He would have liked to say the circumstances couldn't have been weirder, but if Ezrael was honest, and knowing Sapphire Raven used to talk about lemons and banana bombs, there was definitely air for more. The Apahanta moored with Nichols Trading Station for refueling, perfectly aware of Red Hessians, Coalition, Order, Zoners and Bretonians not too far away from each other in Omega-49. So far nothing went wrong. Everyone was keeping it cool, even the Order.
The Auxesian leader was extremely pushy about a tasting test. And for whatever reason, she suggested the test subject to be Ezrael. He stood in his quarters, looking in the mirror, sighing.
"You think that's a good idea?" the young man standing in the door frame behind Ezrael said, looking up at the Captain with a suspicious expression.
"It probably isn't. I doubt she'll poison me or kidnap me or do anything like that, but generally being seen with her is probably always a bad idea, especially with confirmed Order presence here," Ezrael returned and turned around to face Noel. "She mentioned something about a payment. I don't think she wants to pay me for eating her cookies but for something else. Maybe it's about a job or something. Should things go wrong in some way, Sherry has her orders. So don't worry."
They glanced at each other with discomfort written in their faces. "Be back in an hour, alright? Sombs is will go nuts otherwise."
Moving past the slim boy, the Captain moved to the bed and fetched his black leather jacket. Raven said she wanted to come in civil, so he figured he should do the same. Putting it on, he shook his head a few times while brushing his hair to not have it stuck between back and jacket. He couldn't get rid of a suspicious feeling about this meeting. It was fishy.
"Here," Noel sounded and reached out to hand Ezrael something with his closed fist. Curious about it, the athletic Curacaoan took the object and held it up infront of his face. A black elliptic thing with smooth surface.
"Owo, what's this?" he said, speaking the first word out aloud to immitate Maren and her outdated memes.
"Put it in your jacket. A little something I built in the workshop as I thought it might become useful at some point. You'll see."
Ezrael gave him a flat look. "Why are all the people around me extremely vague lately?"
Noel smirked at his roommate, watching him placing the little object into the inner pocket of his leather jacket. One final hug and then Ezrael headed for the airlocks. Not feeling good about this meeting, Vertiga arrived in the public area of Nichols Trading Station. People didn't call it a giant space mall for no reason. There were shops and restaurants with goods from all over Sirius and Gallia on multiple layers. It was nicely decorated as well and the air was filled with various scents streaming out of the outlets and snack bars. Compared with the last time he was here, the security personnel had a bigger presence than ever, with hired people and robots from Kishiro and Ageira at the key positions, as well as at the security checkpoints at the mooring fixtures.
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Lingering around in the main entry after the security check point, she kept a vigilante eye out for Vertiga, patiently awaiting for him. Raven knew no one wouldn't hassle her as what she looked like wasn't exactly public knowledge, despite not having escorts, she felt safe. To ensure that she had everything with her, she checked her little bag, then closed it, relieved that she didn't forget her tracker.
"Come on Vertiga, where are you-...Oh. Will he recognise me? Whoops. I didn't consider that." Raven muttered to herself.
Sighing, "Alright, find a weird black and red haired man-chick..."
Said man-chick - taking care of your skin doesn't make you a chick! - had moved to an upper level to get a better overview. Nichols was a big station and housed over one thousand people and guests. And many people were visiting Omega-49 lately, either to fetch people from the planet, to bring humanitarian goods (or other things) to it, or to just watch things heating up more and more between Bretonia, the Zoners and the neighbouring parties. Leaning against a railing, he let his left hand slip into the pocket of his black jeans to retrieve his smartpad, simply to check the time. Letting it slide back into his pants, his eyes moved to some random blip in the corner of his eyes at the lower level.
"No mask," he mumbled, being slightly surprised about that move. But then again, people probably didn't know how she looked without it. He however did since his visit on the Eidolon Wraith with Maren. "Alright then."
Making his way to the glass elevator, he kept her in his focus, not wanting to lose her in the mass of people. Two minutes later he approached her from the side, calm and slow as he was looking around for a potential trap set up by the Auxesian. "Hey Big Borb. No rapping today or why no mask?"
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Revealing that she has a new scar added to her face within the recent months, she perks up on his approach,
"Hello Miss, no, no mask today. No one will recognise me in this attire. Good to see you have a sharp memory, I didn't really expect you to remember. "
Her posture was calm, relaxed, welcoming, she wasn't expecting danger - or at least didn't make her alertness seem obvious.
"Let's go catch a drink somewhere. I'll pay. You decide. "
He already began to regret wasting his time with her. Letting it slide, he moved to her side, offering her an arm. "Just you? No guards?" he asked her, figuring that a more restaurant-like etablissement was better than a bar or loud club - if there even was something like that on this station. "Did you pass through the sec check that easily or did they find out about your wrist rockets?"
Yes, she certainly wasn't going to do awkward things. Since she didn't took his arm, he let his hands slide into the pockets of his jacket while following her subtle lead. "The recent events attracted people from all over Sirius to come here, including Core and Order. As far as I know you're bountied by both. And I guess at least the Core knows your pretty face."
There was a café not too far away. It looked pretty well visited. There was another in the distance, a few more meters away. He pointed at it as it looked rather unpopular. In fact, it was a Bretonia-themed little room like one would know them from the rainy New London. Classic, with pictures of horses and portraits of royal family members with similarly bucktoothed jaws. "I guess that one will do."
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Anxiously touching the side of her damaged cheek with her palm, feeling slightly insecure about it. It was obvious she that bad memories attached to those marks, "Yes... my pretty face... The newer blood won't recognise me, but I'm not phased by any of them."
Raven actively glanced around as they walked, noticing the location that he pointed out. "Any of those look sufficiently cute and mindlessly royalist enough. " stating with a smirk on her face.
Entering the café, Raven reached into her pocket, then grabbed Vertiga's hand, placing two credit chips into his palm. It was two forty credit chips.
"Treat yourself to whatever you like, you don't need to owe me. "
"Thanks, I guess," Ezrael sounded and looked at the money she just handed him. Smirking, he just went with it. A drink she said, so no tea. Wine instead, just boring enough. Maybe she wanted some as well.
Moving with her to the table in the corner, he invited her to sit down with him, himself taking place in a 90° angle from her to have a good overview, walls behind both of them. The Curacaoan raised his hand to signal the underoccupied waiter slash shop owner to come over to them. An elderly man who seemed rather confused and insecure about the guests. "The best fruity red wine you have. Price doesn't matter," Ezrael sounded, not wanting to waste the time with trivialities. Chances were anything on the Apahanta was better in quality than what this café could offer, anyway. And Raven was going to pay anyway. As the visibly bretonian man walked away, Ezrael turned his head towards the lady at his table. "Want to talk about where you got that new scar from?" he asked her, guessing it was an okay-ish conversation starter.
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There was a devious smile expressed on her face, "Wine huh? I thought you didn't consume alcohol in order to keep your body squeaky clean, hmm? Or maybe you're badder than I initially thought. "
That smile slowly withered away when he inquired about the injury, sighing, "Well, the shortest way of putting that story is that not all close friends are actually friends. Our Doctor and head medical chief was a saboteur, and had unleashed unstable chemicals into some of my people, particularly my associate, causing people to start... killing and then they would eventually die of overexposure to the chemical. We lost three members of the Inner Phalanx council that day from the killing. I got this 'charm' from combat with my associate."
She took a moment to think to herself,
"It's truly amazed me how he managed to get not only past automated units, AI security and just the guards in general, but also how long he may have been doing this. His background was checked by Zeta Section. Absolutely clear. Then again, he was one of Hunt's little bandwagon before they joined with us, hmmm..."
Raven shook her head, waving with her palm slightly to signal it's time to move on, readjusting her sitting posture to get more comfortable. She was still subtly being alert, occassionally glaring away when talking, trying to make it seem like she was nervous.
"Nevermind me. How did Maren get caught out by the LSF?"
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