they’ve got their own guns on them anyways. Maybe Ramba could hold onto it until you're a little more free of the Zabis, though Dozle might actually just let you have it if you approached him about it correctly...
>>5541611>”...So how much for a gun? I miss my old revolver.” Can probably get Ramba and Hamon to get it back to Zeon for you, you know they’ve got their own guns on them anyways. Maybe Ramba could hold onto it until you're a little more free of the Zabis, though Dozle might actually just let you have it if you approached him about it correctly...G U N
>>5541612 >>5541616 >>5541633 (2nd option)Gun+Guntank.Writing.
“...So how much for a gun?” You ask, a part of you longing for the elegant weapon you left back on Texas colony, even if it is an almost ancient design now; fully proven, you’d like to think, the simple design having grown on you during your time at the lodge, “I miss my old revolver.”“Didn’t miss with it if your shot earlier was anything to go by.” Hogo remarks, one eye a widen a bit more than the other as he lets out another hoarse laugh, “Fan of the wheel gun, eh? Not many buyers now other than collectors, can run a pretty penny.”“I’ve practiced with it the most, I could’ve made that shot from horseback at nearly twice the distance.” “Braggart.” Hogo scoffs, “You believe that, Elena?”“Yes.” Elena says, sipping at the last of her coffee, her voice growing grim and for just a moment she looks past both of you, “...He’s a good shot.” “Well, well, a regular desperado then, alright then, follow me. I’ve got a few.” Hogo nods for you to follow, and it doesn’t take long for the two of you to arrive at that gun cabinet you noticed earlier. Hogo produces a key from somewhere, unlocks the glass doors which definitely wouldn’t stop anyone, and opens them wide. It’s maybe a couple dozen weapons in total, though some intuition tells you he probably has dozens if not hundreds more somewhere, he just seems like that kind of guy. About half are more modern pieces, bullpup carbines which look far too familiar for comfort, aggressive looking semi-automatic shotguns, marksman rifles with bulky looking scopes, and a number of decrepit looking bolt action rifles that might date back to the old global wars of the middle era - Not what you’re here for, and far too large to even hope to conceal. The handguns, resting in a neat little row at the bottom of the cabinet, are distinctly more practical. A few are modern types, one a slightly older model of the pistol you used back in Spain to lethal effect, and the rest are revolvers of various makes. There’s a matching set of engraved single action army’s, the exact model you’ve grown so very familiar with over the last few years - You’re more confident in landing a quick shot, and a precise one, with them than anything else here, even if they are hopelessly obsolescent in a protracted fight.“So, what’ll it be?” Hogo asks, watching as you carefully examine the handguns, checking them for defects; most are in pristine condition, the others only lightly used.“...I’ll need to think it over.” Vote one:>The modern pistol. You’ve killed with a similar one before, perhaps you will again. They’re nice guns, but the engravings on those revolvers serve no tactical purpose whatsoever.>The pair of engraved revolvers. If six shots is enough to kill anything that moves, then what unholy anarchy might twelve accomplish?
>>5541743While you think things over you talk with Hogo, “...So when’d you get that guntank out there? Looked pretty intact.”“Hope you’re not planning to take one of the cannons, I’d have a hell of a time getting it off the thing.” Hogo says, sounding entirely too serious as he scratches at his scraggly beard, “Guntank got dumped here along with a bunch of other scrapped ones… eh, maybe six or seven years ago? Can’t quite remember, I got it third or fourth hand from another scrap company that didn’t want to go through the labor of cutting it up.”“Six or seven years ago?” You keep further questions to yourself. “Right after that big dust up on Munzo, the rogue guntank. Might’ve seen that when you were a kid, was all over the news.”“...Yeah, I might have.”“Well, doesn’t matter, the point’s that a lot of people didn’t have much confidence in them after that, a lot got trimmed. Shelly ended up here in mostly one piece, and I’ve got most of a couple more under some of the junk piles.”“Shelly?” You get the joke, but it’s a bad enough name that you still feel compelled to comment.“Yeah, on account of being heavy and a bigger bitch to get rid of than I expected! Had an ex named Shelly, it’s just like her, even looks similar if you squint...”Oh, well, that’s not quite what you expected.Vote two:>”...Got any swords?” It looks like he has a bit of everything.>Join Elena for a bit and then go off to see the surprise.>Write-in.
>>5541745>The pair of engraved revolvers. If six shots is enough to kill anything that moves, then what unholy anarchy might twelve accomplish?Engravings offer no tactical advantage. They're cool though. And SAA's are the coolest revolver around.>"...Got any swords?"
>>5541743>The modern pistol. You’ve killed with a similar one before, perhaps you will again. They’re nice guns, but the engravings on those revolvers serve no tactical purpose whatsoever.>>5541745>Write-in>"Six or seven years, huh? For how long have you been here?"2)>”...Got any swords?” It looks like he has a bit of everything.>Join Elena for a bit and then go off to see the surprise.I'm curious, but I feel like we've been putting off the surprise for long enough.3)>Join Elena for a bit and then go off to see the surprise.
>>5541750Forgot to put the 1) for my write-in.
>>5541743>>5541745>The pair of engraved revolvers. If six shots is enough to kill anything that moves, then what unholy anarchy might twelve accomplish?Pistolero mode activated>”...Got any swords?” It looks like he has a bit of everythingCan just bail if they're in bad nick.
>>5541745>The modern pistol. You’ve killed with a similar one before, perhaps you will again. They’re nice guns, but the engravings on those revolvers serve no tactical purpose whatsoever.Revolvers with engravings sound cool as fuck, but too easy to identify back to us.>”...Got any swords?” It looks like he has a bit of everything.
>>55417431)>The pair of engraved revolvers. If six shots is enough to kill anything that moves, then what unholy anarchy might twelve accomplish?>>5541745>”...Got any swords?” It looks like he has a bit of everything.
>>5541743>The pair of engraved revolvers. If six shots is enough to kill anything that moves, then what unholy anarchy might twelve accomplish?BIG IRON(s)>>5541745>Join Elena for a bit and then go off to see the surprise.
Vote One:>>5541748>>5541755>>5541779>>5541785[spinning noises]>>5541750>>5541770Modern pistol.Vote Two:>>5541748>>5541755>>5541770>>5541779Swords?>>5541750>>5541785Join Elena.Writing. Might not get it out until later tonight.
“...I’ll take the pair of revolvers.” You finally decide, the twinned set far more appealing to your sensibilities than the more modern pistol, the subtle silver engraving running across their deep blued surface catching your eye easily, “They’ll be perfect.”Hogo’s crooked grin returns, larger than ever, “Alright, let's see that gilla then! Those’ll be a couple thousand.”“...Cash only, right?”“Or trade.” Hogo replies.“...I might need to come back later then.” You say, a tad disappointed; you only have the card to pay for things and a pit of pocket money, you’ll need to return later which might be a bit of an issue with the other team tailing you; you barely got away from them this morning, only Ramba and Hamon know you’re here.“I’ll vouch for him!” Elena shouts from the kitchen, apparently listening in on your exchange and swooping in to your financial rescue, “Max’s good for it, hand them over.”“Well, that’s that then.” Hogo concludes after only a moment’s consideration, clapping his scrawny hands together loudly, “They’re all yours, cowboy. Got a gun belt around here somewhere… and a case…”“...Got any swords?” You ask, more curious than anything else with all these strange items laying about, and Hogo shrugs.“Give me a bit to look.”You pick up both of the engraved revolvers, your revolvers, and carry them back into the kitchen, setting them down on the table, “Thanks for covering for me, Elena.” Elena just smirks, wiggling her shoulders a bit in a cute almost prideful little motion, “So those are what you got? They’re very striking, like the ones in your pictures. That engraving is beautiful, I’ve been trying to learn.” “A little bit fancier than my old one, but they’re both the same model.” You say, looking far more to Elena than the guns, “You’re learning to engrave?”“Just a little practice here and there, I’ve been doing so much I haven’t really had the time to get into it.” Hogo returns sooner than expected, holding a flail of all things, “Can’t seem to find any swords, might be piled under something though… If you’re going for the middle ages look then this should work just fine!”You chuckle and shake your head, “I’ll pass, thanks.”“Eh, suit yourself.” He says, tossing the flail out of sight on the other side of the doorway to the kitchen. He grabs a mug of coffee and takes a seat at the table.>Discuss things. (Suggest topics)>Off to the surprise!>Write-in.
>>5541887>Off to the surprise!
>>5541887>>Off to the surprise!
>>5541889>>5541891>>5541903>>5541925>>5541990>>5542022Writing.
A few minutes later.You walk forward in near total darkness, tightly blindfolded and instructed to maintain silence, guided along by the hand of the girl responsible for doing this to you. Elena keeps breaking out into fits of excited giggling, trying and failing to stifle them as they come up, an almost electric energy running up from her hand and through your arm, a slow suspense building throughout your entire being. Other than the sound of your shoes now walking across something hard, probably concrete, you have no idea where you are. Perhaps it’s one of the hangar-like prefabricated metal barns, perhaps it’s some hidden nook or cranny you missed earlier while distracted by the mountains of junk, or a secret extension to the house, or a forgotten tunnel beneath Von Braun’s lowest level… your mind races with possibilities. A final door opens and you feel a rush of cold air hit you, and immediately smell the oil and grease of a working area; vehicles have been disassembled here, and it sounds like a generator for a fuel pump is running, or some equivalent machine…“Almost there.” Elena’s giggling whisper caresses your ear, sending a strangely pleasurable tingle rushing across your body, as relaxing as it is exciting.Her hand tugs you gently to a stop as you carry forward half a step too far, and you can smell a faint but familiar aroma, catching just the slightest whiff of the cryogenically cooled fuel used to power higher performance spacecraft - Fighters, race craft, even mobile suits. The reasons are different for each, mobile suits need it to help cool their fusion reactors, but it’s unmistakable.You feel Elena steps behind you, a slight movement in the air, a few silent footsteps, and soon her hands are working at untying the knot at the rear of your blindfold. After a final few suspense filled moments the blindfold slips away, and you’re immediately blinded again by glaring white, blinking and holding up a hand to shield your eyes from the bright overhead work lights. After a moment the new images before you begin to clear and sharpen, the glare of the lights dying away as your eyes adjust.Sleek as an arrow, its titanium skin painted a glossy abyssal black and swelling with diaphanous motes of light, a custom painted FF-4 Toriares sits before you. Its glass canopy is wide and undisturbed by bracing, the dark star fields painted across its slightly bulged fuselage reminding you of the mirrored horses you’ve so often seen in Elena’s art. In flowing white cursive, painted just ahead of the cockpit, the words ‘Moonlight Mustang’ are written; the name of the space fighter.A space fighter. Elena got you a space fighter. How? You ask the question aloud, shocked nearly into silence, torn between the urge to rush toward the beautiful spacecraft and to kiss Elena.
>>5542136“...Hogo had a few old reconnaissance Toriares sitting around in the yard. When I saw that one was mostly intact I just knew I had to try to get it flying - renting some little pod for when we met again didn’t sit right with me. I wanted it to be special, but it… it sort of snowballed.” Elena explains proudly, her slender hand easily finding yours and squeezing it tight as she stands beside you, “It’s the real deal, not the slow civilian market model - and a proper two seater. I’ve basically just been doing this, coming out here every other night or so for months now. Sometimes just an hour, other times it was all night, I skipped classes some days… Hogo helped with a lot of the rebuild, he used to be a space plane mechanic, but I… I painted everything, and did a lot of one of the engines, and the attitude thrusters and avionics. I read the depot level tech manual for it so many times I thought I’d go insane trying to figure everything out, but it all works, even the cannons…”>”...Even the cannons?!” This is as awesome as it is alarmingly illegal, but there’s no way she would have missed that glaring issue if it’s meant to be flown.>”When do we fly?” Rush forward to explore the sleek spacecraft with Elena.>Kiss her! The time this must have taken, hundreds of hours probably… No one has ever done something like this for you.>Write-in.
>>5542137>”When do we fly?” Rush forward to explore the sleek spacecraft with Elena.
>>55421371)>Kiss her! The time this must have taken, hundreds of hours probably… No one has ever done something like this for you.>”...Even the cannons?!” This is as awesome as it is alarmingly illegal, but there’s no way she would have missed that glaring issue if it’s meant to be flown.>”When do we fly?” Rush forward to explore the sleek spacecraft with Elena.2)>”...Even the cannons?!” This is as awesome as it is alarmingly illegal, but there’s no way she would have missed that glaring issue if it’s meant to be flown.>”When do we fly?” Rush forward to explore the sleek spacecraft with Elena.3)>Kiss her! The time this must have taken, hundreds of hours probably… No one has ever done something like this for you.>”When do we fly?” Rush forward to explore the sleek spacecraft with Elena.Elena you legend.
>>55421371)>”When do we fly?” Rush forward to explore the sleek spacecraft with Elena.>Kiss her! The time this must have taken, hundreds of hours probably… No one has ever done something like this for you.2)>Kiss her! The time this must have taken, hundreds of hours probably… No one has ever done something like this for you.
>>5542137>Kiss her! The time this must have taken, hundreds of hours probably… No one has ever done something like this for you.
>>5542137>>5542142 +1
>>55421371.>”...Even the cannons?!” This is as awesome as it is alarmingly illegal, but there’s no way she would have missed that glaring issue if it’s meant to be flown.>”When do we fly?” Rush forward to explore the sleek spacecraft with Elena.2.>”...Even the cannons?!” This is as awesome as it is alarmingly illegal, but there’s no way she would have missed that glaring issue if it’s meant to be flown.>”When do we fly?” Rush forward to explore the sleek spacecraft with Elena.>Kiss her! The time this must have taken, hundreds of hours probably… No one has ever done something like this for you.
>>5542137>Kiss her! The time this must have taken, hundreds of hours probably… No one has ever done something like this for you.Hot damn. Tryphosa was in the lead for me but this just bumped Elena into first place.
>>5542139When do we fly?>>5542142>>5542145>>5542148 (2nd)Kiss+Cannons+Fly Not a bad summary of a lot of Gundam series>>5542143 (2nd)>>5542144>>5542154Kiss!So we've got a tie. I'll give it an hour to see if we get a winner between either.
>>5542192>Kiss+Cannons+Fly
>>5542192Will change >>5542145to>Kiss her! The time this must have taken, hundreds of hours probably… No one has ever done something like this for you.
>>5542192>Kiss+Cannons+Fly Sounds like the most fun option.
>>5542142>>5542148>>5542193>>5542216Writing in the morning.It would be really reassuring if some of you one ID anons could respond to this, normally I give things the benefit of the doubt with phone posting and such but this is getting a bit suspicious at times.
>>5542224Am >>5542148My posts don't always go through, and I'm phoneposting.
>>5542224I've also been suspicious of 1 ID posts in general.How about this, I'll change my vote to only the kiss (if you're alright with that of course). If there are more 1 ID posts going against that then there's probably something suspect.
>>5542224Sorry mate, mostly just lurking and put in a vote sometimes if it sounds fun or important.I travel around so my id changes.
>>5542259>>5542591Thank you, anons. I generally assume that its good natured lurkers/phone posters since that's how I post in other threads a lot of the time, and its nice to get some (even unverifiable) confirmation of that.Also its good to hear from lurkers! Hope you're all enjoying the quest enough to keep sticking around.>>5542318Vote is already locked in, but I appreciate the offer. Since the winning option includes the losing one with the most votes it's not a big deal really, and the responses from the others have eased my mind a lot. Got delayed by some writing assignments for classes, it'll be a bit longer until the next post than I expected.
>>5542604Of course we come back to see her and now its active 1 posts, on a quest thats on page 3, with 524 in. Big fucking thinking.
>>5542683Kinda strange, isn't it, especially when they vote twice on the same post and never respond to people like >>5538580I know there's two phone posters that've been around since at least the second thread but they're pretty consistent posters.
this kind of spergout is why I usually stay a lurker
>>5542224I would have changed my vote to that to break the tie, but I was asleep
>>5542688It wouldn't be nearly as strange if it was a constant thing, However its not. I get phone posting, but even then common courtesy or atleast before was to link to your old PC vote or w.e. to show who it is.And yes I'm annoyed, some flithy Earthnoid slut is gonna win with our boy for no reason other then abunch of 1ID's showing up for these votes and not again.
>>5542695Even if you remove the 1 post ID, the majority still wanted to kiss Elena in some form.
>>5542698Hell, not even the majority, you are the only one that didn'tIn this vote, only these ones are suspect>>5542148Before tie>>5542193>>5542216After tieAnd these two anon said something>>5542259>>5542591So it depends if you want to count it or not.Now I'm going to check this entire thread to see how constant it is
>>5542698By a smaller margin, and that is a fair win for them. But that doesn't change my point that 1ID's suddenly appearing only during these types of votes is pretty ???
>>5542683Samefagging for waifus is possible, and has been done before.I personally would like to be safe about it and make it so that about one to three 1 ID posts are allowed per vote. I know some anons might think of this as unfair, but a healthy amount of caution is always a good thing I know there's a chance this might not solve anything, but even alternative measures like StV use aren't perfect.>>5542688After viewing the archive on the first thread apparently there was a bunch of 1 ID posts there.I'll admit there's a chance there might be phoneposting/dynamic ID lurkers like >>5542591 that only vote when they feel like it, but I don't like being risky and (usually) have a cynical view of posters.
>>5542690Same here. It makes people distrust, especially if there's a lot of 1 id posts in the same thread.It doesn't help that my id rarely stays the same.
>>5542709I'd rather those 1 ID's just link like people used too years ago when we first shifted from /tg/ to here, after the minority threw us here. I get wanting best girl to win, But we're 3 threads into a gundam quest, Already a nitch setting outside /mecha/ on page 3 of the cathlog. Like ?? lmao.
>>5542713Anon, as >>5542144 I'm just going to note that 5/7 of the original votes opted for kissu in some capacity. Sperg about samefaggotry when they actually make a difference.
>>5542695I'm not too bothered by it, I was rooting for Tryposa but Elena is okay too. Besides, it's not like we'll be route locked to just one girl. Good chance one or most of them die later on anyways.>>5542709First thread is where I expect them mostly to show up as there's a lot more quest defining moments that drive the rest of the threads. That and people's interest die out pretty quick after the first after their votes don't win.>>5542719>sperg about samefaggotry when they actually make a differenceI'm annoyed about it's potential but I don't think there's been many cases where it's actually determined an outcome.
>>5542695I think I might implement a rule requiring something like that. I'm still salty /qst/ got split from /tg/, it killed my enthusiasm for the format for years>>5542709That hard limit method might be workable, I'd need go do a survey of past votes like. StV seems to do alright, I don't follow it but the voting rules don't seem unreasonable for how popular it is. My only real holdup on stricter voting rules is that I'm not sure how many players I've actually got (other than the 6~ regulars or so), the quest has pretty focused appeal and I don't want to strangle things by cutting off lurkers and phoneposters.>>5542698This is true, if the votes weren't aligned anyways I'd probably take more drastic actions.>>5542690Yeah, I do get that. Thank you for reading, anon.>>5542712kek, that id switch.>>5542721Yeah, no route locking. Relationships break apart, people die, etc, etc. Eventually I'll be putting my Tomino hat on and things are going to get really bloody for everyone, most of the early chances for that have been dodged though.The next post is almost done, just a few more minutes probably.
>>5542713That's fair. Though newfags have to be accounted for too I think unfortunately.>spoilerThis quest has actually been surprisingly popular, with a consistent amount of activity.>>5542721Well to be fair practically every other vote tends to be a defining moment in this quest. Also Contolist is actually a good writer, so I guess people would stay for that.Maybe this is me just trying to be optimistic, though I'd still like to avert a potential risk.
>>5542729>>5542709Meant to say "a survey of past votes like you did for the first thread"
>>5542729>SpoilerHow Tomino on a scale of 08th MST to Zeta?
>>5542736Also following that quest kek, great taste but you seem to have misposted.>>5542735Zeta is my favorite. SPACE RUNAWAY IDEON!
>>5542729>My only real holdup on stricter voting rules is that I'm not sure how many players I've actually got (other than the 6~ regulars or so), the quest has pretty focused appeal and I don't want to strangle things by cutting off lurkers and phoneposters.That is a possible risk, I'll admit. StV has a pretty controversial past and a bunch of players that are even willing to follow it if it moves from 4chan.>>5542732It wasn't so much of a survey as it was a general skimming.>>5542736I think you posted the wrong thread lmao
>>5542719No because then let samefagging be okay at any point. Its just easiest to spot during shit like this and as I said earlier.The potential and timing of it is the ?? part.>>5542721Same, I expect most of the cast to die once we get to war. >>5542729 You aren't the only one Contolist, I remember the fires of our home in those final days and the old quests before we were given this place. And its flithy quality. >>5542731They should be, Never said remove Newfag. Merely its questionable to suddenly have influx of newfags now. Wjhen romance is usually the 1st/2nd most heated thing to vote on in a quest.
>>5542736Ay yo, Where we getting Dragon waifus at? Cause I'm down for Fleix to reject Zeon for Lizard wizard waifu.
>>5542739>Zeta is my favoriteWell there goes at least one and a half siblings and everyone but our least favorite romance option. At least we'll have Glemy as a backup surrogate brother, right? Just have to make sure Haman doesn't get her talons into him.>SpIs that a good or bad thing? I never watched Ideon.
>>5542744>picShamblo is best girl.>>5542748Every character and all sentient life in the galaxy dies, sort of.It's very good, mostly joking about it as a lethality level though. Mostly.
Behold my autism, unchained by gravity! Disclaimer: There's a big chance I made mistakes. It got really boring1st vote>>5533806 (1 post)After tie>>5533922 (1 post)2nd vote>>5534154 (2 posts)3rd vote>>5534521 (1 post)>>5534525 (1 post)4th vote>>5534672 (1 post)>>5534700 (2 posts)>>5534773 (1 post) (post, not vote)5th vote>>5534995 (2 posts)>>5535043 (2 posts)After>>5535061 (2 posts)6th vote7th vote>>5535360 (1 post)>>5535458 (1 post)8th vote9th vote>>5535892 (2 posts)>>5535906 (2 posts)>>5535955 (1 post)10th vote>>5536218 (1 post)>>5536223 (2 posts)>>5536253 (2 posts) (post, not vote)>>5536262 (2 posts)After tie>>5536324 (2 posts)>>5536325 (2 posts) (post, not vote, linked previous ID)>>5536363 (1 post) (post, not vote)>>5536364 (1 post) (post, not vote)>>5536374 (1 post) (post, not vote)>>5536380 (2 posts) (post, not vote)11th vote>>5536480 (2 posts)>>5536548 (1 post)>>5536598 (3 posts)>>5536636 (1 post)>>5536759 (3 posts) (post, not vote)After vote>>5537036 (1 post) (post, not vote)>>5537079 (1 post) (post, not vote)>>5537106 (1 post) (post, not vote)12th vote>>5537141 (2 posts)13th vote>>5537367 (2 posts)>>5537381 (2 posts)>>5537383 (2 posts) (vote change)14th vote>>5537630 (1 post)>>5537645 (1 post)>>5537667 (1 post)>>5537693 (2 posts) (post, not vote)>>5537695 (2 post)15th vote>>5538143 (1 post)>>5538168 (2 posts) (post, not vote)>>5538170 (2 posts)>>5538219 (3 posts) (post, not vote)>>5538220 (3 posts)>>5538221 (3 posts) (post, not vote)16th>>5538292 (1 post)>>5538322 (2 posts) (post, not vote)>>5538334 (2 posts)
Too many lines my ass17th>>5538458 (1 post) (post, not vote)>>5538462 (1 post)18th>>5538537 (3 posts)>>5538541 (3 posts) (post, not vote)>>5538578 (1 post) (post, not vote)>>5538580 (3 posts) (vote change)>>5538645 (2 posts)>>5538646 (2 posts) (post, not vote)After vote>>5538674 (1 post) (post, not vote)>>5538913 (1 post) (post, not vote)19th>>5539268 (1 post)>>5539279 (1 post)>>5539300 (2 posts) (post, not vote)>>5539302 (2 posts)>>5539333 (1 post)20th>>5539661 (1 post)>>5539705 (1 post)>>5539729 (1 post)>>5539742 (1 post)>>5539780 (3 posts)After tie>>5539824 (1 post) (never linked)21st>>5539922 (1 post)>>5540010 (3 posts)>>5540047 (1 post)22nd>>5540420 (1 post)>>5540455 (1 post)>>5540483 (1 post)>>5540488 (2 posts)23rd>>5540578 (2 posts)>>5540580 (1 post)24th25th26th>>5541550 (1 post)27th28th>>5541770 (1 post)>>5541785 (1 post)29th>>5542148 (1 post)After tie>>5542193 (1 post) (never linked)>>5542216 (1 post) (never linked)>>5542259 (1 post) (post, not vote)>>5542591 (1 post) (post, not vote)>>5542690 (3 posts) (post, not vote)>>5542712 (1 post) (post, not vote)>>5542719 (1 post) (post, not vote)There's also some IDs with with 5, 6, 7, 8 and 12 posts, but counting them feels wrong.I could go check past threads too, but it would suck even more. So I'm not doing it.
With only a moment's hesitation, awestruck by her display of dedication and the midnight black fighter before you, you turn and wrap your arms about Elena, pulling her into a passionate kiss. There’s a half moment of surprise, Elena’s emerald eyes widening before fluttering shut, and she presses closer, one arm pulling against yours, the other about your back. Without thought, simply carrying through in the moment, you sweep her from her feet in the low lunar gravity; adjusting your grip with one arm, settling about her thighs, you find yourself holding her.When you finally pull away Elena lets out an excited, almost breathless little giggle, her cheeks flushed nearly to crimson, “So you like it?~”You kiss her again, still holding her, one of her hands gently caressing your cheek and the other held close against her breasts, “I love it. When do we fly?” “I seem to be already!” She laughs in her usual richer tone, the girlish giggling fading a bit, “...I love this. Don’t put me down.” “Oh? Wasn’t planning on it.” You reply with a grin, taking a large and arcing step, almost a hop in the low gravity, toward the starfield skinned fighter, “It’s a beautiful fighter, the stars on it… Elena, you… No one’s ever done something like this for me before.”“You wrote. Even with everything happening, all the risks, you never stopped,” She says quietly, utterly sincerely, her words gentle and heartfelt, “I needed that so badly, things were going so wrong for so long, and you were always there, even if we never got to see each other… I’d do anything for you, Max. You saved my life. Twice now, I think… This was nothing compared to that, and-”You kiss her again, interrupting her confession. Her giggles are back; she really does like this, but she keeps talking, “...You can put me down now, it’s time for your part of the deal.”“Flying so soon?” You question, letting her feet settle gently to the concrete floor of the hangar; probably the interior of one of those metal barns, “Good! Alright, I’ll need a few minutes-”“It’s a fighter, Max, I think you might need a few days!” Elena interrupts you, “You need to learn the switches and stuff, right? I can show you how it works.”“Right, right,” You chuckle, so caught up in the moment you were barely thinking of the practical side of things - You’re not a fighter pilot! You did fly that civilian saberfish a few times that Casval was fond of - but a real military spacecraft is in another league. Transitioning from pods to mobile suits wasn’t too difficult, or at least pods to mobile suit simulators wasn’t, but a Toriares might have very different controls and switchology, “Can you fly it too?”
>>5542758“No, not at all! Not… not yet anyways, I haven’t had a chance to learn. All the controls are just seared into my memory now, putting the avionics package back together and debugging everything was a nightmare…”“So everything works then? Even the cannons?” You ask excitedly, finding that to be as awesome as it is alarmingly illegal.“The center of mass would’ve been off if we took them out, and we’d have to load less fuel which…” She crosses her arms and stops speaking for a moment, still positively beaming, “I didn’t want a shorter flight. They’re loaded.”Your eyes widen at that, eyebrows lifting in surprise, “For the mass?”“For the Zabis!” She lets out another rich laugh, “Okay, okay, it’s for the mass, but you never know though, right? Better to be safe than sorry.”You resist the urge to kiss her again, at least for now, “How’d you get the shells though? They weren’t just left in the fighters, right?”Just how careless is the federation? Elena shakes her head, “Hogo had some from a smuggling run that never finished, nobody came to pick it up so he held onto it. Flares, chaff, and radar decoys are all there, the jammer is almost a little too functional, and the signature baffles all still work.”“...Right, I guess it is a reconnaissance version.” You nod, the extensive countermeasures making sense; craft like this are expected to get shot at by all sorts of things and still return with their information, but one of those sounds a bit odd, “...Signature baffles?”“At lower accelerations the engines can change their burn signature to look a lot like other spacecraft, it’s… ugh, the database for it was a mess to sort through. Anyways, a lot of automated systems just register it as a shuttle or whatever you’ve set it to mimic. Spoof the location transmitter after that and we’re golden! …Probably shouldn’t do any really wild stuff over the city though.”“So that’s the plan then? Look like some shuttle so Von Braun traffic control doesn’t get antsy about a rogue fighter buzzing the city?” You ask, the pieces falling into place now; it’s a bold idea but civilian traffic control systems probably won’t notice, it can be pretty loose “More or less. There are shuttles that do tours just above the top level, I thought we’d pretend to be one of them.” She beams, patting the underside of one of the engines as you both walk around the craft.>”Well, we’d better get to work then!… At least I should; I think you might need a few hours of sleep.” Coffee is not a sleep replacement. Skip two days.>”...Thought of everything, haven’t you? How do we get it up to a place to launch from then? Mountains of bribes?”>”Hogo didn’t happen to have any missiles behind his fridge too, did he?” Crazy bastard seems to have enough stuff to arm half a battalion at this rate.>Write-in.
>>5542757Thank you for breaking free of Gravitys Limits Anon, But my schizo will always remain. The fa/tg/uy wars will always remain with me.>>5542760>”Hogo didn’t happen to have any missiles behind his fridge too, did he?” Crazy bastard seems to have enough stuff to arm half a battalion at this rate.
>>5542756>>5542757Holy shit, anon, thank you for this. Going over it all now.
>>5542760>”Well, we’d better get to work then!… At least I should; I think you might need a few hours of sleep.” Coffee is not a sleep replacement. Skip two days.
