[b]Vasilia![/b]

Galnius looks at you with flat boredom. You don't get the impression that they're the type to start fights - these are soldiers from Tellus, practically ceremonial, who spend all their time training, patrolling and polishing the buttons on their uniforms. Diplomatic honour guard work is their military occupational speciality and you'll have no problems from them here.

Princess Epistia, however, reacts exactly as your glare merits - an embarrassed blush and an attempt to hide her enormous warscythe behind her back. She [i]will[/i] be trouble, as only a wilful and naive runaway can be. Isn't it great you have two of those? At least Redana seems to have cleaned up a lot better. Epistia looks like a lost farmer.

"I concur with the Captain," buzzed Iskarot. "Claim hospitality and they will respect it. Respect their customs and you will have access even amidst their halls of power. Insult them not, for the only law here is theirs. Tempt them not, for they are acquisitive. Accept no gifts under any circumstances. A favourite negotiating tactic of Magos Birmingham is to lavish people with spectacular gifts, wowing them into speechlessness right up until the point where it comes out that he is taking their ship in exchange. Neither can you decline too firmly for he may feign anger. I believe, hmm, the cook servitor will be more familiar with this manner of polite non-committal rejection than I am. And on that note, I would like to volunteer for the ground mission. I am unconvinced of my ability to remain covert in Birmingham's presence."


[b]Bella![/b]

"Empress Nero was huge into pants ten years ago," said Mynx. "You remember? White and black tuxes, with falsefabric so that the colour inverts depending on the lighting and shadows. Looks like these hicks finally caught up with that fad - dim the lights, see if the colour flips."

She's very distinctly not flirting right now. She's playing it cool and normal but that itself is a tell - Mynx flirts to assert social control, and the fact that she's not doing that means she's in [i]way[/i] over her head right now. She's never been good at maintaining sassiness after you've actually put your hands on her. 

"Hey, uh, so you know how the Diodekoi Adept got out during the fight?" This again? "I'm just wondering, you know. Do you think one of the Lanterns woke it up? You hang out with them, has your Auspex seen any hidden Artemis tattoos or anything?"

Mynx has been on this for like a week now and this is her dumbest theory yet. No, the ship's serviles didn't put in the activation codes for one of the Empress' army-slaying assassins. That walking cathedral just walked out through the big hole in the side of its cell and destroyed [i]five[/i] Plovers - almost half the enemy boarding force - by itself in arguably the most straightfowards case of self defense in the galaxy. Other than the wardrobe upgrade, that live fire proof of how unstoppable your assassin is was the best thing to come from that stupid encounter. And Mynx just can't seem to chill out and take the win.