2011-04-11 - Dinner On The SuiKyosha

It is getting to be summer now, starting to get hotter and hotter, and the SuiKyosha is anchored at the Ravens' Nest - floating just slightly off of the ground. That normal presence of a 'wavy' and 'watery' discoloration or refraction that is always present around it remains, and it is currently quite the good place to be. Why, you ask? Well, because they don't need airconditioning to stay cool! In fact, the captain had just invited everyone from the Ravens' Nest into the huge hangar of the SuiKyosha. The gunmen had been tarped off, and Sinya's little broken-Gunmen office had been moved to the side wall. The only Gunmen that was really still visible was the Emperor's, because nobody wanted to go and obscure it.

In the middle of the hangar, a large quantity of tables had been readied. And a gigantic quantity of food is being passed along the tables by female Chinese looking servers. Not all of them are from the SuiKyosha, but most of them are. And it is their food that the men of the SuiKyosha and the Ravens' Nest are putting into their mouths. The hangar has a small opening at the moment, down a long ramp that leads past the refraction area outside, and simply onto the ground. Sitting at a throne at the end of the hangar - between the two ramps that head up, sits the Emperor. And standing next to him is... nobody. The XO is tinkering with her motorcycle at the moment, whilst a couple of random hot guys are watching her do so. Or... just her ass.

After taking an extended hiatus from working on the SuiKyosha, it seems as if the one sure-fire way of getting Sinya back onto the big, oceanic battleship is with the invitation of food. Rather than taking her guymelef, she hitches a ride with Ling, her protege, who drops her off neatly in the hangar while he goes to park his gunmen. For the most part, it seems that teacher and student had become quite close, at least enough so that he often stayed over at the Raven's Nest, and had even crashed at her place a time or two. It's certainly enough to raise a few eyebrows among the rest of the hangar staff, even if Sinya showed no signs of favoritism towards the young man.

Walking over towards her office, which is actually a broken down gunmen, the catgirl tosses her bag into its open mouth, and then heads towards the tables. Food is a priority. Her nose twitches as she grabs up a plate, "So what's all this for?" She asks of one of the serving women, shooting a curious glance towards Xiang on his throne. Nice touch. "The Captain announcing a new line of fish sticks?" She stacks her plate with food, mostly of the meat persuasion, although a few bits of fruit and some crusty bread do find their way as well.

There are two things which Kazuma rarely ignores completely if he's in the area of one of them.

The first is a proper open marketplace - bazaars and stuff like that. Even a good flea market is usually worth investigating at length. The second is when somebody's offering food and a chance to mingle. It's not like any of the Valstork Family routinely go hungry, but mealtimes and buffet parties are an incredible chance to meet and get to know more about others, especially among Trailers.

So upon hearing that the SuiKyosha is having an 'open house' with food, Kazuma wasted little time in locating Macua and seeing if she felt like going out to dinner on what is, truthfully, one of the most interesting ships Kazuma's ever set foot on.

He may have underestimated the dress code a little, but when Kazuma arrives with Macua, he's wearing something which could pass, acceptably, for a business suit. Somehow he's got a necktie which bears the Valstork's emblem.

Heat? That's something that's been sorely missed. She's missed it so much as the last two years things have been very cold thanks to the bombardment of the Zentradi and the DC's colony drop. She knew the ship and had been a bit taken a back by what Kazuma was wearing as she was far more dressed for the beach with a dark green bikini top, shorts, and sandals. She's also likely got a bikini bottom on under the shorts. She's also got her headband on as normal. She's almost never got that off for whatever reason. She kinda gigles at Kazuma a little a bit. "Now ain't we the pair, Kazuma!"

She's not sure what's here other than food that's likely amazing to enjoy at the very least as she's starting to look around to find the food.

The lady, a bit old and wrinkly, smiles at Sinya when she speaks up to her and dumps some seafood noodles onto her plate, followed by pouring a glass of rice wine. "Emperor want celebratioooon. He no tell us why." She claims with the thickest English-Chinese accent she can muster, without it being completely un-understandable. "Oh! You want fish-stick. Here, have fish-stick." And from a half-filled plate, Sinya's plate suddenly has a bit of a... round shape to it with all the fish-sticks on there now. "You eat good." She shakes a ladle at the catgirl. "Eat all. Good fol-you." And off the lady walks.

When Kazuma comes in, another lady quickly comes up to him and gives him a look-over, before trying to drag him and Macua off towards the tables. "You come. Eat much. Good food." What is up with all these bad English speaking ladies anyhow? Clearly, they are not from this ship, because Xiang's people all speak proper English. Is he hiring cheap Chinese labor!? The lady then points at Macua too... who gets an odd look. "You come too." She quickly gets behind them and starts pushing them to where Sinya was sitting. Since, y'know, there was an open spot there.

Xiang, in the meantime, has noticed the arrivals and has gotten up. He's still a people kind of Emperor, and it's becoming more and more common for him to mingle with them - even though his face never really seems to change from being entirely straight. He steps towards Sinya, halting at the opposite side of the table from her, and bows his head slightly at her. "Welcome back on board, miss Leland.

Since when was there anyone in the SuiKyosha with that thick of an accent? Of course, the entire ship had people who /looked/ Chinese, but it is all to clear to Sinya that the wrinkled old woman isn't part of the usual crew. Still, she isn't about to argue with more food being heaped onto her plate. If nothing else, the the catgirl's reputation of being able to polish off huge amounts of food probably preceeds her. "Uh, thank you." Confused, but offering a small smile, Sinya shrugs and then heads off towards the tables, only then hearing the same woman's voice behind her.

The catgirl's green eyes turn to Kazuma and Macua, her head tilting slightly. They were /not/ the usual people she'd expect to see, so perhaps they were other Trailers? Setting her plate down, the catgirl pulls out a chair and then settles into it with some measure of grace, "Come and join me." She invites, noting the empty places at the table, not quite able to contain the smirk at the differences in the pair's clothing. "Looks like someone got their wires crossed, though. I'm Sinya, by the way." She offers to them, before ending up distracted by the voice of the Captain.

Her ears fold back slightly as Sinya regards him, returning the slight bow of her own head. "Good to be back, Captain. I'm sorry if I had you worried." Her tail twitches at her side, the only outward sign that she might be uncomfortable.

There are probably about half a dozen Trailer maxims which could apply to a situation like this one. "Better to dress up and be overdressed than dress down and be underdressed" is the one which comes most prominently to mind - and in point of fact, if Kazuma needs to, he *can* chuck the jacket and tie and unbutton his collar. Which he may yet do.

For now, he shrugs at Macua as the Chinese-sounding lady drags the two of them over to seats next to a relatively cute catgirl, and he lets himself be seated. As long as he and Macua are next to each other, anyway. Who's next to whom doesn't matter much to him. "Nice to make your acquaintance, Sinya," he says quickly and quietly. "Think I know your voice from the radio - I'm Kazuma Ardygun, of the Valstork Family; this is Macua Huitl, Neo-Brazil's Gundam Fighter from the last tourney. - Although if you're from La Gias that might not mean much to you yet ..."

Then Xiang approaches, and Kazuma starts to get back up before realizing that Sinya didn't bother, so he settles back in and nods/head-bows to Xiang. "Your hospitality is greatly and deeply appreciated, Sir," he says politely.

Macua Huitl looks at yhe lady for a moment she nod a little bit. She's polite and understands the issues with leaning japanese for example. Well half of it was stuff shoved in her head by Blue Cosmos at least. She follows the woman with Kazuma to meet up with Sinya. With the invitation to join her she accepts and sits down at the table.

"Hey there..."

Kazuma introduces himself and herself, so she doesn't have to do that just yet. She looks over to Xiang.

"Thank you for having us here."

Xiang nods at Kazuma. He had never met him, but manages to look like he recognizes him. "Ah yes, mister Ardygun. The one who delivered the goods to our ship recently. How are you today?" He doesn't respond to Sinya first, instead bowed at the one who had just joined them. Only then does Xiang turn towards Sinya. "You're quite fine. I heard from Yu about what happened, so..." Pause, "... I'm good. No worries." He shakes his head a bit, then straightens up again.

He bows his head at Macua. "Ah, I see you are prepared again. Planning on taking another swim?" He'd noticed the 'dress' miss Macua had put on. "I mean, it is still open. But..." He tips his head only slightly, then actually shrugs. He's been... strangely expressive. Not very, but still, more than normal. He's trying to apply those techniques Sinya had told him about to mingle. "I do hope you will enjoy the food." A waiter that was actually from the ship comes with two big plates of random seafood and noodles and puts then down before them.

"You are quite welcome, mister Kazuma. I haven't been in the Ravens' Nest much. Ever since my last battle in the Arena, every time I come in, I get badgered for some reason. Something about Lord Genome and Gunmen. But there's usually too many people shouting and what-not to really understand what they want. So I usually... avoid them."

There is a moment of realization in the catgirl's eyes as she puts faces to the voices that she had heard over the radio. It's an odd thing, getting to know someone only through voice and then coming to understand that there is a person behind it. "Ahh, I think we've talked before, both of you. It's nice to finally get to meet you." She doesn't offer a hand out, mostly because her last experience trying to give anyone a handshake had left her a bit ... well, shaken. Human customs and beastmen customers were not remotely similar in that regard.

"I have heard of the Gundam fight. The Captain and I attended the celebrations in Neo Japan when that young woman announced her intent to stand as Neo Japan's fighter." That event seemed like such a long time ago. So much had changed since then. "You're right, we don't exactly have a custom like that on La Gias, but I've lived here for the past two years, so... I'm more human than not." She smirks, and then chuckles to herself, "Most of the time."

Her eyes briefly pass over Xiang, settling on Macua and her more... revealing outfit. That is when an idea strikes her, "I've actually seen a few of the crew, and visitors doing scuba diving. It must be amazing to get to swim through the walls of the ship, especially to some of the inner reaches." It's a fair guess, knowing what she does now about the SuiKyosha, that there were areas of the ship only available through the water passageways. "It's a shame I don't know how to swim." And, just about that time a couple of muscley warriors on the SuiKyosha walk by, one by the name of Feng Liu happening to catch this admission. It's going to come back to haunt her someday. Someday, probably sooner rather than later.

Kazuma raises his eyebrows a bit. "Scuba diving, huh ... as for learning to swim, it's ... well, it's tricky. You kinda have to go against your instincts ... but once you *do* learn? Lots of fun - better than zero-G, really."

Although now he's wishing *he'd* brought swimming trunks or something. Oh well, he can always sit back and watch Macua ... while she's in sight, anyway.

"Yeah, Lord Genome is generally considered 'bad news' all across outer-surface Earth," he says to Xiang. "I've seen him in combat a few times ... *scary* dude. Great to have on your side if that's where your luck puts him ... utterly terrifying enemy."

Xiang watches the group of muscly warriors wander on past, and Feng in particular. He doesn't show it outwardly, but he knows that he is trouble when it comes to Beastmen. He's a tad worried about what he'd obviously just heard - since it wasn't hard to read the racist SuiKyoshan's expression. But, again, the Emperor doesn't let it show. He listens to the folks talk, then suddenly grabs a lonely chair and settles in front of the new gathered group - a bit away from the table as to seem distant enough that people would not get too suspicious - or think he'd start favoring people. At... whatever.

"So tell me. I've heard of this whole Gundam Fight thing, but what is it about anyhow? I read up on it, but I still feel like I don't understand it." The captain notes, then nods at Sinya. "Swimming through the walls is indeed a pass-time. But you have to be careful. It's not exactly safe, and as miss Macua already has found out, the water isn't clean fresh water - there's algae and everything in there. So you'd likely need a shower afterwards." He wags his hand slightly, almost as if he wanted to discard what he just said. But it was still true.

Sitting upright, he looks at the three before him now, and only takes his gaze off of them to accept a glass of red wine, before speaking again. "Perhaps miss Macua can teach you how to swim." He quickly glances at Feng. "I think that would be a good idea." he adds, talking to himself obviously, before nodding at Kazuma. "Yes, he is a terrifying man. I do not wish to meet him, and only wonder what ruthlessness his offspring would bring to this world." Oh, how clueless. "But I do not see how he could ever be on 'my side'."

Macua Huitl nods to Xiang, "I had considered going for a swim a little while after dinner."

Waiting for an hour or so she gives Kazuma a look like she's planning to drag him along. One way or another. But first it's time to enjoy their meal and the company of Sinya along with their host. She is totally not complaining at all about the food, it smells good.

She looks to Sinya nodding.

"At least when you haven't accidenly been sucked in by the ship. That happened the last time. Oh - you don't? I bet I could help teach you how to swim if you like!"

She now takes a moment for a moment she looks to Kazuma and may end up buying something from the locals so Kaz can come along.

"It was organized long before I was born as an attempt an alternate to war rather than entire armies fighting the idea was the best fighter of each nation would fight and the winner's nation would rule the others for the next four years. It however has been starting to fail and prehaps should be turned into more of an international competion but that remains to be seen."

She could go on about somethings but she choses to keepo polite on themn honestly

"You have to be a native of Earth or it's colonies however."

"Never had much chance to learn." Sinya explains as she plucks up one of the pile of fish sticks, nomming it down with her usual surprising speed. "Zaibach didn't let us have time for such frivalous things, and the human family that took me in spent most of their time salvaging in the desert. After that, I've been too busy to bother. Maybe someday." As much as Xiang seems to put weigh ton the suggestion, Sinya simply shrugs her shoulders. Whatever had passed between her and the SuiKyosha seems to have dampened with her time away, and she seems to not have the slightest of idea that her comment was overheard.

"I'm not particularly a fan of Lord Genome, if only because half of the flak I get from people is because they think I'm one of his beastmen." Her tail twitches, even though the catgirl's green eyes linger on the food rather than on her companions. "But there were quite a few at the Arena who cheered you on when you flew the Azure Dream." She notes, raising her glass of wine towards Xiang in a toast. "I certainly didn't mind the pocket money I got off of betting on you." The corner of her mouth quirks in a wry smile.

"I guess it depends on your definition of natives of Earth. Since technically Gaea is inside the Earth, as is the Spiral Plains." Not that Sinya would ever want to become a Gundam fighter. Still, even as she seems about to say more, Ling comes rushing over. "Sorry to bother you again, Sin." Sin? Informal, isn't he. Even the Captain refers to her as 'Miss Leland'. "One of the freight machines in the city is acting up, they want us to come look at it." The catgirl's eyes turn towards Xiang, her expression almost skeptical, but she nods and takes the plate with her as she rises to her feet. "Alright, but I'm eating on the way. Let's go." She's back less than an hour and they /already/ are finding work for her. Sigh.

Kazuma winces a bit as Sinya is more or less dragged off. "Man, they didn't even let her finish eating first. That's just all kinds of rude for anything that isn't a life-threatening emergency ..." Or an attack on the ship, but those always pre-empt everything that isn't going to kill you faster than the attackers will.

"As for Lord Genome being on someone's side other than his own ... it occasionally happens. The Zentraedi invasion, the Balmarian war ... he's been protecting Earth when it comes down to it, just - when there isn't an extraterrestrial invasion fleet in orbit, he's pretty much hostile to everyone else. Last time he 'helped' with anything short of aliens was .... hmm ... I'd have to look it up," he says sheepishly. "I want to say he was at Bardos when we 'killed' Duke Brazen and rescued Kamina."

"Yes, it does seem like the beastmen get a bad reputation thanks to him." But then, a lot of the beastmen on the Spiral Plains were, in fact, evil. Or at least, so it seemed to him. As for the Arena. "I think it's not that. They just want to grab my attention or something. It seems that using a Gunmen as a machine is quite the feat around here." He knew that the Gurren Brigade did the same, but it was still a rarity non-the-less. Kazuma brings up the topic of Genome further. "I guess he wouldn't want to get wiped out..." He offers as an explaination for that one. But when Kamina gets raised as a subject, Xiang cocks an eyebrow.

He doesn't pry however, thinking the Great Kamina needed no rescueing, and that Kazuma is probably just exagerating. "Anyhow." He is about to say something again when suddenly Ling approaches. He observes the moment between Ling and Sinya... and for a moment, jealousy creeps in. This is a rather strange sensation, and has Yu suddenly standing up and looking about to where Xiang was currently seated. She sees Ling and Sinya wander off and shakes her head.

Ahem. For a moment there, Xiang showed some emotion, a tad of annoyance, but it disappears quickly again. "I see. Well, I guess it's better than many people losing their lives I guess." The captain offers to Macua, and nods at her. "And yes, it is rather rude. But sometimes the job calls I guess." He can't quite hide the annoyance in his voice however. "So this Gundam Fight thing, does it require those... 'Mobile Trace Suit' things?"

Macua Huitl eye narrows at the mention of Genome.

"He and his legions need to be killed, they are mad dogs, he's just another rambling cryptic as if we don't have enough of those around. He's basically a murderous mad man who has an army of clone beastmen he created to purge humans."

"I think we had some La Gias fighters before actually. I could be wrong though." Sinya is dragged off to her fate and she looks to Kazuma for a moment.

"He needs a bullet in his brain Kazuma, lets face it. He likely only helped cause of some personal grudge against them."

She now turns to Xiang for a moment. "It was the attempt at least to lessen it and no but you may be looked at a bit strangly however. Most fighter do use them as a lot of nations field martial artists, commandos and the like to better put to use their training on foot and to get a living level of motion out of their machine."

"Case in point," says Kazuma, "I pilot the Valhawk using its regular controls, even for my Gundam Fight matches. And I can make it *move* like any Gundam Fighter with their trace suit - if it weren't for the height difference, I could probably get in the Valhawk's cockpit, have Macua get in her Gundam, and the two of us could dance just as if we were on foot ... well, maybe it'd take a bit more practice than regular dancing," he concedes. "Can't read body cues as easily in a mecha as with real flesh-and-blood bodies ..."

The Captain nods at the both of them. "Yes, Lord Genome is dangerous." He agrees and suddenly stands up. He looks into the direction the girl and Ling had gone off to. He turns back to Kazuma and Macua, whilst Yu has noticed him getting up and is now on her way to him. "I see. I should try one of those... Mobile Trace Suits once then. It sounds... interesting. Now, if you will excuse me." and just as he is about to wander after Sinya and Ling, Yu arrives and stops him, shaking her head at him and placing her hand to his chest. "Let them be." She whispers. "It's not what it looks like." She adds, and then nudges her head towards the throne. "Go on." And he gets kind of... pushed away. The XO smiles at Macua and Kazuma. "Captain Xiang needs to go back to his seat for a bit." She explains, and ends up pushing the Emperor back to his seat - where a few professional and money-waving Trailers were waiting for him. Time to reel in some contracts.

Macua Huitl says, "Still you might be looked down on a little bit. Humm, that might be fun to try Kazuma - and would certain help on both of our level of control over out machine. It could be good for a date too." Yes you have a jungle amazon girlfriend Kazuma. Her idea of a date will always be warped

She meanhile nods in agreement for a moment "I can see I think there's a few in some the common depos for the trailers." She atches him leave. "It's all right."

Xiang likely has business to tend to right?

"Just keep in mind," Kazuma says, "-- trace suits are gonna be really hard on you if you're not in good shape to start with or haven't taken the time to get used to them. And take care, Sir ..." He waves a bit as Xiang heads back to his seat at the head table, then continues eating.

And yes, Kazuma knows full well that he has an Amazon for a girlfriend ... well, in the vernacular sense of the word anyway.