[SgtBoomCloud]

Exchanging a fist bump with Tuska, Arc grinned as she looked over the parts.  "Dare to shay yeh can find thish drew better than I can.  Dayum, thish is all wiz, omae.  We can get thish all shet up later"  leading the way to the rest of the party, the short human was humming as she nodded to Firefly, beckoning her to join them as they dug in heartill into the food made with love.

It wasn't long before Yelena and Marco excused themselves for a private conversation, and Arc took this op to break some silence, her cheery voice piping up over the whirring of the space heater.  "Oh right.  Jed, thish ish Tushkaloosha, and she be with us for our thing.  Better driver than my hoop, and jusht as handy with a wrench.  Tushka, thish cat helped us out quite a bit with the Dust some time ago, and that'sh his bike that rolled in today to be restored." Grinning toothily, she was interrupted by the arrival of her Vruk.

Practically bounding to the door, she let him in with a warm kiss and embrace, closing her eyes as she nodded to the unexpected plans.  "That soundsh great, babe.  I'll do what I can to be home sho we can go together.  My, uh, travel plans got delayed a bit, sho it'sh null sheen, eh?"  she bit her lip, an odd display given her new tusks, but she took his hands ad pulled him to join them.  "there'sh plenty, sit a bit eh?"

[Mercy Merchant]

Yelena watches Marco go with a heavy heart.  She has found a man who can love her and who she can love, but she cannot seem to talk to him.  The two are completely apart on what she is doing and why she is doing it.  No matter how many times she tells him that this is a mission for justice and honor, he comes back and throws the revenge idea at her.  She shrugs.  Maybe he will understand some day.  For now she takes what she can of him and his love.

She returns to the garage and sees that Jaime has arrived.  She greets him with a smile and a hug and digs into her food, casting glances to the door every once in a while.

[gilga]

Marco did not mind the cold, the fresh air helped him clear his head and the voices were quieter. "So many changes and so little time, if only I understood my way, why would a pacifist like me ever go to a terrible place like that? Life are so precious and delicate that endangering them for some past injustice seems empty for me... What happens next? Will I too return as a murderer? Victim of my own life circumstances? Can't Yelena see that evil only give birth to new evil? That she would have never been the way she is if only she had been loved and protected in her formative years. Can the cycle ever be broken?"

There was no time to cry and no room for tears - no place to run away. Shortly after Marco returned peacefully to the table. "God will show him a way" he hoped.

[Mercy Merchant]

Yelena's heart gives a small leap when she sees Marco return to the garage and sit at the table.  She moves a bit closer to him, saying, "Yelena love Marco.  Yelena not want Marco lose way in shadow and darkness.  Marco seems conflicted.  Unsure of path yet certain that path is wrong.  Yelena needs justice for self and others killed by Tsina Molovna, but Marco not need.  Yelena think she and Marco are walking different paths.  Marco wants to stay close to light and Yelena going deeper into shadow, maybe into darkness.  Yelena not want Marco become what Marco hates, especially not if only because Marco follows Yelena.  People will die.  Perhaps many.  Tsina Molovna will receive justice and all who protect her will share justice.  Not want Marco come if Marco hate self or hate Yelena for going.  So Yelena ask again, because she much love Marco.  Marco come Poland with Yelena?  Marco not answer with heart or because already say yes.  Marco think again and come with Yelena only if Marco want to come.  Yelena still love Marco more than any other person ever, even if Marco stay."

Yelena sits back and waits for the answer, holding her breath.

[gilga]

Marco sighs "You should stop asking me that, I may only be 20, but I am a consenting adult.
You deserve justice like anybody else - nobody can take that away from you. However, your justice continues a vicious cycle of violence, your actions create new victims and new monsters. I love you and therefore I want you to chose better, I want you to brake the cycle.

As tempting as it sounds to accept you as fearless and doubtless it saddens me to hear that. In my world, only the desperate are fearless as they have nothing left to lose. Happy people are afraid, they have dependents, loved ones family and they are afraid of losing them. How can you say that you love me when your entire present is so insignificant compared to the past? Aren't you just a little bit afraid of losing me, your blood sister or student? Are you really willing to sacrifice us all to get your justice?

You should stop asking me not to follow you, my doubts are healthy, I am afraid because I value my life and emotional attachments - I do have many things to lose.  Perhaps it is easier to me to be grateful, as I never stood in your place. I may be asking the impossible out of you, but I only do it because I want what is best for you."

[Mercy Merchant]

Yelena stands up and turns Marco's chair sideways before straddling his legs and sitting in his lap facing him.  She puts her arms around him and lowers her face to his, not caring who is watching her as she kisses the man she loves.  She feels his heart beat against her chest and tastes his lips, drawing his breath from him into her.  She is panting as she breaks the kiss and lays her forehead against his and her eyes are closed as she wills what soul she has left to tell this man how special he is.

[gilga]

Marco is a bit embarrassed as he makes a considerably effort to appear professional(ish) in front of the newly joined members of the group. He is nevertheless, a creature of moment and shortly after his entire attention is given to Yelena and every other thought is gone. All the words disappear and what is left is plain passion. Perhaps she needed to hear that, perhaps he finally managed to reassure him. A blissful side-effect of that kiss is that his head is finally quiet, the darn voices have become silent again. Perhaps there is just so much sensory input a person can take in at a time. Catching his breath, and gently holding Yelena, Marco quickly scans the room trying to asses the level of awkwardness in the room.

[SmilinIrish]

As Jed took in the room, he examined his new mates carefully.  The small, young, human girl wearing the hijab was awakened.  Almost as strong as he was.  From the sound of her accent, Japanese.  He closely looked over her aura, interpreting it.  She didn't appear to be a killer...cyber?  It appeared that she had a small dark spot near her brain, and the location appeared typical for a datajack.  Now he remembered Marco saying something about a decker, and about a mage, Jed must have missed that they were one and the same.  Interesting. 

Looking over the troll, he could see she was not awakened.  As he began to look more closely however, he was distracted by Marco's aura.  He was showing up on the astral.  I hope he isn't getting addicted to the deepweed.  That was never my intent.  He watched as Yelena straddled Marco.  Her aura was dark, but bright and open.  She was in the moment, not hiding anything.  Her emotions were plainly evident.  Marco on the other hand was an ocean on a rocky shore.  His emotions flickered and surged.  Matching Yelena's, then changing to...something else.  His aura was so hard to read anyway.  Marco appeared to be what he wanted you to see.  But after spending so much time with him, Jed was relatively certain that the shifting of emotion was genuine.  Marco was barely in control of them at the moment.  There was no faking of his signature going on.  He watched his two friends for a moment.  Friends?  Yes, although he had only known them a short time, they were more than acquaintances. 

Suddenly Arc moved towards him introducing him to the Troll.  Arc's aura was different.  Very bright.  In spite of the new surgeries, her aura seemed more vibrant than he had ever seen it.  Shaking hands with the Troll and greeting her in Or'zet, he saw Arc's companion enter.  Her aura flared bright enough to be uncomfortable.  Ah, mystery solved.   

Watching her out of the corner of his eye, he chatted amicably with Tuska, discussing the bike's sorry state and what was necessary to fix it.  Every bit of the shop talk went right over his head.  Tuska seemed to notice and instead asked Jed questions about his work as a PI.  Jed smiled as Jamie looked him over.  Nothing to see here.  Just a harmless old man. 

He noticed Firefly eyeing him, no doubt weighing him as he had her.  He smiled.  Good evening, I see you weave mana as well.  I'd love to sit and discuss your methods and compare capabilities if we are going to be working together.  He smiled again, eying her hijab.  Jed had studied magic pretty extensively, but the one area he had neglected was a deep study of other traditions.  He tried to read her face, but she was incredibly self possessed for one so young.  Don't play poker with this one.

[gilga]

Marco grins as Arc introduces Tuska and adds "Tuska is quite an entrepreneur - and quick to make friends." to himself he thinks "... if you are a mechanic that is... I doubt she'll ever trust me where my entire self image and life story was shaped by my magic."  

[ismilealot]

Halfway around the world in a very elegant hotel an older Russian woman was watching a live camera feed. Not a muscle in her face moved to give away any of her thoughts or intentions. But, she'd sat unblinking watching the feed for many minutes now. "I vy uvereny v etoy informatsii ? " Behind her a male voice answers, "Da." There is no change of expression on the womans face. But her voice fills the room with venom " Chert . Kto dostupen dlya etogo kontrakta " . "Yesli slovo iz etogo vyydet , my mozhem poteryat' vse, chto my rabotali tak trudno postroit' . "

"You are certain of this information?" "Yes." "Damn it. Who do we have for this contract? If word of this gets out we could lose everything we've worked so hard to build."

[SgtBoomCloud]

If Arc was feeling awkward and weirded out by seeing Yelena over Marco like that, she must not have shown it.  Lounging about in the garage with the team as a whole, she had claimed a seat to be shared by her and Jaime, leaning against the man as she took in the team.  For the most part, it looked like they tolerated each other at the very least, and it was her hope that could translate into working with each other, bouncing off skills.  Plus, everyone is now in the room.  No strangers...good..

"So this is your crew eh?"

It was Jaime that bounced her out of her reverie, the mechanic tilting her head and giving a little nod.  "Aye.  And someone's gotta look out for em, ehe.."  She grinned.  Of course she wouldn't share the details of the trip...he knew that as well, and it was just her promise and assurance that things would work out to go by.  It worked for them.

"Just make sure someone's looking out for you too, yeah?"  He smiled, a slight flicker in his confidence allowed but nothing more as he touched foreheads to her for a brief moment.  "The girls have really taken to their Tary'ken, after all"

Smiling back, she allowed a chuckle as she eased back, nodding to the others as needed, seeing that Jed was making himself no stranger to Tuska and Firefly in turn.  "Aye...I don't think I have to worry about that..ah"  She felt a hand squeeze hers, forcing a smile as she squeezed back, settling in and letting her mind wander.

[Mercy Merchant]

Yelena kisses Marco one more time, then gets off his lap.  She bends over to him and whispers, "Marco should try talk Firefly.  Build trust.  Hard, but lives might depend on it."  Yelena walks a few feet away then takes one of her small cigars from her silver case and lights it, pulling the acrid smoke into her lungs and releasing it as she observes the team, measuring them.  They have worked before and survived what could have been a serious problem, but the event had placed wedges in the way the team held together.  The worst effect was the mistrust and suspicion between Marco on one side and Firefly and Tuskaloosa on the other.  Taking Tsina Molovna down would be hard enough without that problem raising its head.

[gilga]

"We'll be okay if she does not try to sabotage me."  There was something wrong with that answer, it felt passive, unconvincing... "You can do better than that" thought Marco. 

"What?!"  - was the next thought of the alarmed mage.

"You call yourself a master manipulator? a seducer? someone of social skills and you cannot get a teenager to like you?"

"What What?!"

"Everybody is a potential ally, Marco"


"Just who and what are you? Why do you sound exactly like me?"


The voice was silent, at this point Marco was quite certain that he was going insane. However, that voice was somewhat familiar, and Marco was certain that he has heard it before, but when? A growing suspicion, brewed perhaps this is why he stopped hearing the astral.

He texted Firefly >>> When the party ends I have something to show you.
keeping her curious might be a way to lessen that hostility.

[ismilealot]

Across town a party was going on. And for as small as the people who were hosting the party were, it was in no way a small party as decorations turned a huge garage into a wonderland and the smell of home baked goodness filled the air. Chesh looked at Alyce, "Do you think we should invite her?" Alyce had already had a whole pint, but he wasn't nearly drunk enough to make that sound like a good idea. "Are ya daft! We've been here less than a week. Wait till we've been here at least six months before ya invite her and disaster strikes!" Chesh looks at him levelly despite the fact that she's definitely had enough to be drunk, "Oh pish-posh. Risk comes with the biz. She didn't cause the mess and she helped clean-up right enough. And if we ever go back she could be good ta know." Alyce looks at her, "Chesh, yer motherin' instinct should not be applyin' ta a troll ten times yer size. An besides, we have a feast fit fer a band of halfers, not a troll. Did ya think about that?" Chesh looks at him again, careful not to move her head to much. "Not like we can't order out if she says yes. I'm calling her." Alyce shakes his head in disgust, "Suit yerself. But I'm goin' ta' make sure everything flammable is well away." He shakes his head and moves away getting another drink in the process. It takes Cheesh a few moments to access her comm and find Tusk's number, as drunk as she was the focus was difficult, but then Tuskaloosa gets a call. >>Yo Tusks, we're havin' a wee bit 'o a shindig an a wanted ter invite cha'.<<

[Shaman_Yuri]

The game I'm playing is best enjoyed in AR, so I was lightly decked in and linked with the game server when a text icon appeared just to the edge of my awareness where it wouldn't mess up my game.

Marco?  I wonder what he wants?

When the game permitted me to break away, I peeked at what the elf had to say.

>> When the party ends I have something to show you.

Huh.  I glance over my shoulder and see the elf in question focused on the troll. 

He seems in good spirits.  I can't imagine this is about foisting another demon on me.  Okay, I'll bite.

>>Okay, I'll bite.  Tag me when things wind down.  I'll be playing games here on the couch all evening.