| Zelan Almost Gets Another Job | ||
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Lee has also on a couple elastic bracelets with tiny bells, clusters of tiny retroreflective spheres like spider eyes, and beads that shine a bright green under the black lights. Lee's chest looks a little more lumpy than usual. Lee's lurking just off to the side of the exit inside the club, not exactly dancing but bouncing on their toes to the thumping beat of the music. Zelan enters and glances around. She's changed out of her clothes from earlier in the day, as well, now wearing a miniskirt and matching jacket and boots. She looks like she's about to miss Lee's presence, but thankfully they have all that black light reactive accessories on. "Hey, Lee! I'm heading on to the bar first!" She motions towards said bar in case Lee can't hear her over the music, then starts making her way there. "Heya, Zelan!" Lee calls back, jingling a wrist while waving enthusiastically to her. "Wait up! Gotta show ya something first!" Lee hops after Zelan but motions over to the side of the room. Zelan raises an eyebrow and nods, following Lee's lead and stepping off to the side as well. "What's up?" "Two things!" Lee pulls their arms into the loose sleeves of the poncho. "First- Didn't know how much you were planning on drinking, but just in case, thought I'd keep the price reasonable..." Lee pulls out their hand towel (maybe not as useful as a hitchhiker's bath towel, but still handy here) and unwraps a small bottle of bargain rack (so says a store sticker on the cap) but still decent white wine. Zelan glances at the bottle of wine, then off towards the bar. "Uhhhh, Lee, you know, they really don't like it when you bring in outside drinks to a bar..." "I'm not gonna tell 'em if you don't," Lee says with a grin. "Can put it away if ya want." Lee tucks the bottle into their sleeve for the moment and unwraps the other item, an individual-sized container of vanilla and cookies ice cream. "And outside ice cream is still cool, right?" Zelan glances over towards the bar, then back again, then shrugs with a raised eyebrow. "I'm... not really sure, to be honest. I've never tried to order ice cream here." "Those folks hiding off in the dark corner there know what the good stuff is," Lee says, nodding toward said shady-looking individuals without looking at them too directly. "I bet they're swappingcookies under the table!" Lee waves a plastic spoon to Zelan. Zelan glances quickly at the table with just her eyes, then back to Lee. "Of course. If by cookies you mean shipments of arms found in the Badlands." "Yeah, I'm not gonna go ask 'em what flavor they are," Lee remarks. "Anyway, you're here for celebrating the end of seeing skinny-jeans failures and does that don't match!" Lee holds up a hand. "Oh, actually brought ya a third thing, a tail band, but guess it'll work as a bracelet too." Zelan nods to Lee. "It's probably best not to. But yes! You're absolutely right, that is indeed why I am here!" She raises an eyebrow at the mention of the tail band. "A tail band? I rarely wear my tail out, you know, Lee. Well..." She glances at her wrist. "If it fits my wrist, it'll probably be a bit large for my tail." Lee pops off both bracelets and demonstrates doubling it up to wrap around just two fingers. Lee offers her one band, the ice cream cup, and the spoon to her with a grin. "Gotcha. No prob either way. Just saw ya here with the ears and tail the other day and figured it was some kinda comfortable thing ya did when you figured nobody would pay it much mind." Zelan shrugs. "At home? Sure. Probably will at Raven's place, too. I need the better senses that my ears can give me, and it feels wierd having them out but no tail. But in public... usually I don't want to stand out quite like that. I don't want to be... exotic, I want them to see me for me, you know?" This being said by a shapeshifter that has clearly meticulously crafted a human identity who most would agree is a good example of a very attractive female human. That said, she takes the band and looks it over for a moment before she shrugs and puts it on. "Gotcha. Dunno if those intuitions still apply here," Lee says. "Not like I've got a horde of little kids following me 'round, trying t' pull my tail. But totally get why it might feel like you're standing out. I know I'd still feel mighty uncomfortable at a nudist colony even if I knew nobody cared." Lee wraps up the bottle more securely again and somehow fastens the towel to the inside of the poncho. The ice cream stays in hand in the loose sleeve- apparently a little too chilly to stuff back in there. "Where to?" Zelan shrugs. "Well, if I were really trying to stand out, I would, but I'm not trying to stand out that much. Not yet. I want to get a bit more settled in before I start doing that." She looks around and motions to a table on the side, "Let's just hang out over there for now, eh?" With that said, she starts making her way over. Lee nods at the suggestion and starts on over to the indicated table with bouncy steps matching the beat. "Got no doubt you could stand out if ya wanted to," Lee says with a grin. "Important thing is feeling comfortable." Zelan smirks. "Oh, Lee, I could stand out so no one turned away from me except for the shy ones. But really... that's cheating." She pulls a chair out with a foot and plops down onto it, looking out over the people on the dance floor with a light smile. "Ooooh, it's so good to not have that stress anymore." Lee pulls up a chair sideways and takes a seat. Lee leans their arms across the back of the seat, watching Zelan for a moment before looking out to the dancers too. "Thought ya just meant showing off some of those different species of people ya mentioned. But that would be pretty funny if you'd figured out the secret of universal hotness." Lee adds curiously, "So doing stuff for the design office on a deadline is a different kind of stress from the store's?" Zelan kicks back on her chair, leaning it backwards. "Well... Yeah. Engineering is my passion, Lee. It's what I live for. When I get stressed over that, it's still mixed with the joy of the challenge, the joy of the intricacies that I need to find and fix and tune... The store? That stress was just fed by frustration." Lee nods enthusiastically. "Sometimes when folks hear I'm having fun all day, they figure I'm just goofing off or something and never getting frustrated or upset. But I do, and it doesn't even matter!" Zelan nods in agreement as well. "I get that, I really do. You can't be an engineer without running into a few bugs here and there in your designs. It's just the nature of it! Any job anyone ever has will have its frustrations. They just are more easily looked past if you're doing what you love, when compared to doing what you hate." Lee pulls the small container of ice cream from earlier out of the voluminous sleeve of their gaudily-colored poncho. Lee holds it up for Zelan and waggles it temptingly. "I'll eat it if you don't," Lee mentions. "Yeah, that's how I feel, too. Think some folks, though, actually do power through doing something they hate 'cause they really get a kick out of their hobbies. Skydiving after balancing some accounts and stuff." She's just the type to fit into the crowd here. She may not be seedy, but she is armed, and openly. The blue haired merc smiling as she enters, and makes a line right for the bar. Smiling to the bartender and places several notes down, "Pint, single malt, in the teens." Zelan glances as bluette walks through, but doesn't seem to pay her any further mind, really. There's all sorts in this place! "Well, my hobby is something I can actually get paid for, so I'll just stick with that now that I have the job, thank you." Lee looks over to Ichijoun as Zelan does, eyes lingering on hardware that's apparently less familiar to Lee. "Yup! And besides, I kinda wonder if maybe that 'But my hobby is fun!' isn't just an excuse." Lee makes good on the threat and digs into the ice cream. "Sounds like a pretty interesting opportunity there, really." Lee asks, "Did you get the impression, too, they don't have a lot of employees?" She waits though, as it will be a moment before they start on her drink. She's content to stand and look around, cocking her head to pick up things here and there. The joys of cybernetics! She mmms, looking a little bored. Zelan says, "Hey hey hey, I never said I didn't want any!" She actually pouts slightly. "You did bring two spoons, right?" At the question, Zelan nods. "From the prior times I was told about it, I wasn't actually surprised by that. I'd gotten a feeling from the other two that Raven was already working alone. I'm expecting her to first want me to put work into the magic firearms I'd mentioned... and I get the feeling that it's because she wants to try them out herself." Lee chuckles at Zelan's protest and slides the ice cream over. "Nah, I'm good, all for the brand new designer!" Lee nods as she explains about the job, then frowns at the mention of the firearms. "I really dunno 'bout the guns. I mean, making fighters for the SDF is one thing, but how d' ya know where the guns're gonna end up?" Then she picks something up. Looking towards Zelan, just a little more than a glance. It's almost enough that she forgets her drink was just delivered. Taking up the dark amber liquid filled pint glass and takes a long, slow sip from it. Zelan grabs the ice cream with a clearly overdramatic pout, then takes a bite of it with a light sound of joy. When there's no longer any in her mouth, she says, "Because I'm not thinking this is a mass production facility, Lee. When we're making only a handful, it gets to be a lot simpler to keep track of them. And since you mentioned it, I can put a tracer aura on them that I can track from just about anywhere on the planet. If I hear of some unscrupulous usage of the weaponry, we can track them down. Heck, I can probably magically lock the weaponry to a client, making them completely useless to anyone else." She pushes off from the bar and makes her way over, "Excuse me, would either of you mind a third? I managed to pick up a little of you conversation while trying to find a little work, and I do weapon design as my day job and would like to collaborate with you on your project." she says addressing Zelan. Lee grins a Zelan's initial expression, then nods thoughtfully as she answers the concern. "Actually, that all sounds pretty encouraging. We've got lots of hunting weapons where I'm from, and some folks have stuff for range shooting, but some other countries are a little less careful and have all kinds of crazy stuff floating around. Kinda like here. Some of them could really use those traces." Maybe it's the loud music and pulsing lights, but Lee doesn't seem terribly observant of their surroundings and doesn't pick up on Ichijoun until she speaks up. "Oh, heya!" Lee pulls their tail in around their own chair and uses a foot to nudge one out for the newcomer. Zelan takes another bite of the ice cream just as the bluette walks up to the table. With a glance to Lee, she quickly swallows the ice cream and nods with a hand motion towards the chair Lee pushes out. "Go ahead! I'm not sure quite how open I'll be to take up your offer, Miss, as I just took on a job that starts Monday... which is my current only access to any form of workshop. It's what we were talking about, and why I'm here celebrating... Ah, allow me to introduce myself: Zelan Darkflower, former lead of design team Petal of Magus Spaceworks." As Lee has probably noticed by now, Zelan loves throwing out that credential. "But as I was saying, the project technically won't be my own, but that of Raven von Tilsen." She then glances back to Lee again. "It's just like finding a significant other, isn't it? You get a job, and then another lead shows up." Lee smiles at Zelan's introduction for herself. "Makes sense you'd attract interest from other folks in the field once ya get into the field," Lee observes. "Dunno 'bout your comparison there, though," Lee adds with a grin. "Some of us don't really have a problem with that particular regret." Zelan blinks as the bluette suddenly needs to run, then frowns. "Well, that's closer to my love life after I introduce myself, too, actually. You don't think I somehow scared her away, do you?" She then turns to look at Lee more properly. "Yeah, I guess not. I've not seen any of your species but yourself, sadly." "If they're scared off by professional pride and competence, probably didn't need t' stick around anyway," Lee offers encouragingly. "But I'm guessing emergency here." Zelan's observation gets a shrug of the shoulder. "I'm kinda more interested in personality as much as looks -if I'm interested like that in the first place. But I'm used to the minority thing. Folks in high school couldn't decide whether to apply 'sexy exotic' or 'icky exotic' or 'mysterious prophet of the opposite sex'. But yeah, kinda dodged that bullet by not being super focused on relationships in the first place." Zelan nods solemnly. "It gets... a lot more complicated when you start adding things like different species to the mix. For the most part, people tend not to be attracted to members of different species. I still find humans attractive, though. Apparently that runs in the family, somehow, as my brother's actually been married to a human once, and my mother once mentioned dating a human." "Shapeshifting and chasing humans both run in the family, huh? Wonder if there's any connection there," Lee remarks with a grin. "That does sound way complicated. I know from personal experience that somebody interested in your species and not you personally really stinks. Does being able to change your looks let ya find that out sooner? Or is it just one more thing for some shallow person t' latch onto?" Zelan frowns slightly, then shrugs. "I dunno. I don't find any other species attractive except for kitsu... and well, they're pretty close to sidrans. A lot of sidrans find kitsu attractive, and vice versa, in that 'sexy exotic' way, as you said." She ponders the latter question for a moment before once again shrugging. "Both, really. I've run into some pretty shallow people that absolutely latched onto thinking I could just become their every fantasy. On my first date ever, though, I did shift to make myself more attractive... and we both agreed at the end of the night that we just weren't into each other." Lee nods at the mention of the kitsu people, then continues listening attentively to the further explanation. Lee takes a second to adjust the bottle before returning to leaning on the back of the chair. "You two agreed that when ya first dated? Sounds pretty mature for teenagers." Zelan laughs. "Who said anything about teenagers? Everyone was terrified of my parents when I was a teenager. It wasn't until college that people started to actually ignore that. and consider me." Lee chuckles. "Ooh, gotcha." Lee adds curiously, "How come those kids thought your family was scary in a special way and not just like theirs? Public school?" Zelan laughs and shakes her head. "School on a military base, and my dad was a general, while my mom was an ex mercenary. My dad showed our family a side he didn't show anyone else, so I never understood it, but everyone, everyone knew who my father was there." | |
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