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"So the same way you're always feeling when looking at me?" Tess responds, letting out a larger laugh than her previous ones, as Cass mentions his nerves from interacting with Virdia before. "Sure!" she continues, standing excitedly when Cass mentions meeting the owner so soon. 

Once on her feet, Tess stands and waits for Cass to do so as well. She smirks as he talks, giving him a playful nudge after he asks the others to wait. "And if we don't return in a few minutes, definitely don't coming looking for us," she continues, giving the others a wink after she speaks. "Unless you want a free show, I guess," she continues, before shrugging and laughing again.

Creed's eyes went from his drink, to the dancer on the stage, to Virdia, where his eyes lingered. He blushed softer this time, less out of embarassment and this time... Something else. He gave a polite but shy wave, but Cass' voice brought him back to reality. "Oh, yeah. You two have fun!" He says, trying to sound normal. He picks up the shot glass that was 'his', and raises it to the crew. "To the Makkuro!" He says, feeling a true sense of comfort and warmth that he hadn't felt for... A very long time.

Hikaru smirks to Marko as he orders the same drink, tightly clutching his hand with affection. He examines his horizon-hued cocktail, impressed that it looks just as it would at home. I guess they get enough booze coming through to know how to make drinks. Shame the same can't be said for meat... He shrugs, offering Tess and Cass a lazy wave as they go to speak with the club's owner. Gotta give 'em props, making connections like that. Doing me proud with that kinda schmoozing.

He sighs, taking the shot glass and grimacing for a moment. Let's hope we take it easy at dinner, or Marko might have to carry me to bed... He raises the shot along with Creed, shrugging. "Guess they'll miss the toast, but their loss, really. To the Makkuro, and all the successes to come." He downs the shot alongside Marko, failing to hold back a cough as the unfamiliar burn of alcohol stings his throat. "Fuck, that's... potent." He takes a sip of his drink, hoping to wash away the burn with some sweetness.

 

Cass winces at Tess' teasing, knowing there is truth in her words. "Yeah, sorta like that," he manages, unsure what to say in response to such a blunt question about his attraction to her. I can't get a read on her. She's just like this with everyone, right?

He shrugs at the others with a half-smile, before leading the pair of them in Virdia's direction.

Cass returns Virdia's raised drink with an upwards nod and a wide smile. "Had to celebrate a well-earned sale, of course."

He chuckles at the owner's supposition. "A boy can dream. But no — this is Tess, she's another partner on our crew. When I told her we'd found a club like yours, she was green with envy. Tess, this is Virdia Barrick."

"And check out the local talent, too," Tess adds, as Cass mentions their reason for being here. We can both celebrate and appreciate eye candy, there's always room for both. She chuckles as he answers the question of Tess' identity, a little surprised how boldly he responded. What have you dreamt of, hm? I can only imagine.

"Lovely to meet you, Virdia," Tess responds, as she is introduced to the equally lovely woman before her. "I adore your hair, you'll have to tell me who did the dye job! But yes, when Cass told me he sold our whiskey to a strip club, I had to see it - and you - for myself. It's exactly the sort of place I'd love to work at while we're on station. Assuming you have any openings, of course," she continues, giving the woman a similar wink to the one she'd given Cass only moments before. Certainly they must have something available. Hopefully the current girls aren't too territorial.

Creed hesitates for a brief instant but downs the shot as well. He grimaces and seems to have the most visceral reaction to the taste, but nothing worse happens than a weird face and an audible "Yuck-" before he simply takes a sip of his whiskey. "To the successes to come." He says softly, mirroring what Hikaru had said. And to a long, and prosperous future, He thinks to himself and smiles softly. He looks up at the stage and finds himself distracted again for a moment, watching the dancer's movements.

"I am fine with whatever, honestly," Tess responds with a shrug, though returning the woman's smile as she does. "I am happy to wait tables, and would give performing a go as well if there's room! I mostly do solo performances, so being on stage sounds fun. And working here sounds a lot better than putting my other talents to use," she continues, placing her hands on her hips, deliberately showing her holstered pistols as she does so. She seems great, I am sure we will be friends in no time. And hopefully friends get extra pay for being so great.

Cass listens quietly as the two women discuss employment. I should give them some space, he realizes. I made the intro. She doesn't need me hanging around like some lost puppy or a paranoid pimp.

"Hey, I'll catch you back at the table," the engineer offers, putting a hand softly on Tess's arm for a brief moment. "And thanks again for everything, Virdia." He gives the two women a smile before making his way across the club again.

Taking a seat with the others, Cass sips his beer. "Yo, what'd I miss?"

Hikaru shrugs at Pia, taking another quick sip of his drink before pulling out his compad. "A nice restaurant, maybe? Not sure." He looks to Marko, not wanting to make the decision all by himself. "What are you in the mood for? Not a woman shaking her ass in a vacc suit, I'm sure..." He narrows his glance at her, shaking his head at the almost comical modification of the spacefaring suit. I wonder if they got their uniforms from the same place we're getting ours...

He passes Cass a glance as he returns to the table, scrolling through compad listings. "You missed a toast, and you missed the dancer showing the audience what being exposed to the harsh vacuum of space will do to a person," he says, cracking a smirk without even looking up.

Hikaru smiles back at Marko for a moment, altering his search query to suit his boy's wishes. "Well let's see what we've got here then." He scrolls through a listing, cross-referencing price with reviews, until he lands on one he deems suitable: classy, but not overly so, with a suitably romantic atmosphere. Doubt we could get in a place with a stricter dress code... Maybe we can do some better shopping whenever we're back on Strocho. He pockets his compad again, looking towards his beau. "How about this place called Estella's? They've got the Date Night tag and their menu looks pretty good." He pauses for a moment, cracking a cheeky smirk. "Then again, there's also Meateor's Family Barbecue if you really wanna see how low fake meat can go."

Cass coughs out a laugh, once more taken off-guard but this time by Pia. He peers over his shoulder at the stage, nodding as he verifies her claim. "No surprises there. What can I say? She's fine."

Instead, he turns the attention back onto Hikaru and Marko. "You two just got here and you're already making plans to beat feet? Tough crowd. We'll have to find a dance club some other night where we can all have fun. We're stuck on this backwater station for another week or so, may as well get to know each other better, yeah?"

Creed took another long sip of his drink and felt his anxiety slowly slip away- Ah, yeah. Drinking. That's what makes me feel good. He looks up at Cass and smiles brightly. "Welcome back, Cass. You missed the cheers!" He raises his glass towards Cass. "To the Makkuro! To success!" He laughs a bit, taking another sip. It sort of takes him a moment but he realizes that Hikaru and Marko are leaving. "Ah... enjoy your time, I guess." He continues to smile, but a bit softer this time, taking an even longer sip and trying to hide back into his drink.

Hikaru offers Cass a half-hearted shrug at this chiding. "Eh, seems like tonight's a bust in that department anyways, with Martine back at the ship, and Tess being taught some important lesson in lap dancing, I'd guess." He takes another sip of his drink after lazily raising it in delayed toast. "Another club, yeah, or even just a bar. Would love to upstage the locals in karaoke," he says, flashing a signature cocky smirk, well-aware that he'd blow the drunken sods out of the water.

 

"Get a room," Cass says to Marko through a cough of a laugh. At Pia's suggestion he nods vigorously. "Impromptu karaoke bar, yeah? Break a few Asterian statutes, land some easy cred... I like it."

He casts a glance across the club, looking for Tess, but doesn't see her. Maybe they wanted to talk shop somewhere private? Good for her.

"Already got one back at the ship," Hikaru says teasingly towards Cass, smirking cockily. It turns to a grin and a chuckle with Pia's suggestion, shrugging sheepishly. "Guess we could, couldn't we. Would be the cheapest I'd ever played for, but eh, creds are creds. And it seems like a lot of your dock workers need to blow off some steam anyways..."

Tess

"I can put them behind the bar if you'd like?" Virdia offers. "I'll be sat there so I can keep an eye on them, and its not like they'd be the only guns behind it either."

"There's only one language drunk pirates understand sometimes," she adds in way of an explanation.

She gathers up your armour and weapons and leads you back through the backstage area to the door. to the club floor.

"Let me know how it goes," she says with a wink, stepping out and making her way back towards the bar. You follow her out of the door a moment later but make for the table where the rest of the crew are still sat talking and drinking.

Your conversation is interrupted as Tess returns to the table from her talk with Virdia. As she approaches the table it is quickly apparent that she is now dressed like one of the club's waitresses, in a revealing set of purple lingerie.

Tess

"Of course," Tess responds with a wide grin, eager to get back to the crew and relax again, though just as eager to watch their reactions.

Tess approaches the table and places both her hands on the tabletop, leaning over it as she returns tot he group. Putting on her fakest, most polite-sounding 'customer service' voice, she asks, "how can I help you folks tonight?" She looks them all over with a knowing smirk on her face, giving Hikaru a wink as their eyes meet.

Cass takes another pull from his beer, beginning to feel the complimentary shot catch up with him now. "You looking to break up a strike with your new hit single?" he asks Hikaru, slowing turning as he notices the approaching waitress. We didn't order anything else, why is she—

His eyebrows raise in surprise and realization, and he sits back in his chair — a dumb grin forming on his face. "I think you already have," he says, somehow out of breath despite sitting. Wow. What in the fuck?

Creed is just barely keeping up with the conversation as his eyes kind of dart around to all of the stimuli, seemingly pretty drunk already off his first drink. He looks back towards the table and finds himself unable to even pretend like he isn't staring at Tess, blinking a few times as if he's making sure he didn't fall asleep suddenly. "Uhhh...." He finds himself taking another sip of his drink to pretend like his jaw didn't just drop. "Welcome back, Tess..." He mumbled between sips of his drink.

Hikaru steals one glance at Tess and finds himself struggling to stifle fits of laughter. Oh fuck, those two weren't ready to see her like that. He sips from his cocktail, eyes gauging Cass and Creed's reactions, before turning back to Tess. With a delightfully casual tone, he says, "Ah, yeah, could we get a basket of onion rings? And maybe a can of O2 for these two to share."

 

"Have I, now?" Tess responds to Cass with a hearty laugh, standing from her previous position as she does so. She gives Creed a wink after, as he welcomes her return. Turning to Hikaru, she places her hands on her hips and - continuing with her previous 'customer service' voice - cheerfully responds, "alright, one onion ring basket and one can of 02, comin' right up!"

With this she turns and walks a few steps away, letting her hips sway suggestively as she continues to play up her pantomime. After a moment she grabs an imaginary tray from an imaginary counter, turns, and walks back to the table, bending slightly to portray placing the imaginary tray on the table. "There you go! Hot and fresh, just like our dancer," she responds again, before chuckling and returning to the seat she'd been at previously.

"Your reactions made this all worth it," she continues, now in her normal voice, a large grin now replacing the 'customer service' smile she'd worn before. "Oh, and I did get the job. Thanks!" she continues, now towards Cass. "Seems like a nice, chill way to spend the down time before the next mission. I might be able to get you all discounts, if you end up stopping in," she continues with another wink.

Cass starts to chuckle now, as Tess's display goes from provocative to silly. "Hey, congrats on the gig. Whatever pays the bills for the ole' tub, yeah? Can't see Virdia turning you down."

He sighs, basking in the warmth of a good laugh and the alcohol in his bloodstream. Damn. Feels good to relax a little. Almost feels like I'm back in officer school again. Before all this happened. With a sad smile, he looks back up. "Unfortunately for me, after tonight it's back to business. I'm helping Holland's repair team, making sure they don't fuck anything up on our shiny toy. If I'm lucky, it should save us a couple days of docktime. Of course, I think I could spare a night to come back and cheer you on."

Creed stares daggers into the table, finding it hard to loosen up suddenly. He caught her swaying hips as she walked away briefly, and then return, he takes a deep breath and... He was suddenly quite uncomfortable. "I... think I'm going to be busy for the next couple of days as well. I'm gonna try and get in good with the engineers." He said almost under his breath, his face bright red.

Cass gives Eridas a curious look, surprised at the initiative. He lowers his voice to be heard just above the sub-bass din of the club. "Just be careful with that strike on, pilote. If the dockloaders and gearheads find out we're scabs working for Holland, that's a good way to get yourself vented. Do your best to blend in, yeah?"

With Tess' appearance, Marko, much like Hikaru, struggles to hold back a laugh. Hikaru's efforts to prolong the bit, only serve to further ruin his composure, he nestles his head into Hikaru's shoulder in order to stop himself from fully breaking out into giggles.

"Well I'll be spending all my time here if Tess is going to be working here," Pia says in reply to Cass, giving Tess a flirty wink as she looks her up and down. She seems less affected by the stunt, than Cass and Creed, however it's clear she appreciates the show.

Cass raises an eyebrow at Pia, hardly surprised that she too has an eye for Tess. He huffs a single laugh, giving her an understanding shrug. "It's your shore leave, I won't tell you how to use it."

He sighs, taking another sip of his beer, his gaze lingering on Pia. Still don't know much about these three who joined us, do we? Deciding to remedy that, he says "Hey Pia. You grow up on Idarete like Eridas? Or get stuck there like the rest of us?"

"Well one fan is better than none," Tess responds to Pia with a smile, happy to hear at least one crew member is eager to come see the show. I wouldn't have expected her to be so keen after she turned me down the other day. Maybe she is interested after all, she thinks, eyeing the woman curiously. While deciding what else to say, she hears Cass beat her to the punch, asking their new crew member about her past.

"Yes, tell us more. We're gonna be working together for awhile, so it would be great to learn more about one another. How did the three of you all meet up?" she adds, eyeing both Pia and Marko with her own question.

"Born and raised," Pia says in reply to Cass' question.

"All three of us are," Marko adds.

"Martine's parents aren't though. She was born on Idarete but they came to Idarete from one of the Davonian Moons, fleeing the Diktat's invasion. Tough break having two of your homes invaded by the same bunch of fascists."

"Oh yeah only Hikaru was there when we talked about that in the War Room," Marko realises, as Tess asks how the trio of Idaretians met. "We met a few years ago when we all served in Idarete's Navy. We were assigned to the Unspoken Word together. The Word was a patrol boat too, like the Makkuro - although the Word was from the previous generation of ships, so had nothing on the Makkuro," Marko says with a smile.

 

"I'm sure you never expected this to be your way off the rock," Hikaru says with a smirk, surprised himself in how things turned out. "I'll have to show you guys all my favorite spots on Strocho whenever we get back there. It'll blow your mind." He finishes the last bit of his drink, the residual liquid making a slightly grating slurping sound as his straw struggles to suck it up. He sets the glass down with a satisfied sigh. "Speaking of which, I owe someone dinner." He glances at Marko knowingly, gauging if he's ready to head.

Creed nods slowly at Cass' words, but before he's able to properly formulate a response the others start talking. "Born and raised on Idarete? Huh. I half figured none of you were there for very long. Call it hopeful thinking-" He cut himself off to take a sip. "Meaning, I guess, I didn't like growing up there very much."

"Four Idaretians, then," Cass counts. "Damn. Didn't realize that until now. It's gonna... be a while before we can go back. You uh, good with that?" Not that any of us really have a choice after we hotwired a fucking military tub and shot down some Diktat Dickheads.

If I was given a clean slate back on Alldis, would I go back? Start over? He ponders his own version of that question. I think I might.

"You do," Marko replies to Hikaru with a smile. He picks up his own drink and finishes it off in a similar fashion to the popstar. He pulls out his compad and begins paying his tab while the conversation continues.

"It's not the best of places," Pia agrees with Creed.

"There wasn't much keeping us there other than family," Marko says in reply to Cass, briefly looking up from his compad.

"I'll take a break away from mine," Pia laughs. "Besides its not like the Diktat know who stole the ship," she adds with a smirk, clearly still proud of your achievement in stealing the Makkuro. "Although showing back up with the Makkuro might not be the best idea," she adds.

"I'm sure it wasn't too bad before the Diktat showed up," Cass assumes, shrugging. "It's not Strocho, or Alldis, obviously, but also not a backwater mining station like Asteria. Can't fault you for wanting to get the fuck out after the occupation, though. You've seen what they've done elsewhere."

"What ship? The Furious Midnight? Never heard of her. I fly with the Makkuro. Soon we'll even have a new transponder and jumpsuits too."

Tess listens in quiet contemplation as the others discuss their lives on Idarete, finding little to relate to in the conversation given the short stint she'd spent on the ice ball. It is good they are not dying to return, who knows how long it will be before we can safely visit again? Probably never, so long as we are still being hunted by the Diktat. She takes another sip from her drink, before turning towards Cass as he mentions their crew modifications. A wide grin spreads across her face as mention is made of the new attire that she purchased with Hikaru, her mind conjuring images of the others in their new duds.

"I can't wait 'til they are finished," she chimes in, after he finishes speaking. "I'm sure you will all absolutely love them, we did a great job picking them out, if I do say so myself," she continues, patting herself on her chest proudly with the last words. "We will be the most feared crew on Asteria!" No one will come after a pack of wild cats.

Creed smiles fondly, thinking back to home, but his smile falters after a moment. "I would like to go back. I miss my mother. But I know I can't. I just hope she's safe." He says, realizing he has maybe said too much. "Either way... yeah, I'm excited to see the new suits we have, I'm sure you and Hikaru did a good job picking them out." He says with a hazy smile, taking a long sip from his drink as he looks over at Tess. "The two of you seem to have a really good fashion sense."

"Right, those jumpsuits'll be sleek as fuck," Hikaru says, giving Tess a glance as he looks up from paying his tab. "We'll definitely look the part of a crew, that's for sure." He smirks and stands, looking towards Marko again as he stretches his limbs a bit. You'd think club seats would be comfortable... Maybe the real good seats are in the dance rooms.

"Well then, shall we?" he asks Marko. Looking to the rest of his crew, he adds, "We'll see ya back at the ship, yeah? Don't get too crazy now."

 

Cass grows curious at Tess' boast about their uniforms, wondering what she has in store. I doubt she picked something understated. That would have been my first priority. Standing out has never been my thing, especially not now with a stolen warship.

His introspection is interrupted by Creed's admission, and the tipsy engineer frowns, a pit of sadness forming for the pilot. "I'm sure she's okay," he says, realizing he is not at all sure. "Maybe once we get to a larger station you can send her an encrypted message. Maybe some cred, too, if you think that'd help." Cass gives him a soft smile. He suddenly wishes he could do the same for his parents back on Alldis. Bet the League's got all their shit tapped 24/7. Too big a risk for both me and them.

Hikaru and Marko pay up and depart for their dinner date. Tess gets changed back into her clothes and retrieves her pistols for Virdia and the four of you stay at the club for another drink or two. You all eventually make your way back to the ship a couple of hours later and turn in for the night.

The next day you wake up and set about enacting your plans while you wait to be contacted by Holland about returning to the asteroid mine.

OOC

-20 credits each for the night's activities.

Tess

You spend the next four days working at the Closest Moon as a waitress.

Make a Perform/Cha roll.

Creed

You spend the next four days working odd jobs around the docks.

Make a Work/Str check and a Connect/Cha check.

Cass

You spend the next four days overseeing the Asteria engineers as they work on the Makkuro.

Make a Fix/Cha check or similar to see how well you get on with the work crew.

Hikaru

You spend the next four days looking for venues you could perform at.

Make a Connect/Cha check and a Perform/Cha check.

Creed smiles a bit at Cass's suggestion and nods. He finishes his drink slowly and then leave with the others.
Over the next handful of days, Creed cautiously goes about doing odd jobs down at the dock, trying to make new friends.

Mechanics

Work/Str = [2d6-2]=11-2=9 (negative should only be -1, so total is a 10)
Connect/Cha = [2d6]=9