Connections (Charlemangel)

[Anonymous]

Siraz paced her office, hands locked behind her back.  She could feel breeze blowing in sideways through the open window, twisting the curtains.  Ari had called earlier and let her know about a conference he'd had with his manager.  Wasn't that an interesting bit of news.  Well, she'd have a talk with Mansker.  A firm reminder of her continued support for EcoCorp's financial interests could go far.  It always did.  And if Div Red had it in for her, well, Sollet could do the talking on her behalf, and she could use the old line: I'm not responsible for what the people decide, the people are responsible for what I decide.

She spoke while she walked.  Her terminal took meticulous dictation, and she preferred to keep moving even while she wrote email.  Thus occupied, she let her eyes rove out the window, past the brilliant inslanting sunshine.  She'd scored a balcony this term, potted plants, climbing ivy, and all.  Palm fronds, shredded brown around the edges, whipped idly at the windowframe.    

Code: [Select]

To: Maris Sollet
Supervisor
Division Black, EcoCorp
maris.sollet@ecocorp.edt

Talk to me, Maris.  I'd like to hear the story, I really would, and I'd like you to think carefully about just what you'd like the story to be.  You know me--I try not to stoop to scandal-mongering.  Mansker's been less courteous, and I'm downright upset.  I'd have a talk with him if I were you.

Here's a reminder that voting on S2935 goes through this week.  I think Haveston has read the fine print this time.  I'll talk to him.  I know how excited you are that we're funding this project--I assure you you've got my fullest possible support.

Best,
Siraz

P.S. Best wishes to Nia and congratulations.
They always thought you could forget Mages were people, that you could shut the human sense off at key moments.  Such an embarrassment when circumstances proved otherwise.  Of course, she'd been perfectly sincere... she really did wish the best for Maris, his Mage, and their daughter.  Legal considerations? Maris didn't care, if he could keep it secret, as was the case with so many.  She'd win either way: exposing him might bar a door, but it'd open a window, and leaving him be would crack that portico wide open.  Trust could be so beautiful.  Trust or mistrust; either way.

They thought they could ignore the parts of the law they didn't like.  The present system, in any case, really couldn't deal with genetic contradictions.  Just try bringing the Mage-Mordecai interbreeding issue to the Senate floor: it was an idea whose time had not yet come, despite its reality, and a thorny thicket indeed.  Someone entirely unaffiliated with Senator Artegna had been distributing pamphlets on the topic.  We Are All Genetic Engineers.  "How are we better than Aedolis?" blared the subtitle.  Wasn't that the question?

"Senator, Cyra is here to see you."  

These automated systems came in so handy.  "Come in," Siraz said, after she'd stepped toward the terminal and manually checked the email, then sent it off on its way and clicked out of the terminal's 'record' option.  This meeting would not go on the record. It wasn't unusual for Siraz to meet with her constituents, of course.  She was a very open Senator.

The door slid open.  Siraz leaned back against her desk, arms braced on its edge, one leg crossed over the other.  "I thought you'd be coming in through the window," she said, smiling at the girl.  She liked her, she really did, and would've moved forward for a more effusive greeting had Cyra been comfortable with it.

"Such high expectations you got, Sen."  

"Only six floors."  

"I don't think I could survive that fall."  The lanky girl hefted her shoulder satchel, pulled out a Mage's headband, denuded of its connections, and tossed it to Siraz.  It wobbled roundly through the air, and she reached out to catch it, turning to read the serial number written on the inside.  Siraz was pleased; she'd asked them to take him to Binar.  They weren't always able to get the headbands off, but the doctor had proven a very useful contact.  "'Specially not without a ship.  Bitch of a thing, if I may say."

"I'm sorry I haven't been able to help.  Leyden says he's not been in his jurisdiction.  I'm sure he'll see reason."  Cyra had volunteered for a mission, but sometimes the Mages reacted badly to another Mordecai, even a Mageless one.  Blass had dumped her and her copilot  just outside Tynova and taken off.

"I can hitch a ride."  Cyra flashed the Arteia sign, right index and middle finger draped down over her left index.  "Pan already did, natch.  Family, don'tcha know, and friends."

"I think Ali has a ship for sale.  Here."  She stepped forward and offered Cyra back the headband, which she tucked away.

Siraz trusted her brothers and sisters, she really did, but proof wound the way around so many stripes of nastiness.

"Nah, might as well make myself useful, since I don't see Wanted posters plastered all over.  Y'all haven't been on the ball, shame shame."

"Bad publicity before none has always been my approach, but I'm not sure it's best for you, Cy."  She put a hand on the girl's shoulder and shook her gently, her touch tender.  "You want to be helpful?  Round up that horribly amoral friend of yours.  I've got a project in mind, and I'd like to see if he's interested..."

[Anonymous]

This was the third time he'd been ejected from Olexei's house this year.  Granted, this time Yuri deserved it instead of merely being in the vicinity whenever Olexei lost his temper, which was whenever Yuri was in Tynova, decided to crash at his house and breathed too loud.  Olexei had a fifty-fifty chance of welcoming Yuri whenever he showed up and something was terribly wrong if Olexei didn't throw him out for something.

This time would have qualified for something terribly wrong.  Olexei finally found a surgeon that could remove his claws and get his fingers to look and function like normal human fingers.  It was a few days after his operation, when he was still high on pain killers, that Yuri showed up.  At the time, he was content to spend all day resting on the couch and channel surfing in between naps and didn't mind Yuri being around.  As long as he wasn't loud or obviously there, Olexei could just imagine he was hallucinating if he saw him walking around.  Yuri didn't have the heart to do anything to Olexei so soon after he went through surgery.  At least until he discovered that Olexei's bandaged hands looked like paws...

Raiding Olexei's fridge and linen closet gave Yuri all the materials he needed.  Then he waited, checking an Adeolian punk site filled with tutorials for the young and rebellious, for Olexei to take his pills and start sleeping off the initial drowsiness.  When that happened, Yuri descended on him with a bowl of egg whites, a comb and the sash of Olexei's bathrobe.  Getting his hair up was a little harder than Yuri expected.  With a little innovation and a few whispered curses it turned out like it was supposed to.  The sash, doubled up and tied in a bow around Olexei's neck completed the look.

Yuri took a step back and framed him with his hands.  Perfect.  Olexei's white hair was teased up into a pair of ragged cat's ears, he curled up on the couch with his head on one shoulder, the bow sitting on his other shoulder and both bandaged hands stretched out in front of him.  Adorable.  The Z90 had a better camera on it than the DF12, so he took that phone from his pocket, aimed and snap-snap.

That would have been it, but Olexei woke up.  He stretched his arms out further, yawning widely (snap).  Pushed himself up on his elbows (snap), brushed at the side of his face with the back of his hand (snap-snap) and, when he heard Yuri snickering, tilted his head to the side, his eyes widening from their post-sleep squint (snap).  Tilting his head made him aware of the sash around his neck, he looked at it as best he could, puzzled (snap).  Then he looked back at Yuri, stared blankly for a couple seconds and started to look at the t.v. screen, asking "What the fuck did you SON OF A BITCH!"

The look on Olexei's face once he saw himself reflected in the mirror (snap) was worth all the trouble setting this scene up would cause.

"I can help you get your hair back to normal," Yuri offered between laughs, putting his phone back in his pocket.

"Get out," Olexei growled.  "You aren't staying here tonight.  Get the fuck out."

Yuri didn't have the heart to argue with a crippled person with their hair in cat's ears and a bow around their neck.  So he left, still howling and getting a strange look from the woman that lived across from Olexei.  The day was still young and there were other places he could rest for a night.  Carmine should be in town, there was always the chance he could go home with someone at a bar later and if nothing else worked out, there was a room he could stay in at the Thanatos Inc. building.  No need to worry.

To kill a little time before he started looking for a place to stay Yuri stopped by Dianna's, a little café in uptown Tynova.  The sort of place that had more seats outside than inside and made its money selling food of questionable nutritional value to people that pretended to eat it while they took care of some business made easier by the fresh air and people to distract them.  The entire block it was on had free wireless and in typical café style, you could live there if you just kept draining your cup.  It was one of his usual spots, it he wasn't out wandering the city.  He commandeered the furthest table that wasn't taken, ordered a cake set and checked the picture file on his phone, snickering.

There were places that would pay good cash for pictures like these.  

The cake set arrived shortly after he moved the Cat-lexei pics into their own folder.  Tea in a little white cup accompanied by two small bowls, one with sugar cubes and the other with lemon.  Cake pretty enough to make any self respecting child think it was more an ornament than food and hiding enough sugar in its layers of frosting and fruit to disable a starship.  Before touching either one, Yuri leaned back in his chair and had a look into the crowd on the street.

Was that who he thought it was?  Yuri tilted the chair back and squinted.

[Anonymous]

Cyra didn't really go looking for people.  She ran into them as a matter of course.  Today she'd found her way to a streetside performance of the latest in Brean's repertoire.  They'd picked something she couldn't really follow, some sort of morality play disguised as domestic Mage/Mordecai drama.  They never listened when she asked 'well, where's the action?'  Well, it was one way.  She waited for then to wrap up, leaning against one wall.  

"Heeey, Cy."  Leor slung one arm familiarly around her neck.  He'd painted his face for the performance, all red and white stripes.  "Fancy seeing you here.  Missed ya.  You heard about this shite?  Some guy came and talked to us yesterday about disturbing the peace, right."

"Ridiculous."  Brean came over, struggling with the standing drum set.  "Yeah, don't help or anything, guys."  She put it down and wiped her hands on her pants.  

"So what's the story?  Staying with us for a bit this time?"

Cy shook her head.  "Don't know.  I talked to her today, and she's got me rounding up Yuri this time."

"Powers of persuasion, huh," Brean said, raising one eyebrow.  "And she picked you?"

"Now, now," said Leor.

"Dunno."  Cy shrugged, hooking her thumbs into her beltloops.  The strap of her bag shifted on her shoulder.  

"Well, she does that, doesn't she.  Tries to get everyone in her net.  No contact's too small or too damned--I mean, really, Yuri?  Are you going to do something, or just..."

"Do something?"  Leor snorted.  "Hey, just saw him, actually."

"Har har."  Cy prodded him in the shoulder and backed up, legs swinging, getting out of retaliatory distance.  "Where?"

"Dianna's."  

"Cheers, guys."  She saluted them jokingly.  "Good luck with the... stuff."  

After a muted farewell, she set off, taking long strides down the street, breathing in the clean outdoor air.  Her bag thumped her back.  It was so nice to be back on a planet, not in space.  As much as she loved the Phoenix, it got a little small.  Dianna's, up ahead, spilled tables over onto the sunny sidewalk.  She squinted and... well, Yuri wasn't an easy one to miss.  He'd spotted her, too.  Cyra caught his eye and waved on the approach.

"Hey, there."  She pulled over a chair and gestured toward the far side of the table.  "Mind if I...?"

[Anonymous]

Hey, it was Cyra and she saw him before he needed to yell at her.  There weren't too many white haired young women around, not since the fad fizzled out three years ago, so there was no risk of mistaking some stranger for her.  He waved when she did, the ends of his wings fluttering.

"You'd better.  I don't think I'd forgive you if you came all way over here just to say hi and leave."  He waved a finger threateningly.  "How's life Cyra?"

[Anonymous]

"Uh... lifey."  Cyra braced her elbows on the table and peered toward his phone, over the slice of cake and pretty little tea service.  Yuri looked amused, or at the end of something amusing.  She thought about whether she ought to just bring up the Senator's request, since it wasn't a secret, but hey... it could wait.  

"Kicking around the city for a coupl'a days.  I'm goddamn shipless at the moment, so I'm just, you know... derring-do and things.  Doing good.  You?"

[Anonymous]

Lifey?  Didn't sound like much, but it could have been worse.  Could have been crappy or horridly or a host of other -ys.  Yuri put the phone on the table and picked up a spoon.

"Shipless?  There's a story behind that.  Don't tell me you crashed it,"  He tapped the edge of the spoon against a sugar cube.  "Things aren't too bad with me either.  I was staying with Olexei until now.  This time I've got pictures."  He grinned and raised his eyebrows.

[Anonymous]

"I'd never crash.  No, we let a guy hitch a ride.  The ungrateful bastard stole her."  Cyra shook her head and leaned forward over the table, keeping her voice low.  "So Pan's hightailed it back to Cancer, and..."  She gave a tiny shrug, her head bobbing between lifted shoulders.  "... that's about it.  Waiting it out.  Pictures?"

She beckoned for the phone.  This should be good... it was Yuri.  Good for entertainment, anyway.  As a contact for the Senator?  Uh.  Maybe.

[Anonymous]

((Just for fun...))

"Ugh," Yuri curled his upper lip.  "You going to report her stolen or just skip the Ship's Bureau bullshit and get a new ship?"  He scooped up a sugar cube and dunked it into the tea.  The other hand tapping through the phone's menus, back to the folder with the new pictures before he held it out for Cyra.

"I had to," he explained, grinning.  "Years from now, when he's become a cyborg trying to undo all of Silence's handiwork, I can remind Olexei that he'll always be our family furrball."

[Anonymous]

Cyra held the phone at an angle, shading it with one palm, and squinted at the picture on the display screen.  It looked a little dim in this light, but he'd managed to make a pretty good approximation of cat ears.  Cute, cute.  She smiled, clucked her tongue, and slid the phone back.  The screen caught light on its way, flashing white for just a second.  

Blinking, she leaned back in her chair.  Her arms crossed over his chest, elbows locked; she propped one ankle up on the opposite knee.  "I mean, I don't see how it's any funnier than little wings, but... so he kicked you out?

[Anonymous]

The tea could use a little more sugar, Yuri decided after taking a sip.  He'd hold off until he started the cake; if taking a bite of cake didn't make everything he ate for the next hour taste like a vision of butterflies and angels then Dianna's was slacking.

Yuri didn't put the phone back in his pocket once Cyra slid it back, instead taking another little sip of tea before setting the cup back down.  "My wings are still more entertaining than a pair of fake cat's ears."  He fluttered the left wing and then the right wing.  "Of course, when I'm out in public I'm not going to get mobbed by little wing enthusiasts, if there are any.  If Olexei were to go out like that, he'd have some nutty cat lover attached to him in no time."  He grinned, slouching his shoulders and putting the back of his hand against his forehead before making a face of mock disappointment.  "Olexei didn't share my artistic vision though, so out I went."  The grin slid back across his lips and Yuri draped his arm across the back of the chair.  "You know Lexy though, it was a matter of time before I did something to get the boot.  Where're you staying at Cy?"

[Anonymous]

"Whew... yeah."  Cyra shook her head, catching a laugh between her teeth, and let herself slide down a little in her chair.  Slowly unhooking her hands from inside her elbows, she rubbed her palms together while she thought.  

"Shacked up with Jey for now."  Jey had an actual girlfriend now, so Cyra tried to keep herself a little scarce.  "But I'm ready to get out of the atmosphere.  Have a project to do first...  actually, I wanted to ask you for a little help."  She stopped the slide of one palm over the other and tipped her hands up to touch her lips, watching Yuri.  It wasn't that she felt bad asking a favor of him.  No--she didn't even need him to take any big risks.  

She felt uneasy because he was Yuri.  Ah, fuck all this scheming crap.  She'd ask and get an answer, and they'd haggle until they'd figured it out, like sensible people.  Siraz always made things so complicated, when, really, Cyra had found, all you needed from most people was pretty straightforward.  A yes, or a no.

"Interested?"