Mariko played with the handfan between her fingers, before sitting down and placing the closed fan on her lap, while she waits for one of Mr. Lings mixes. She looked Drake straight in the eyes while a smile played over her face.
"The pleasure is mine, Mister Drake. You just seemed like civilised people who could appreciate my presence. I am personally not a great fan of Liberty ale. That is more a thing for the younger Sisters who seek to experience the Libertonian culture. I prefer something that stimulates the senses instead of it trying to knock you out cold with a bad hangover the follow. I prefer to keep my mind sharp at all times. It is something I was trained to do since a young age. Tell me about yourself, what made you pick up the invitation?"
Sun looks over to Kiku thinking on the question of beverage "Ah, water or any juice. I do not drink alcohol as you know." she comments over to Kiku looking at Yoshi briefly "I am sure a lot of talking is ahead at this festival" she comments with a smile.
Ling smiled as he got to work. His greatest challenge yet was before him. Infiltrating Agiera properties, both physical and virtual had nothing on this. Even the rigors of combat in Ontario before the Dark Matter Storm came were trivial compared to the challenge before him, and he eagerly accepted this task.
A mix of any kind has purpose. The drinks he made were to reflect the personalities of the person they were served to, with the exception of Drake's, which had the intent of opening his mind to sake through a familiar medium. A drink that matches the personality of the drinker will ease their mind, and reassure them of themselves. A matching drink can calm even the most livid of drinkers. Likewise, a mismatched drink can bring the most serine and peaceful of people to blows. Ling's duty now was to match a personality he could not read, a personality which, instead, he seemed to sense reading himself. The final boss of bartending had appeared.
Ling began finely shaving ice into a glass, spreading it widely. The result was a glass full of the finest powder snow that can be found outside of nature. As he needed it to melt lightly before the next step, he got to work on the drink itself. He motioned to the bartender, who brought well-chilled whiskey and umeshu, and a bottle of ginger juice. After adding equal amounts of whiskey and umeshu and a small amount of ginger juice to his shaker, Ling added a single shard of ice and began shaking it. After a short amount of time, frost began appearing on the top of the shaker, so Ling poured the mixture into the glass. Ling then added a small amount of plain soda, and stirred it very lightly. As the swirling mixture slowed, Ling put the end of the bottle of ginger juice into the drink, and a thin ribbon of juice twirled around the center. The end result was a refreshing and bold cocktail, stylized by the brown ribbon swirling around the middle, suspended in time. However, that wasn't quite the end. Ling had one last trick up his sleeve. Ling had used very cold ingredients, and had added the finely shaved ice to the glass so that the end drink, while being liquid, was well below the freezing point. He took his long spoon, and struck the side of the glass. As the harmonic ring sounded out, some of the drink in the glass froze from the bottom up. The very final result was his take on a Highball Slushy, the ribbon of ginger still suspended in the middle, but now it was almost pixelated through the slush in the glass.
Ling offered the drink to Mariko, hiding his nervousness. "Here's your drink", he said, resisting the temptation to add such suffixes as "Your majesty", "Your holiness", and "Empress of mankind". "I hope you enjoy drinking it as much as I enjoyed making it"
"Yeaahh... We could have looted the corpse before it was thrown outside. Maybe he had some valuebles on him." She muttered after Kane spoke. Then she slightly raised her voice again.
"I know the Kusari Navy you speak of. They all headed to Tau for some reason and they are now getting shot by frogs in Languedoc. I was part of one of the recon ships recently. It is a warzone there. I guess with all the Taro's there, Kusari is actually alot more quiet with for us. I think I chased them all into the Tau Sector. Sorry about that. But erm... " She looked at Hanako. "I am not really that much into politics and such. They call me when something needs to explode. Maybe Hanako can help you more." She tugs on Hanako's sleeve.
Hanako looked down to her sleeve, clearly drawing attention to the action before scanning over the festival again, not looking to Kane, though she addressed his inquiry.
"I was with both groups that went to Tau-23 to scout their positions, both times the naval ships fled into Languedoc to join up with the bulk of their forces, though my knowledge is limited. The only thing I can say for sure is that the Hyono and her guard are holding position over the depot it destroyed at the lane junction, it's possible it could move into Tau-44. Though with their forces meeting heavy resistance in Languedoc, it will likely serve as either a fallback point or their reinforcement. Unless Crayter "pokes the bear with a stick", I would not be quick to assume your people would be in danger."
"That said, only fools do not prepare for the worst."
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