(10:45:48 AM) ***Claire only lasts a bit longer in the cafeteria, as her self-appointed "catch-up" task was nearly complete anyway. She dismisses all of her material and sits back in her chair with a sigh, then gives a mental shrug. [To: Nika, Theia - Hey, ladies. Either of you two up for going out for a drink?]
(10:46:04 AM) Claire: [ps if you're chilling with Ivory she can totally come too]
(10:47:17 AM) Ikiryo: [From: Nike - Nah. Ivory is out and about...heck, so's Theia. I'm up for stuff though.]
(10:47:39 AM) Ikiryo: [From: Theia - Yeah. I'm busy with stuff.]
(10:48:41 AM) Claire: [Alright. Have fun, Theia. Nike, meet you outside your place?]
(10:50:18 AM) Ikiryo: [From - Nike. Sounds like fun. Better than 'Trying to find someone I have no proof is missing yet']
(10:51:07 AM) Claire: [...Okay...] Her reply is drawn-out; she wasn't expecting that at all. [Be there shortly.]
(10:53:21 AM) Ikiryo: The apartment complex is easly enough to find and the tall red-head is outside in biking leathers, leaned up against her red and black bike.
(10:55:56 AM) ***Claire walks up the street after having gotten off a bus. As it's not class time yet, she's dressed casually, in jeans and a loose pale-blue top with a wide neck that almost bares her shoulders. She waves casually to Nike as she nears. "Heya. Have a place in mind?"
(10:56:49 AM) Ikiryo: "Not a clue!" She waves back. "I'm up for whatever. Fancy, crummy, high class, low class, no class, fight, no fight!"
(11:01:36 AM) Claire: She giggles slightly. "Not much in a fighting mood, myself, but if it happens... Anyway, um. Probably shouldn't be TOO fancy, I don't know how far my stipend'll cover, so...upper end of perfectly average? That work for you?"
(11:03:34 AM) Ikiryo: "Sure. If you want, I could shout you...though I'm not really dressed for fancy." She shrugs.
(11:05:46 AM) Claire: "I don't really know the scene, so I'll trust your judgment. Little more fancy than not, I say."
(11:07:54 AM) Ikiryo: She nods "I know a decently up market sports bar nearby. How's that?"
(11:09:53 AM) Claire: "Perfect. Want me to follow, or...?" She gestures to the bike.
(11:11:12 AM) Ikiryo: "It's close enough to walk but I like my bike~" She grins.
(11:15:26 AM) Claire: "I don't blame you. Shall we?"
(11:18:26 AM) Ikiryo: She hops onto her bike and gestures for Claire to jump on behind her.
(11:19:27 AM) ***Claire throws a leg over and settles onto it, gripping Nike's waist tightly. She knows how the redhead drives.
(11:20:43 AM) Ikiryo: The redhead takes off a high speed without warning beyond a loud laugh. She's not wearing a helmet.
(11:22:19 AM) Claire: Neither is Claire, but she also is confident in Nike's ability to avoid crashing. Even for her, injuries tend to slow down her ability to get another adrenalin rush, after all~
(11:26:19 AM) Ikiryo: It's a good twenty minues and claire is sure they went a very long way when they come to a screeching stop outside a sports bar. It looks nice, though rather empty at this time of day.
(11:27:06 AM) Claire: She gets off the bike and sternly orders her legs to quit wobbling. With a bit of a noisy exhalation she smiles. "That wasn't too bad, you were right."
(11:30:12 AM) Ikiryo: "Well, I wasn't jousting gang members on my bike this time~"
(11:30:37 AM) Claire: She giggles again--but it's a little more breathless this time. "I'd pay to watch that, I think."
(11:34:19 AM) Ikiryo: "I'll get Theia to video it next time then...though the local gangs are starting to avoid me." She pouts.
(11:36:44 AM) Claire: "Can't possibly imagine why," she deadpans, then leads the redhead inside and to a booth. "Thanks for agreeing to come out, by the way."
(11:38:57 AM) Ikiryo: "I think it's because I keep smashing thier faces into walls. Pansies are not used to fighting a non-magic foe." She grins...and puts an arm around Claire's shoulders. "Why wouldn't I agree to?"
(11:40:48 AM) Claire: "No reason, I guess," she admits, smiling up at her. "Think I just needed this kind of outlet after the last month."
(11:42:50 AM) Ikiryo: "Weren't you on holiday for the last month?" She sits down, putting her booted feet up on the table.
(11:45:05 AM) Claire: "From classes. We got shipped offworld for an actual assignment, though." She tells Nike most of what went on, interspersed with ordering a tall beer, displaying her ID almost absently in an AR window when asked.
(11:45:05 AM) Claire: "So basically...it was a break from classes, but I kinda needed a break from...certain people, too." By the time her story is finished, her glass is half empty.
(11:45:44 AM) Ikiryo: "Oh? Which people in particular?" Nike goes through two large glasses without slowing in the time it takes Claire to go through half of one.
(11:47:22 AM) Claire: She looks away, mumbling something under her breath.
(11:50:32 AM) ***Ikiryo leans in. "Again?"
(11:50:35 AM) Ikiryo: *Nike
(11:55:02 AM) Claire: She sighs out one word: "Tazzari." Tilting her glass up, she drains it dry before speaking again, then taps an AR window to ask for a refill. "I just...need a day not dealing with her."
(11:59:13 AM) Ikiryo: "Oh? What's the issue?" She smiles, for once not a large grin. "Lay it on me. I promice I won't tell."
(12:06:52 PM) Claire: "I just...look. You know she's my roommate and all that, and I love her dearly, but sometimes she can be just so...dense. And not even cutely dense. Infuriatingly self-assured and absolutely convinced and just...agh, it makes me so *mad* sometimes." Her voice picks up as she goes on, no doubt helped along by the beer she continues to drink almost as fast as Nike.
(12:06:52 PM) Claire: "And it's just...every time! *Every* time. 'Cyborgs bad! People as tools! Mind control everywhere!'" Her fist pounds the table. "You'd think after meeting all of you girls and Circe and Nasira and Ling and her sisters...and...and just ALL of this evidence to the contrary that she'd lay off, but NO, fucking EVERYTHING is 'Jail' this or 'Him' that and ugh!" She throws herself back into the seat cushions of the booth, silver hair floating out in a wide curtain.
(12:06:52 PM) Claire: "I just...it drives me *nuts* Nike. And I just needed time away to let that vent before I punched her in her metal nose."
(12:08:32 PM) Ikiryo: "I've have just punched her..." She pauses "Ok, no I wouldn't. Else Theia's nose would be a lot flatter." She nods "I get what you mean though."
(12:13:09 PM) Claire: She nods a bit, sighing slowly again. "...Sorry for dumping my issues on you."
(12:14:16 PM) Ikiryo: Nike lashes out with sudden speed...and stops just before Claire's face. "Boop~" She pokes her nose with one finger. "Stop that or I'll punch you for being an idiot too."
(12:17:45 PM) Claire: She doesn't flinch, but grins slightly. "I'd probably deserve it. I'm used to being in your position right now, though, not mine." Ducking her head under Nike's hand she sits forward again and wraps her hands around her glass. "Feel better, though. Thanks."
(12:19:51 PM) Ikiryo: "Look, your friend is being an idiot...but that doesn't mean it's a burden on me to talk about it. We are friends...right?"
(12:21:58 PM) Claire: "Absolutely." She nods. "Even Theia. Much as it might scare her," she adds, grinning.
(12:23:52 PM) Ikiryo: "Mages bad! Take my rockets away! Mind control everywhere!"
(12:27:56 PM) Claire: She laughs, perhaps a little too hard. "Saint-King, they really are exactly the same, aren't they?"
(12:29:08 PM) Ikiryo: "I'm sure they'd both protest otherwise in exactly the same way."
(12:31:59 PM) ***Claire keeps laughing. "At least Ling just hates the Bureau for real reasons. But here..." She brings up another window, with side-by-side profiles of Ling and Tazzari.
(12:34:23 PM) Ikiryo: She looks over them both carefully. "I'll take one of each" She grins widely.
(12:36:01 PM) Claire: "It's kind of funny how similar they look, isn't it? But their personalities are completely different. Whereas Tazzari and Theia don't look at all alike, but they act completely the same."
(12:37:12 PM) Ikiryo: "Ling looks like she works out...that and much less exotic hair."
(12:43:18 PM) ***Claire nods. "Ling and Altea mixed it up. Apparently she's close to Altea's main strength...and yours, too, I guess."
(12:45:53 PM) Ikiryo: "Being awesome and better than nerds?" She laughs loudly.
(12:46:32 PM) Claire: "I meant more your brute strength," she snickers, "but sure, that."
(12:49:01 PM) Ikiryo: "Too bad. That's clearly what it is now~"
(12:58:06 PM) Claire: "Obviously." She goes quiet for a while, just enjoying her beer and the company...and then she stirs, studiously not looking at Nike. "So. Who's potentially missing that you're trying to find?"
(12:59:03 PM) Ikiryo: "Oh, right. Some girl Theia met called Nasira. Theia was going crazy over meeting someone her age who wasn't a mage."
(1:00:41 PM) Claire: She nods idly. "We know her, too. Friendly girl. Bit bitter about not having a strong-enough linker core...but she has some neat toys to compensate. You remember her from that weekend training at Miss Yvenne's place, right? Big battlesuit she nearly caught me on fire with?"
(1:02:20 PM) Ikiryo: "Vaguely, yeah. I remember the mech pretty well." She smirks.
(1:03:22 PM) Claire: She laughs. "You and Altea'd just finished beating the snot out of each other, so maybe you were still just a tiny bit woozy." She takes another drink. "Who thinks she's missing? Just Theia?"
(1:05:13 PM) SpaceThor [[email protected]] entered the room.
(1:05:19 PM) Ikiryo: "Just Theia right now." She nods "It hasn't even been long enough for a missing person's report. Her and Theia were just going to meet up for brunch and she didn't turn up."
(1:08:15 PM) Claire: "Well, if you want, I can try to put you in touch with her sister Asalah...though I'm not sure how well that'd go over. After all...it was her facility that we found the Strategos in." She deliberately keeps her tone light. "Anyway, maybe she knows something."
(1:13:35 PM) Ikiryo: "Failing all else, maybe I'll get to trash a facility of hers rather than having to stay behind twiddling my thumbs~"
(1:19:10 PM) Claire: She snorts loudly, a most unladylike sound. "Doubt it. As far as I know, she's basically been on house arrest ever since then. And her house is bugged. I don't know why, but her superiors at Caledfwlch hung her out to dry--they even tried to *kill* her, and us, like right as the rest of the girls snuck in to the facility."
(1:26:22 PM) Ikiryo: "...really? I mean...one of my backup jobs was to take her out if she got on site and started threatening the operation but...damn."
(1:28:35 PM) Claire: "Well, we did get her there...but it was the rest of us--and Mneme--that were really the threat." She grins at Nike. "Kind of glad it turned out how it did, except for Indra and the Strategos' coma."
(1:31:50 PM) Ikiryo: "Yeah. It would have been sad if I'd had to kick all your asses~" She smirks