[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/oucpacU.jpg?2[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/HWhWXIx.png[/img][/center] [hr] [b]The Ritz Hotel, Balibago, Angeles City, Philippines - 10/18/2022, 20:10 UTC+8[/b] [color=39b54a][i]I'm not very good at this "mandatory recuperation" thing, am I?[/i][/color] Such was the predominant thought roaming through Qingshe's mind, as she stared out the window of the hotel room with a half-lidded gaze. Velvety-red curtains hung wide open, granting a decent view of the cityscape from the top floor of the Ritz Hotel. The sun had already set, casting the city in night and leaving the room the Snake occupied lit only by artificial light, warmly illuminating pale-yellow walls and white carpet. Swirling a glass of wine in one hand, Qingshe frowned, taking a sip and savoring the fruity taste on her tongue, an explosion of deep, soulful flavor lighting up her senses. [color=39b54a][i]Enhanced taste buds: never leave home without them.[/i][/color] Despite the Admiral's warning, she wasn't really concerned with overindulgence. It wasn't like she could get drunk these days anyway... something she sometimes considered a detriment when she was feeling particularly adventurous or... "out of touch" with the average human. Lips tightening at that thought, Qingshe took the half-empty bottle of expensive wine from the side table she was sitting next to and refilled her glass. Yet, even as she took another sip, she knew the idle consideration had already soured her mood. Exhaling through her nostrils, Qingshe set her wine glass on the table and glanced about her room with unrestrained boredom. If she'd had her way, she'd be working more on Lotus Squadron's "ladies" or tending to the wounded from the last mission, perhaps advertising some improvements for the Philippine military's equipment. There were some exciting things she'd have loved to try with the Navy, but it seemed red tape and the weakness of flesh and spirit her comrades were unfortunately prone to were going to waylay her as well. So, here she was, a woman married to her work stuck in some fancy hotel, being waited on hand and foot, pampered on the government's coin and orders. The television had been considered, humored and then finally discarded when the news was fraught with only the media harping on about and stoking social unrest. She had considered making herself a nuisance to some of the rest of Obsidian, but those she would have felt comfortable teasing had all departed. Hannie... Kaityln... Indra. She'd actually been quite excited to poke the latter, a fellow national icon, but time and obligations hadn't really allowed for it. She was particularly worried about Hannie, now that she considered it. She hadn't exactly gotten the most positive impression of the girl's handlers by proxy, and who knew what they'd do after presumably needing to withdraw her for being a liability instead of an asset. People that were willing to wield a little girl as a weapon like that... She should have done something, been more proactive, stopped playing around so as not to keep scaring the poor thing. Maybe if she had... Qingshe's knuckles whitened, as her hands tightened into fists. It was a good thing she'd already set her glass down, or she might have shattered it. And honestly, it would be a shame to stain the carpet with expensive wine and rack up even more unnecessary bills for her sponsors. Glancing out the window at the nightlife of Angeles City, she sighed. [color=39b54a]"I need some fresh air."[/color] Saying it aloud helped crystalize the desire into reality, as she stood from her seat, idly corking the remnants of her bottle of wine and dropping it from the table into her waiting shadow, where it disappeared into the bubbling depths without a sound. Scooping the wine glass from the table, she downed the contents in a single, deep swallow, licking her lips and setting the glass down. Striding to the door, she idly considered her path forward and then briefly dipped into her shadow. Within the bubbling, humming depths of her ooze, garments and accents were stripped away, only to be momentarily replaced, forming from the nothingness that was whole upon her body, the crackling tingle of thunder humming in her veins and atop her skin. When she emerged from the ooze again right before her door, gone was the eccentric image of the Snake, the A-Rank Arms Master who drew eyes just by existing. [hider=Civvy Snek] [img]https://i.imgur.com/54og9S7.jpg?1[/img] [/hider] In her place, a mature beauty stepped outside the room, locking it behind her and pocketing the key. Though, she was still certainly eye-catching with her long, green curls for hair and full, womanly figure clearly pressing up against the inside of her clothes, she was dressed far more casually -and conservatively- in clothes that could actually be considered civilian. Nestled beneath her clothes against the small of her back, a miniscule puddle of ooze left a cord trailing from within to her flesh, sinking cleanly beneath her skin. But despite those features, she could pass perfectly well for a civilian, making a deliberate effort to control her contracting pupils to keep them from narrowing to slits and fixing her eye color into a solid green hue. Being even [i]this[/i] low-key was an uncommon event for any that knew her. Yet, she wasn't looking to be hassled and eye-balled while alone with her thoughts. Obsidian had a responsibility to not take the generosity and freedom allowed to them for granted, and that meant not making a nuisance of themselves while on leave. [hr] [b]Balibago, Angeles City, Philippines - 10/18/2022, 20:12 UTC+8[/b] It wasn't too hard to avoid the rest of Obsidian, as Qingshe navigated the expansive hotel's depths, descending to the bottom floor and "hitting the streets", as it were. Her hands dipped into her white coat's pockets, as she ambled down the sidewalks with no particular destination in mind, watching civilians pass her by and trying not to think about how her skin crawled at the very concept of inaction and slothfulness, even when it was mandated... She'd never been very good at just lazing about. Downtime was just another way of keeping her busy doing nothing, and her hobbies were borderline nonexistent. Life in the Chinese military -especially in these busy, warmongering years- hadn't really allowed for that, and when she wasn't busy with doing science on their behalf, she was working the PR machine like a dog. The very concept of "me time" was practically a foreign entity back then. And even once she'd finally cast off her chains, she'd just ended up involved with the QRS and fighting on the opposite side of the same war, moving from front to front, blunting the Chinese momentum with the presence only an A-Rank Arms Master could bring to the table these days, even newly properly christened as she was. She was... [color=39b54a]"Still not free, huh..."[/color] Qingshe murmured under her breath. Not yet, not until this war was done. Until that day, she would never be free to do as she pleased, to truly pursue the ascension of humanity and the recovery of all she had lost under her homeland's thumb, not while this foolish war raged on, not while humans tore each other apart out of spite, reckless ambition and pointless malice. All those resources, all those lives spent like water, all those brilliant minds forced to focus on developing the industry of violence and destruction, all those precious crystallizations of the soul -Noble Arms that could have changed the world for the better- thrown into the pyre of war and reduced to mere fuel for the flame... It was so disgustingly [i]wasteful[/i]. It made her skin [i]itch[/i] at the sheer incompetence, the irrationality of humanity at its very worst. To even contemplate the true depths of such [i]waste[/i], to actually [i]calculate[/i] it, run the numbers and simulate -as she had- what could have been if everyone would [i]just fucking get along[/i] for the sake of the common good of humanity... it made her so frothing [i]angry[/i] that her mental stabilizers were triggered, restabilizing her reason. Not for the first time, she contemplated how much better things would be if she were in charge from the top-down and then discarded it. There was no point in daydreaming about the impossible, especially not if it would only stroke her own ego to arrogance. She was self-aware enough to understand that her nascent god-complex did not even slightly need a single drop more encouragement wherever she could starve it. The last thing she needed was to become the very thing she sought to destroy. Yet, that didn't lessen her utter fury with her homeland. And more importantly, her disappointment. It was why she'd betrayed them, after all, after they had killed her faith. ...And she should really stop thinking about that. Shaking her head of that circular line of thought, Qingshe let loose a slow calming exhale. Inhaling the cooler late-day air, she snuggled her hands more deeply within her pockets and rolled her shoulders, working a few imaginary cricks from her neck. The night was young and her obligations none, and if she was going to [i]really[/i] get in on this vaunted "recuperation" and decompression thing, then she supposed that she should try to stop thinking too much. [color=39b54a][i]Impossible,[/i][/color] her brain unhelpfully snorted at the concept. Regardless, reminiscence and self-reflection were clearly not her friends this night. It had only been the better part of a single week of this enforced "vacation", and she was already practically on the verge of climbing the walls and tearing out her own hair from boredom. After so many consecutive years always moving from one task to the next, she didn't really know how to deal with not having something of actual substance to do that furthered her future interests... [color=39b54a][i]Maybe it's time to learn.[/i][/color] She checked her internal clock. [i]20:42[/i] It seemed her aimless wanderings had just sucked time into a dark void, and now, she simply didn't know what to do with herself, even with the conscious realization of what she "should" do. Intellectually, she was aware that downtime was healthy, that taking breaks was essential to a happy work-life balance for humans, but habit and -admittedly obsessive- forward thinking advocated otherwise. Yet, if she didn't make up her mind soon, she was only going to find her resolution met by closed establishments for the night. She was honestly disappointed at the shot of warped relief that rippled through her, as the sound of distant shattering glass rang through the night, followed by shouts of alarm. Qingshe's gaze snapped in that direction, her feet already carrying her closer, curiosity stoked, as she tried to catch a glimpse of what was happening from a distance.