2011-04-05 - A Failure in Understanding

Late evening has settled in upon the Raven's Nest. Lights have been turned down low, giving the impression of night. Sounds are more muted. The low murmur of conversation as people walk by, the crying of a baby in the distance, but mostly it seems like any neighborhood, if it weren't for the fact that most of the Trailers living in the 'nest are crammed in together in such tiny accomidations.

A light still glows within the catgirl's quarters, implying at the very least that she might still be awake. While things might be neatly kept outside, inside is another matter entirely. There are boxes of parts strewn everywhere, sometimes stacked all the way up to the ceiling. There is enough walking distance to get around them, but only just barely. A table and tiny kitchenette sits on one end of the trailer, while a bed covered in more blankets and pillows than you can shake a stick at crowds the other.

Sinya is roughly right between them, not far from the doorway. The catgirl has her head down, toiling over a work bench as fits parts into place. Now and again, her eyes glance to a computer screen before looking down again. Set out before her is what appears to be a headset. It seems not unlike the one she had shown Edward before - the one that she used to pilot Arius, but this one is different somehow.

Soft knock at Sinya's door. If she were to look she'd see Edward at her door carrying a pair of boxes with one hand, and what could have been a wrapped bundle of cloths under the other. He'd remembered the Gaean beastwoman's forgetfulness of food while she was working, and he wanted to show off a little something else too.

One of Sinya's ears perks at the sound of the knock to her door. There is a slight pause, but rather than lifting her head, she simply talks as her hands continue their work. "Ling, if that's you, I told you already that I'm not going over to the SuiKyosha tonight. I don't care if Tao blew up another gunmen." She seems to be trying to head off any argument from her protege, not knowing who actually is at the door.

The fact is, Sinya had been avoiding the SuiKyosha the last few days, and there are a few of the crew she worked with that had noticed. Ling, especially, had been trying to get her back on-board, fearing that the fight with Feng Liu had caused her to be distrustful or uncomfortable with the his people. What none of them knew is that there was far more to it than just that.

When Ling's pleading doesn't follow, Sinya looks up, blinking, her tail twitching in irritation. Had she forgotten that she invited Edward over? Probably. With a sigh, she pushes back from her desk and stalks over towards the door, not even bothering to look out before opening it. "What is it...oh." Her ears draw back as realization dawns. Oops. "Hey Edward. Um, sorry about that." She rubs at the back of her neck sheepishly, even as her nose starts twitching. Food? "I'd forgotten I invited you over. Come on in." She steps back from the door, pressing her back against a stack of boxes.

The response from inside the trailer wasn't wholly unexpected. After all once word got 'round different people had approached him to at least see what was keeping the Beastwoman mechanic off-ship.

When the door opened Ed offered her a box, which had definate food smells coming from inside. "You and me are going to need to talk... Seems like something off happened and nobody's given me a straight answer." He ducked his head to get inside, since few doors were built for his size in mind. Looking around he just shook his head. "Taking your work home much lady?"

As one might expect, Sinya seems to zero in on the food, accepting it without question and then licking her lips as her tail sways with expectation. She takes one glance at the small table in her kitchenette, and then thinks better of it, walking by Edward to clear some room on the bed. At the very least, regardless of how many pillows and blankets there are, it seems to be the cleanest surface in the entire trailer. "Sorry I can't offer a better seat. I don't get much company." She hops up on the bed, settling herself down indian-style so she can peek into the box, nose already twitching.

It's his claim that they need a talk that has her pausing though. "Need to talk?" She asks, looking at him curiously. "You make it sound like we're dating and you're going to break up with me." She smirks, a teasing expression on her lips, "It's okay. It's not me, it's you. You can keep Shelly, but I get the spare parts." No, she isn't taking things particularly seriously, although there is a curious tilt to her head.

As she opens the box to see what kind of food he managed to get, she chuckles to herself. "I like to thinker with things. It helps pass the time. Besides... I've been doing cybernetics research and I needed parts." Then, patting a spot on the bed, she watches him with those green eyes of hers. "What exactly do you need a strait answer about? I'll admit, you've got me confused."

He'd expected a joke over the way he'd spoke, and the girl didn't disappoint. Ed smiled back at Sinya as he sat, perhaps causing the bed to groan and sink under unaccustomed weight, "Oh I'm not letting you run off with all my girl's spares. Not getting that sweet of a deal." He flipped open his box and inhaled deep. Both dishes were the same. Chineese. Lots of it and a fair amount of variety. Dumplings, fish, noodles, lots of seasoning, lots of /STUFF/ there.

After breathing in the smell and breathing out Ed's smile faultered. "Ling had wanted me to ask why you haven't been back, but I'm not going to press if you don't want to answer." Cats are hardy straightforward beasts, and women.... Edward has never been able to figure women out. So dealing with a combination of these on something that is a topic they've been avoiding is.... problimatic.

"Mmm." Sinya looks down at the array of food, scootching herself back against the wall as she takes up a pair of pre-wrapped chopsticks and breaks them, starting to dig in. As usual, it had probably been far too long since her last meal, which left her feeling quite ravenous. "Fine, you can have half the parts, but I get visitation rights." She points the chopsticks at him, then scoops up some food and starts to eat with her usual surprising speed.

When he mentions Ling, though, the catgirl coughs mid-way through a bite, holding a finger up as she clears her throat and manages to swallow. "Oh great. He actually dragged you into this?" She asks, seeming a bit flabbergasted by the fact that she is unable to escape from dealing with issues at hand. She sighs, plucking up an egg-roll as she looks at Edward, "It isn't something I can talk about with Ling. I just need a few days to get my head on strait. Things on the SuiKyosha have been... confusing at best." She takes a bite of the egg-roll, seeming reluctant to get into details, or perhaps just reluctant to spend too much time not eating.

With a shrug Edward seemed to take that part of the discussion as over. If the girl didn't want to talk and it wasn't going to be long term it wasn't really his business. If it turned into long term though then that would be different. In the meantime though he was assaulting a dumpling, then another, and some kind of meaty peppery mess. For someone ith large fingers, and possibly giving the impression of being the exct opposit of grace, he used chopsticks quite well.

"Fine, but I want our scheduals in writing so there won't be any nickering. Especially not in front of Shely. Poor girl wouldn't be able to take us arguing in front of her." He sniffled, perhaps overly much for effect.

Oddly enough, it's the discussion about their 'divorce' arrangements that Sinya drops as she mumurs around her food. In the close confines, her tail ends up resting against his side, the tip twitching. "Are women as confusing to you as men are to me?" She asks, which may seem as if it came out of nowhere. "I mean, at least you were strait-forward." She notes, stirring her chopsticks around one of the dishes absentmindedly. "You were interested. You asked me out." Her ears flick back, seeming a little unsure about if she should be dredging this back up, "It's not your fault I was so busy at the time I couldn't take you up on the offer."

She sighs, and takes another few mouthfuls before actually explaining what this has to do with anything. "I can't tell for the life of me if Captain Xiang actually /likes/ me or if he's just being nice to me because he's afraid I'll leave him high and dry if he turns into Mr. Stone-face around me." She tips her head back, looking up at Edward, "And if that wasn't confusing enough, his stupid ship seems to be trying to get in on the act, too." What? Okay, that sounded crazy even to her own ears.

Aaahhh the Truth, or at least part of it, emerges. Edward rumbles and makes other noises in his throat as he thinks, possibly as a cue to the beastwoman that he is indeed thinking. "I've always considered straightforward better than being subtle, at least to a degree." He sat his food aside and leaned forward, which caused creaking and other noises from the overburdened bed. "Xiang seems to have been raised with protocol, a time and way for everything, and this is just me guessing based on other people in authority that actually take the responsability seriously, maybe he's feeling conflicted on the whole 'relationship' mess himself since it would feel like cheating his obligations."

The big man shrugged, "But you've been around him more than me. What do you think?"

Edward's movements on the bed nearly cause Sinya to topple forward, catching herself on one hand before she goes falling into the hulk of a man. She carefully shifts her legs, trying to get her balance back as she checks to make sure none of the food had spilled. "Exactly. That's the problem. He's an Emporer. He's tied so tightly in so many knots he'd make the ladies who hang out in that alleyway near the Arm Pit seem like novices." She chuckles to herself, but the confusion is still evident in her eyes. "He said it before, if he marries it's for the good of his people." She hisses between her teeth, "And don't even get me started on the concubines. One of the hangar crew was telling me about that. How every wife is a concubine and how they expect he'll have more than any Emporer in their history." She ughs to herself, and then seems to give up on the food, setting it on a chair nearby the bed before flopping herself backwards, looking up at the ceiling.

Edward's question is left to linger for a while, mulling over the thought. "I don't know what to think. He's so..." Her hands flex in the air, as if she were throttling an invisible neck. "... wrapped in layers of obfuscation. Sometimes I /think/ I see a real person, but it's like a mirage in the desert. Gone in a flash." Her eyes shift back to Edward, rolling herself onto her side so she's sprawled lightly next to him.

"I'm not sure what to tell you." Edward's sigh was soft as he tried thinking the problem through. "Nearest I've gotten to anything like that was this girl that I got introduced to because our parents thought it would be a good solid gesture. She was raised and groomed to be her family's mouthpiece. Sometimes I'd think there as someone there under it all. Other times I think it was just another layer to her training and there wasn't a real person behind any of it." Insensetive sounding, but Tanya had been something of an arguing point and one of the big man's worst personal failings.

Click. Wirrr. His mind latched onto something to pull itself out of Bad Memories. "Wait... The /SHIP/ is trying to get you two together?" Incredulity, thy name is Edward. "This I gotta hear."

"That's exactly where I'm at. I'm not sure if there actually is a Xiang Yuan. It's like he doesn't really exist." She grabs onto one of the pillows, wrapping her arms around it as she sprawls, seeming just as comfortable within her own space as she is around machines. "The last thing I want is to be some royal's idea of a fling. Or worse, as some potiential concubine. Ick. I've been a slave once already, I'll pass." Sure, perhaps that isn't /exactly/ the definition the crew had used, but it's close enough for her tastes, and it's clear that idea doesn't sit well with the mechanic.

Still, she does look at him with a bit more curiousity. "You got fixed up?" She asks, ears perking. "I don't know, I guess I'd imagined that the whole tall, dark, handsome and well dressed thing would get you more ladies than you could shake a stick at." She seems about to say something else on that regard, when the comment about the ship seems to click with him. Crap.

"Err.. I don't think it's like that really." Sinya pauses as her ears drop back, the confusion returning to her face as she purses her lips. "I don't know what it is really. I mean, you probably haven't been around enough to notice, but... he /knows/ what's happening everywhere on his ship. Like... not just guesses, but knows. He just shows up out of nowhere." She grips the pillow a bit tighter, as if she found the idea just a little unnerving. "I can't make much sense of it, because it was all really confused, but..." Her eyes look up to Edward's face, seeming serious. "The Captain told me the ship is... a telepath."

"The Land and King are one it seems." Where was that line from? He /KNEW/ it was from something. Bah. "Given everything else i've seen, not just of that ship but of everything Life has tossed at me. I would believe it." He then chuckled soft at a notion that just hit. "Maybe he's just a newtype and is putting on airs about a telepathic ship just to mess with you?" He didn't perticularly believe the notion, if only because the concept seems so far outside of what he considered the Captain/Emperor to do for it's own sake.

He rumbled deep. "Ladies... yes. A few guys too." Memories, mundain moreso than... other. "I've taken advantage of my size to make sure all of 'em think I'm incompatable." He picked up a dumpling from his plate and chewed thoughtfuly so that remark would have time to sink in. "It is something I do not like doing, but it keeps me from having to deal with people flinging themselves at me left and right."

Of the 'arranged' situation he makes no further mention.

His quite seems to catch Sinya off-guard, as if she hadn't really thought of it that way before. During one of her first conversations with the Captain, she had considered just how much enslaved he may be to his position as the Emporer of the SuiKyosha. "Well, I figured you'd be one of the few to actually /believe/ me." She sighs, watching him eat. Mostly, her appetite had gone. "I think it makes a lot of sense, though. It wasn't just him reading my mind, but... I could feel things, too." She sits up a bit, propping herself on her hands. "He and I were sparring, and it felt really odd. Like I could read where his attacks would be." Speaking of that, the motion of her body seems to shift part of her shirt, showing white bandages wrapping around her shoulder. "I just don't know how deep it goes. How much he knows about those of us who have been on his ship."

There is another topic that she can latch on to, however, which seems to be more comfortable than this unnerving one. Sitting up, she scootches over next to him, so that there is only a few inches between. "Why?" She asks, obviously both interested and concerned. "I mean, you're one of the tallest guys I know, but I don't think you're so big down there that you can like... club unwitting people to death or something." There is a nervous tone to her voice, as if she weren't quite sure how to talk about that particular part of male anatomy. "But why keep people away? I mean, you asked me out. And it's not like you tried to ward me off with your gargantuan bits or anything..."

This caused a laugh from the big man. "A date is a different thing than jumping in the sack with someone." Edward tried to keep his tone light even with his friend bandaged as she was. "Dates I get plenty of. I like going out, seeing the crowds. Music, plays... Lots of things." He picked his plate up and stirred thigns about, apparently hunting for something in the food. "Bedroom antics I'd rather avoid with just anyone, and that's what most people are after if they're activly chasing me around. That or a connection with my folks."

"True..." Sinya considers this for a moment, then nods her head. "I've never really had much time for dating. I get up, I work, I eat, I sleep. The few bits of time in between I either spend at the bars, refining my craft, or training with my staff." She lifts her opposite shoulder in a half-shrug. "But, part if it is that letting people in too close is scary." Her tail sways, bumping against her legs. "I mean, I get my own group of weirdos who think having romp with some freakshow beastman will win them points with their buddies. Usually those are easy to avoid though." A smirk plays on her lips, although it doesn't linger long.

She seems to go silent for a time, considering just how much she wants to say or not. "Humans... haven't treated me well." It's as good a place to start as any, but she uses it to martial her bravery as she takes a deep breath and continues. "I used to hide in the guymelefs, or up in high places where they couldn't find me. They left me alone while I was working, so I always found a reason to be busy with a machine, and if I wasn't, I wasn't anywhere they could find me." The hairs on her tail stand slightly on-end. "I'm still... not really used to being touched, even by people I care about. And I hate being grabbed." Her claws extend a little, kneeding the pillow. "I nearly clawed Angel the other day when he tried to show me the right way to give a handshake."

Stuff Ed had guessed at, but had finally gotten conformation on wasn't pleasant in this case. "Well. You're a friend, and you've had a rough life." He kept poking at his food. "It's not something i can really imagine." Actually thanks to the fragments and other tidbits hanging in his head he could do more than than that, and perhaps some of this lie showed on his face. "Still.... Wait... You. Ah right. Good that I don't randomly tap people on the shoulder then." He wasn't trying to joke. "Just.. You need help scarring people off I can always threaten to eat them." Sure she was quite capible of taking care of herslef, but sometimes having a big guy show up and fling people around as a demonstration was the quicker way. "Then again then that'd get everyone talking.... I mean you're already my preferred mechanic."

Shaking her head, sinya manages to pull a smile onto her features, although it doesn't quite wash away the lingering bit of sadness in her eyes. "No, I haven't had it as rough as some. I was lucky, and I'm glad of it. This..." She looks around her small space, the bit of the world she calls her own, "All of this is because I'm free now. And I couldn't be more happy for it. It's better than the alternative." That, she simply doesn't elaborate on, but it's easy enough to guess. The life of a female slave would be short-lived, and probably quite a violent one.

Cautiously, the catgirl reaches one hand out and lightly lays her fingers against his arm, then draws them away again. "You've done it few times, but I don't mind. I need to get used to it. I can't really freak out every time I get nudged." She does laugh softly though, looking at him with some amusement showing on her face. "The Captain hugged me, and didn't get his face clawed off, so you're probably safe." A bit of color shows on her cheeks, although it doesn't linger as she glances over at her half-eaten food. The moment of tense conversation is past, so she scoops up the box and starts polishing off what's left.

"Anyway. The ladies in the shop said this," He patted the bundle he'd sat on her bed behind him, "Looked good on me. I'm not so sure." Then again he was too used to his suits really to be a good judge, and he knew it. "Going to go back when their blacksmith returns to see if I can get a sword to match. I know. Silly. Guns and gint robots everywhere. What good will a pointy bit of metal do?"

Sinya looks up with most of the food having been scarfed down quickly, swallowing as she seems to take his change of topic curiously. Then again, perhaps neither of them were really comfortable with the previous one. "Can I see?" She asks, looking at the bundle and then back to Edward. "I mean, I'd offer you the bathroom to change in, but I'm not sure you'd fit." She chuckles, sitting back a bit, letting out a contented sigh now that her stomach is satiated. "I mean, I can just promise to shut my eyes real tight and you could change here. I won't peek, promise!" She puts one hand over her eyes even before he can accept, just to show she's being honest about it.

"I don't think it's silly, though." She continues, still sprawled out on the bed with her eyes covered. "I use a bo-staff, and so does my guymelef. There are plenty of mechs out there with blades, so being skilled with swords would actually be a good thing." A thought seems to strike her, "Miss Yu is supposed to be the best swordsman on the SuiKyosha. I haven't seen her fight, myself, though. All I know is the Captain kicked my butt, and that was with my weapon of choice."

Yes, changing in the bathroom was a bit out of the question, and even in the main area of the trailer it was a bit cramped. However Ed made do, mostly by throwing his suit jacket over Sinya's face and doing the hop-step-shuffle to get swapped out.

"Alright... try keeping the laughter ot a minimum ok?" Rust red trimmed in gold. Tunic, pants. There were even a pair of boots in the deal. Wide gold sash for a belt knotted to one side. Edward stood there, waiting.

The jacket being thrown over her has Sinya simply sitting there, head tilting left and right as it causes the jacket to move around her. Honestly, it does look a bit silly, since it nearly covers her entirely. She does sniff a little, "Your jacket smells like you." As if this weren't obvious. She waits, ever patiently, her tail shifting on the bed as she listens to him doing the 'get dressed' dance. Only when he gives the okay does she peek up from under one arm of his jacket and look out at the outfit.

Her head tilts, but her expression seems curious, appraising even. "The red suits you, it really does." She finally says, nodding her head slightly, one ear still down beneath his jacket. "Not as much as the suits, though, but it's a nice change of pace. The real question is... how do you feel in it?" She asks, finally pulling the jacket off her head, laying it across her lap as her fingers lightly fiddle with the fabric.

Edward moved, flexed a little. "It feels lighter than what i usually go for." He started gathering up his clothing and stuffed them in the sack his new threads came from. "I tend to favor red since it complaments skin and hair better." Oh sure he had a few blue suits, but that was more variety's sake than anything else. "Also like greens, earth tones really. Warm colors." He smiled. "This was the simplist pattern I'd bought. I've got five others in progress and I'll have to go back for fittings once they're ready." He could still picture the woman's face when he explained what he wanted. Not so much the order size, but the sheer volume of material needed.

"I've considered giving them some of my patronage, myself. I think the material would make some fantastic night-clothes. Something to really wow those guys who think I'm just a grease monkey." She chuckles to herself, "Kind of like the dress from the Neo Japan ball." Her lips are drawn up with a wry expression, obviously still quite pleased that her outfit had a fairly positive response from most of the men she'd encountered. Then, the smile on her face falters for a moment, remembering just why she had been avoiding the ship. The dip in her mood doesn't last long though as she offers out his jacket back to him. "It does look quite nice on you, though. Maybe you could see if they can do something like one of your normal suits, but with the lighter material."

The big man shook his head. "Nah. It's their business. Their selection." He did like the idea of these as sleepwear. Then again- Wait. Sinya, in some of those dresses he'd seen on board? "Well," Ed smirked, "If you want a dress or three you're going to have to go there and get one." Just a little needling. He didn't want to goad her too much, what with not knowing quite why she was avoiding the entire ship instead of just Xiang himself.

"Yeah, yeah." Sinya waves off the suggestion of going back to the SuiKyosha, her eyes looking towards her work bench. She almost... almost uses that as an excuse for why she couldn't, but then shakes her head. "I will, eventually. It's a contract and I still haven't gotten Ling fully trained yet. It'll probably be at least a year before he's ready to lead the hangar crew, and it's good money." She sighs, giving him a slightly vexed look. "I'm just a bit creeped out by the fact the ship seems to be trying to... incorporate me. I don't know why it's me and not anyone else, or what it means. I'm also not sure I want the ship, much less it's Captain to know everything about me."

"Ah..." Ed picked his plate up and snatched a piece of fish off of it. "Yea that.... is" Frightening? Unnerving? "a damned good reason to keep on your feet. Absently he took the offered Jacket and sat it across his lap... in spiteof the half-plate of very messy food on hand. "Nothing really I can give advice on. Maybe they like you. Maybe it's the ship? Could be it wants Xiang to loosen up so his had doesn't pop off and is trying it's options."

"I've been toying with a design that I think might help." She pushes herself off of the bed, scootching past him and actually coming quite close to brushing up against him as she moves over to the work bench. The strange unit, which looks quite like her guymelef's headset is plucked up, and then pulled over her ears before snapping it into place. When worn, it looks almost like a tiara, which wraps lightly around her ears. "I've been studying cybernetics, the way the brain controls and transmits memories and thoughts." She taps the small headset unit, reaching behind her ear to switch it on. "So I looked into ways of blocking the same brain waves." With a shrug, she plucks up the empty container from her food, folding it up and then tucking it into a garbage can already overfull with paper. "I still need to do some more testing with it, but if it works out, I shouldn't have to worry about it anymore." That is, assuming of course that the SuiKyosha works on such simplistic things as 'science'.

Curious that. Edward coudln't help but be interested in this new bit of headgear. "Hm... I remember some old research, could've just been a fluff propaganda piece, on trying to counter the newtype advantage by blocking them. Was years ago and I'm not sure how far I'd trust the article but I could try doing a little digging see how far I get before red tape gets too thick." It's been a decade since the War. Surely to Bob somebody's come up with something by now.

Still wearing the headset-tiara, Sinya leans against one of the boxes of parts, nodding thoughtfully. "I don't know much about newtypes, to be honest." She hadn't thought of that at all. It's a dawning realization, her usual singlemindedness had overlooked. "Crap." She unhooks the headset and sighs, looking at it with a frustrated expression on her face. "Their power isn't something I can use science against, is it?" Her eyes turn towards Ed, regarding him with an almost defeated look on her face. "Great. Even if it did work against a machine interface, there's no way of blocking something science can't even identify." The catgirl takes two steps forward, then bashes her head against one of the boxes adjacent, causing a few parts to spill out. Clutching her hands over her head, she sinks down to the floor, "I don't know what to do..." This is probably the first time for Edward that he's seen Sinya as anything other than a strong, capable young woman. At this moment, she seems far more lost, almost a bit fragile.

While his first instinct would be to put a hand on her shoulder, be the comforting bulk she could lean against, he simply stood by her. "I'm sure w'ell figure something out." He sounded unhappy. "If nothing else try asking for a little more space? I... The ship is an intelligence instead of just acting as a repeater for everything right?"

It is difficult to tell with Sinya if she would have prefered the physical comfort or is better off with the space left between. She looks up towards him, which is quite a stretch for her neck, and then nods. "I don't know. The way he talks about it, it seems as if it's intelligent." Taking a breath, she repeats a few of the words from her memory, "'She isn't feeling up to creating a room for you'. That's what he said once. I didn't think anything of it at the time."

Rubbing at her head, the catgirl tosses the half-finished tiara into a box, where it rattles around with a bunch of other junk. "He said she was trying to make a bond with me." A faint whimper follows her voice, as if that idea were just a bit frightening to her. Still, pressing her lips together, the catgirl pushes herself up onto her feet, stalking back over towards her work desk. "To everyone I've talked to other than the Captain and Miss Yu, it's just a ship. So I can't imagine that it's something common." She sighs, and flops into her chair. "Either that, or I'm just going nuts."

Edward's eyes closed as he tried sifting through what bits and pieces of that other-life he had to see if any of it had anything useful. Instead he was getting a mental image of Char piloting that monster suit he had at Aboa Que... only instead of firing it's hands off as controllable objects it was firing a pair of Ernula (ernulii?) out.

"I... have considered stranger things." This time he did pat her shoulder, tenetivly and only with the tips of his fingers. "However there are always more than what we can currently explain. For all I know the bloody thing runs off Spiral Power and so you're kinda hosed at finding heads from tails on what makes it go."

With one hand, Sinya clasps a pencil and begins tapping it on paper. So far, science has always been able to give her the answers that she needed, but now... it fails her. No amount of mathematics, physics, or even mechanics had any chance in hell of understanding what had happened to her. That alone, is a very scary thing. She glances towards those fingers on her shoulder, nodding slightly. Strangely, her body doesn't stiffen up as it often had before. She had been getting more used to the contact.

"Who knows. There are fish in the walls. It could run on radioactive spiders or spirital god power or something and it'd be just as confusing." Still, she offers him a smile, a weak one, but at least she's trying. "Thanks... for the food. And for coming by Edward. I think I really did need someone to talk to." Answers? Well, she doesn't actually have any, but at the very least she doesn't feel quite so alone.

"You've been there to help me sort my own troubles out." He stuffed the suit jacket in the back with the rest of his clohtes and started for the door. "It'd be poor of me to not be there in return."

Pause. Something nagging at the back of his head. "Oh and I'm going to want your opinion on layout for the arcade. I've got a couple units coming in plus the bare bones for the concession area."

The tap tap tap of the pencil makes an almost pointed sound as if she were tapping out seconds, willing some idea to come to mind. "I appreciate it, more than you know." Her ears slick back, an unsettled feeling sitting in her stomach. "The outfit really does look nice on you." She tries, but her eyes get drawn back to the desk. Rather than saying anything else right away, she plucks one of the boxes from next to the desk, spilling out a handful of parts, including the deactivated cybernetic hand that had been so much trouble to the 'nest security staff.

"It's late." She replies, shaking her head as she takes a screwdriver to it, starting to disassemble it. A few days ago, she might have let it go, but it's just one more failed experiment that needs recycling and a lot more thought. Maybe she could make something out of that tiara. Hrm. If not a blocking divice, perhaps a cybernetic interface for Arius? Those are the kind of ideas that bring her comfort. "Can I try to catch you tomorrow? I mean, if Ling doesn't drag me back to fix some blown up gunmen, that is?"

"I should be around Nest unless some nutter out there wants to throw cars around again." Ed made a face at the memory of the Moleman lovestruck and lovelost. "Till then." He bowed before backing out.