So, I was dancing down the promenade, singing and clapping my heels ...
... no.
Though I was in a pretty good mood. I dare you not to be when you've just ... hmm ... yeah, okay. At this stage, most people would likely be asking themselves 'But does it mean anything, or was it just a spur of the moment kinda deal?'
Me?
Expectations and overplanning never got me anything, so these days I usually tend to just take things one step at a time.
At least in these matters.
We'd gone back down to the promenade - or was that, Maetel had to prod me into it - and yeah, I had to admit that I was having fun mingling.
I'm willing to consider it the exception to the rule.
Socializing is more or less Scales' thing, where our little instigator group at Hermes is concerned. Hell, ever since the guacamole incident he's been responsible for making the Lounge Lizard deal look cool. That takes serious skill. In fact, he was likely somewhere in this mess right now, rubbing elbows and taking names and what you will.
Still, things were going pretty well, everything else considered.
There was a brief moment of unease when I went past the Fenbucks franchise - any coffee, any tea, any time, now featuring the Loon season special (green tea frappucino and carrot) - but that was soon forgotten.
Though I felt as though I was missing something as we walked, her arm hooked around mine - I swear, the woman has some sort of Induce Manners Area Effect Ability - which crystallized into certainty and realization a moment after.
Then Maetel spotted an acquaintance of ours, which wasn't all that hard seeing as he was making like Batman in heading up to the Hidden Asteroid stand, and proposed we head over. Apparently, she'd made friends with his 'puppy' back when the Express had been pulling it into orbit and wanted to see how it was doing.
I begged off, then nudged my head to the side and watched. The only sign was a slight twitch around the eyes, and her expression never changed, but she nodded and made her way towards where Mr.Morden, or whatever he was calling himself here and now, was doing his thing.
Myself?
I used the attention she took with her as she went to fade back.
I'm good at fading back.
Back behind where most of the Fen stood, looking for all the world like nothing at all was wrong and I was perfectly meant to slip just past that barrier and slightly behind that stand.
"Katsu-dono."
"You mangle that on purpose," I groused, then blinked.
Okay.
No.
I was having a good day.
This was not going to ruin it.
Nope.
I wouldn't let it.
It was likely just another bit of random sneakery, maybe some minor trade - for some reason, they like me better than Scales when it comes to making deals. Maybe because I'm more of a recluse and not as profilic.
I would studiously ignore the fact that Maki was kneeling and doing the forehead-to-floor thing.
"The Village would request your assistance."
"I could likely cobble up another couple of gravs in a few weeks, and ..."
"Katsu-dono. The Village would request your assistance in the _other_ matter."
Damn.
Okay. Flashback time.
Remember when I said that, if it didn't have to do with force-fields or things going boom in a spectacular manner, I usually handed things off to someone else?
Yeah.
Sometimes, I mess around with random available parts and physical principles. One of those times involved a mess of coil springs and several charged capacitators, as well as a soild iron slug. I've since improved, most notably during my last bit of R&R which I spent mostly in the Village.
Discretion isn't just a word with them. I got my research done, they got to reap some of the results. It isn't talked about. At all.
Both sides - meaning myself and Trigon, who'd actually been decent about things for once in his life, as well as the Village - had agreed to close the case. Official record said I was shoving some grav kitbashes off on them, which I did actually do.
Now they were bringing it up.
It was a quarter of an hour later that Maki melted back into the background of the background, and I faded out into the crowd edges, pasting on a faintly amused look.
I leaned back against the stand, startling the Fan who was doing business on that end of it, and looked up to the Village's stand.
The Hidden Asteroid wanted to gear up, and had good reason to.
Losing three Little Sisters - or how they termed their light border patrols - with all hands, making that a total of around twenty Shinobi and Kunoichi. Literally. Losing. No trace of them where they'd been supposed to have gone through, nobody has seen anything, nada.
I'd seen the specs on those, too - they were personalized, yeah, but they were all built around roughly the same hull design of kitbashed aircraft parts. Good, solid, reliable designs, despite being reliant on goop rather than Solid State 'wavium.
And two of them had been carrying my coilguns.
I wondered about the conversation Morden was having.
Gunsmith Katz, anyone?
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm