"That we do." Jacqueline closes her eyes only briefly in memory as they talk. "Politics only interest me so far as being useful for keeping business going. Outside of that, it seems a bit repetitive, wouldn't you say? There's a lot of interesting risks taken on the surface, and it almost seems like a unique game to play... but, then, after awhile, you start to realize that nothing really changes. Different people win, of course, but only a few of them really get to matter."

She sips her wine again, letting out a slow breath afterward, her glass being empty. She gives a thin smile to the fox before her, "I'm guessing your interest in politics goes outside of just the TCC and your goal of singing, hm? But why do you ask me?"

----

Sabre raises a brow at CHAD's initial response, "Where you were ordered to be? But... no one gave you an order to do any of this- Hey!" His shades fall down his muzzle a little as he hurries to keep up with CHAD as he moves back to the alley.

Frowning, the opossum stands alongside him, readjusting his sunglasses, "I can't help you do something that none of us ordered you to do. I'm actually under orders to find you, since the whole crew thinks you went AWOL. Who gave you the order to leave, anyway? No one said they knew anything about your leaving."

Despite his words, Sabre seems to be guarding the alley along with C.H.A.D, standing next to him and looking less than inconspicuous.

Nash's ears perk at hearing the Lockman name mentioned from Billy. As soon as he does that, he realizes the fairly large visual cue he gave and tries to reverse himself, lowering his ears forcibly, which only seems to feel more awkward at the moment. Frowning at himself, he turns to the computer again and looks through the random info he's getting.

"So... you know a lot of cultures? B-but... your best is Therian? Well... I'd be interested in hearing about them... Sure. But, uhm... How do you know so much about these cultures? Do you travel a lot...?" He's not watching Billy now, but he keeps his ears open to hear if he makes any large movements.

Try to get him to talk more about himself. Not about other things. But... other things are useful too. That's true. I can do both. Who is he? His glasses are so dark. Be logical. Perhaps he's blind? Sensitive to light? Has a disease or abnormality in his eyes? He can't be blind. He can see what I'm doing and what I'm typing.

Elena actually smiles a little in response to Jason's defense of her, "Lollipops, yes, but not cotton candy. That's much too messy to keep around! Now, I need you to lay back and relax, Mr. Jason. I'm going to make this as painless as possible, okay? We'll have your leg fixed in no time at all."

As she says this, she passes her staff over Jason's legs and squeezes and shakes it gently. It's very rudimentary Blissian medical technology, helping the muscles in Jason's leg relax and a slow, natural feeling of drowsiness pass through his entire body. As she does this, she looks around to see what is available to her here already, seeing what she will have to substitute with her own limited supplies at the moment.

At the door, Miya seems unaffected by Hacksaw's threat, though she frowns at Walter's comments, putting her free hand to her temple and massaging it gently.

"I don't intend on pushing my luck, Doctor. Luck has very little to do with what I'm trying to do here. I simply do not want to make this more difficult than it already is... You make a good point, though. Thank you for letting us use your facilities."

After a moment has passes, Miya sniffs the area curiously, only briefly turning to glance at Lucky and confirm his current state. With that being done, she politely doesn't say anything about it and instead maintains her guard.

T'shock looks at the squirming bird with mixed feeling. Must be one of those barely sentient races who still relies heavily on instinct. But Nono seems to have things under control. "Wow... and this is no charge?" T'shock asks Nono, double-checking.

She then looks at the fairy. "Aren't you the same fae we saw earlier who laughed herself unconscious?"

Drizzeleaf huhs? and turns her attention to Nono. He's offering her free services... She smiles brightly. "That would make my day! Yeah! Though... are you sure? I mean... a ship the size I fly in might be... um... a whole other experience for you..."

She asides to T'shock, "Yes I AM that same Fae... please don't remind me of the large, beefy man walking around struttin' his stuff or I'll laugh again!" she pauses and starts laughing. A moment later, though, she whipes a tear from her cheek and says, "But seriously... I was JUST trying to shop for the guy when Big Bird came along."

The store manager folds his arms at Joe. "It is. It needs to be parked in a proper place, not pointing at my store with gun turrets open."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:53, Sun 07 Feb 2010.

Emerald says, "Oh just like to keep tabs on things. If your ship is in the ocean, you need to know where the tides are going... Oh, sure, as you pointed out, the tides are all the same and all water, but unless you wanna get washed up or devoured, you gotta know at least a little bit. Try less to think of it as a race of nameless people, but as a force of nature that will always be with us. Just like solar flares. Since politicians will never be fully aligned, their purposes effect each other a whole lot less than they affect the so-called little people. But that's as far as my interest goes there..."

She takes a quick sip, holding up a finger to indicate she's still answering. "As for why ask you? Conversation sake, really. Partly thinking out loud and partly hoping you would be able to satisfy a few curiosities I had about this upcoming contest Rocky's holding. Such as why he's holding it."

Hacksaw smiles at Miya. "Good to know... I'll bet we'll be hearing some bone-snapping sounds soon!" he calls out to Elena, "The anesthetic is in the drawer marked with the letter "P"! Should be on the right wall! But of course, if you enjoy hearing him scream, I won't object!" he covers his mouth, snickering.

Jason gulps. "B-bone snapping? I heard about this... doctors have to break your bones in order to re-set them... please tell me it won't be so bad..."

Hacksaw looks down at Walter and cackles. "A non-profit hospital? Now that's a laugh! Oh well... she IS a Blissian. She still doesn't know that outside of her cozy little socialist world, money makes the universe go round."

He glances at Miya. "Tell me, young Deksharr... do you just protect her body? Or do you protect her soul as well? Because if you do, you should warn her against her naivety."

The man with the shades is still smiling. "Yes! As a matter of fact, I do." his soothing voice says with a sudden rise of childlike enthusiasm. "I mostly roost on Tharia, but I travel a lot to all kinds of places in order to get to know people and, well, make them smile. See... I'm an entertainer. A musician. But for the people I sing for... it's so much more than that. I'm a bard. I sing of their culture and their ways and remind them of their patriotism. It usually brightens their day quite a bit."

Amy finally feels it. "That's it!" she sends to Nash. "What he's talking about now is his passion. I think it's especially the fact he makes people smile, but... the other stuff makes him happy too. I can feel it."

  Shows what the store owner knows. Guns on a Barrakian ship retracting?  Yeah right.  They just cover them to ensure they are intact for later use.

  Joe looks to Drizzeleaf "You're taking no pants man pants shopping.  That's reasonable" Wait, it is?  "I'm more curious how you ended up doing it in the first place...  And if there's something I should know about that alley?"  Not one, but two dudes guarding said alley.  Not out of place at all.

  Back towards the unamed but put upon store owner, "Well, I'm sure he'll move it as soon as... uh..."  Joe can't think of when Nono would do it of their own intent with all the distractions.  "Hey, Nono.  Could you move the ship somewhere not crazy please?"

Nono answers the manager first.

"The gun turrets don't have a 'closed' position," he points out, then rubs his chin, "Though I could add that feature."

To Joe he answers, "If I must.  But I would much rather T'Shock have a chance to test her out!"

He presents the ship to her with a flourish of his hand.

Nono smiles at Drizzeleaf, recalling the silliness earlier with much amusement, but he's even more tickled by her challenge.  He wiggles his fingers proudly.

"Nono's nimble numbers are notorious!" he boasts, "Fashioning a futuristic fae fighter would work wonderfully!  Kupohoho!"

Ray notices his tantrum isn't working, so he gets back on his feet.

"Yeah... Dunno how they expect it to stay afloat," Walter adds about the hospital before addressing the other topic, "But as far as protecting bodies goes..."

He gives a flirty smile to Miya.

"You've got a fine one, Missy!  Don't take offense from Hacksaw's latest comment, I assure you he only wants to save your friend some disappointment."

Seeing as he's being summarily ignored by everyone but the one person who's polite enough to ignore him on purpose, Lucky slinks back to the door and exits Hacksaw's clinic.  He drapes his jacket over his arm in an attempt to hide the wet slacks while making a phone call.

"Yes.  You make deliveries?  Good.  I need a suit delivered to the Hacksaw clinic pronto.  Payment on delivery.  You happen to know of a place that sells or rents suits?  OK fine...  Now for the next item I'll need..."

Through the power of wireless communication, Lucky arranges for his embarrassment to be minimized.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:51, Mon 08 Feb 2010.

Chad replies to the question posed by Sabre, "I was ordered to leave the vessel without causing an alarm and later to maintain security of this alley by the small voice that was on my head." he admits vaugely not knowing Drizzel's name.  "Since nobody else noticed my departure I have accomplished the first part of my orders sucessfully.  Now I must maintain this area until the voice returns with supplies." he informs Sabre, figuring he's allowed to know since he's part of the same unit as well.....  Everyone so far.

Jacqueline picks up the bottle of wine as Emerald talks, looking it over lightly, as if asking herself something. Nodding, she pours a small bit more into her glass as she lets the fox continue.

When she's finished, the opossum sips her wine thoughtfully before asking, "You really are interested in that contest, aren't you? I know you said that you want to get closer to someone powerful like the Lockmans, but do you know anything about this contest at all?"

As the conversation goes on, Jacqueline appears to get just a little more conversational, sounding more open to the idea of looking into this contest that's got Emerald so intrigued. She certainly isn't like most of the representatives that she's met with before.

---

Sabre listens to CHAD with an incredulous look on his face, at a loss for words for almost several moments.

"Small voice on your head? What? Are you... are you malfunctioning? Hrm." He frowns as he tries to think of what little he knows on how to repair biological machines. Unsurprisingly, it's minimal.

At best, all he can do now is stay with CHAD and try to get through to him with an authoritative, yet calm voice. "CHAD, unless that voice gives you a name to refer to or is sent by Ms. Diamant herself, you should always double check with me or another of your superiors! We haven't even given you a proper briefing on what your tasks should be yet... How could you logically think that your own employer would want you to sneak out of her own ship?"

Nash sits up in a bit of surprise, both at Billy's enthusiastic tone and Amy's enthusiastic telepathic response.

Mentally, he wonders So he's not a bad person, right? Not someone to worry about? If he's honest about wanting to make people smile, then he shouldn't be that bad. He could be lying somehow, but, if Amy... if you can feel him being honestly happy, then that sounds like it's a good thing. Do I keep asking about him?

Tentatively, he turns a little to look at Billy, adjust his glasses and taking a breath to remind himself to speak slowly, "So... you sing? That explains the poem you were saying earlier. It was a song, right?"

He immediately has a thought, an idea that's enough to make him raise his eyebrows as he thinks, He's been around... All around... Maybe I can ask him more about Lockman? Is he trustworthy enough. You barely know him... That's too dangerous, isn't it?

Elena frowns at first, but then smiles gently to Jason, patting his arm in a reassuring manner, "It won't be as bad as it sounds... I'll do my best to make it as painless as possible. There'll be pain to get it to heal and set right, but it'll be okay." After making sure that he's laying back, the Blissian hops over to the drawers and looks for the one with 'P' on it.

It doesn't take her long to locate the drawer or the anesthetic itself. Once she does, she wastes no time in applying it to Jason to make sure that his leg is properly numbed. The effect is stronger than the effects of her staff, but she's careful enough not to overdo it.

She waits for the drug to take effect before moving on to the next step with the leg, speaking soothingly to Jason all the while to keep him from worrying, and to keep him from focusing on his leg.

Back out by the doorway, Miya's eyebrow twitches as Walter makes a less than subtle pass at her. To both him and Hacksaw, she responds with a cool, level tone.

"I protect her from individuals who would want to harm her. It's that simple. However, I would not suggest mocking what a Blissian can do, if only because their kind have done plenty already."

She keeps her eyes lightly active as she watches both of them carefully, considering them to be less of a physical threat than before. Unfortunately for Walter, Miya doesn't respond to his compliment on her figure.

Drizzeleaf hrms. It's SO tempting to let the non-uniformed man continue to be such. She decides she'll return to that later. "Alright then, Mister! I'll get my ship shortly. By the way, my name is Drizzeleaf. Yours?" she holds her hand forward, but even someone as small as Nono will likely be letting her shake his finger instead of his whole hand. She continues to jingle as she hovers at a height that would be convenient for finger-to-hand shaking.

She looks at Joe. "The alley? It's just so he isn't walking around in public barely dressed. As for why I'm doing it? That's a long story and I don't have the time to tell some stranger like you about it. Sorry!" she grins broadly.

T'shock spreads her wings. "I'll move it. Thanks for the upgrade." she comments towards Nono before flapping to her ship and entering it. Whether Nono decides to pilot it away or stick around for Driz's ship, T'shock makes sure that her own ship doesn't stick around.

Emerald headshakes. "That's just it. I don't know much. All I know is that the winners get to be recruited into a pretty high-paying position like elite bodyguards or something. But the details? And why? Dunno. Is Rocky's old team failing? Did he fire good help? Is he hiring body guards for some foreign diplomats? Who knows? I'm guessing you know as much as I do..."

Hacksaw grins at Walter. "Looks like your client found himself some seriously good help. Strong of body and strong of sense. Two very potent things in this dog-eat-dog universe. Heh..."

He then looks at Miya. "Oh I don't under-estimate what the Blissians do. But I don't under-estimate what everyone else does either. History is all the proof I need. When Blissians stick to themselves, they prosper. When they visit other worlds, they are met with open arms and all, but not so much open wallets. And founding a hospital is no small deal. Especially on a settlement like this one where just about every faction in the cluster is vying for claim over the place. Everyone will want their piece of the pie and the higher-ups won't care if a Blissian gets hurt in the process since they can wash their hands and look all clean on the screen. I will consent to this: Blissians have founded hospitals on other worlds. But really... this IS different. This isn't a united place. Thankfully, all the war they want to wage will be done so financially... but that, of course, is part of why founding a free clinic, much less hospital, will be nigh impossible."

He frowns, for once not cackling and looking serious. He growls a little. "In all honesty, I hope she pulls it off and shows those self-serving egomaniacs who's boss." But he smiles again. "So yeah... as a friend to her, you should seriously consider helping her with the research. You would be much better than her at researching the reality of the situation. It isn't just numbers and public opinion that count, after all."

Jason smiles endearingly at the Blissian, wishing he could flirt more with her, but scared that if he does he'll take her mind off her current task. "Thanks, doc..." he says, figuring THAT, at least, is warranted.

Billy chuckles. "I did sing it, Nate..." he demonstrates by singing the first phrase again. "Don't remember?"

Amy telepaths, "Yes you should continue asking about him. Though I suspect something... see about getting those sunglasses off of him."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:03, Fri 19 Feb 2010.

  "So, it wasn't because you were putting effort into not laughing yourself to death every time you saw Chad then?"  But of course, that was a short story, so if it was a long one then that couldn't have been it.

  Joe watched as T'Shock flew off to fly off.  Then considered heading off to somewhere less filled with ridiculousness, but something told him ditching the spazzy bird even if Nono was with them now may be a bad idea.

It's slowly sinking in that the flying, sparkling, jingling, sugar sweet looking morsel is a PERSON, not just a very fancy bug...  But she IS still a flying, sparkling, jingling, sugar sweet looking morsel.  Ray smiles at her and makes a bird-like purr at her, but his eyes are still fixed on her like a cat staring at a laser pointer.

"I'm being friendly!" the collar translates, "So I can trick you into letting me eat you!"

Amazing how much can be said with body language, isn't it?

Nono finger-shakes Driz's tiny hand and blushes.

"Heh.  Sorry about Ray.  I'm sure he'll figure out you're not food soon enough.  Especially if you're nice to him."

He looks over to the alley.

"As excited as I am to see a Fae ship, it wouldn't be very nice to leave that poor guy naked and alone.  Let's see what we can do for him."

Nono floats onto Ray's back and Ray walks toward the alley as instructed, frequently glancing at Driz.

---

"Excuse me mam," T'Shock's comm says, "This is Cid, Nono's more sane partner.  Fortunately he left the comm on.  I thought I should give you fair warning that he disabled a very important safety feature in your ship - the throttle dampener.  The designers of your ship knew well the physical limits of your race and made it so you can't accelerate beyond what your body... or the ship's engines for that matter... could handle, but my crazy partner has this need for speed...  Long story short, be VERY gentle with the throttle until you're used to the new setting.  You'll find it's a LOT faster than before.  Also, I found you a nice parking spot right behind the store."

Walter smirks.  One, Miya didn't tell him to take a long walk off a short airlock, and two, he too likes the notion Hacksaw suggested of showing up "those self-serving egomaniacs."

"Sound advice," he says arms folded, leaning on a nearby wall, "But that's what doctors do, right?  Give sound advice?"

He looks over to Jason.

"Such as 'a little pain now or be lame for the rest of your life.'  Besides... I'm sure it's nothing you can't handle.  Right, tough guy?"

Meanwhile, Lucky makes with the getting changed into a clean suit when it arrives.  He'd comment on how to make non-profit hospitals profitable for everyone involved, but he's not present for that conversation.

C.H.A.D. cooly (As cool as a guy wearing a skirt can, anyway.) monitors the street activity, "I'm not malfunctioning, the small voice is over there." he states nodding towards Nono and Drizzel, either of whom could be counted as 'small'.

As far as Sabre questioning his logic he replies, "It is not my place to question the logic, motivation, or ethics of orders given.  I simply carry them out.  I followed the orders of one of a higher rank, since I have no rank, everyone qualifies.  As soon as I recieve the promised briefing I will begin to follow the orders as they are outlined by my general orders.".

Meanwhile:  He's watching the alleyway, since Sabre hasn't explicitly told him to do diffrent yet.