Avatar of Penny

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Recent Statuses

5 mos ago
Current Achmed the Snake
1 like
9 mos ago
It's kind of insane to me that people ever met without dating apps. It is just so inefficient.
2 likes
11 mos ago
One, polyamory is notoriously difficult to administer
4 likes
11 mos ago
I'm guessing it immediately failed because everyone's computer broke/work got busy/grand parents died
9 likes
1 yr ago
In short: no don't use basic acrylics.
2 likes

Bio

Early 30's. I know just enough about everything to be dangerous.

Most Recent Posts

Emmaline breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Neil climb over the wall and drop down into the alleyway. Her skin crawled and she was struck with and overpowering desire to visit Marieunburg or Tratino or Cathy for that matter. So far there had been no alarm raised, doing so would be more dangerous for the merchant who owned the house than it would be for the abortive thieves afterall and even gunfire and shattering glass were not so strange during blackpowder week that it attracted more than curious glances. Emmaline and Neil climbed back into their carriage and set off. They looked disheveled and Emmaline was missing her cloak, but fortunately the driver drew a predictable but entirely incorrect conclusion, grinning at the pair of them before turning his attention to the road.

"Chaos worshipers," Emmaline whispered urgently, as though that had not been painfully apparent.

"What should we do, can we... I don't know report it to someone?" she asked. Theoretically the answer to that question was a simple one. Yes, report it to the witch-hunters but that ignored the fact that Emmaline herself was, by some definitions, a witch, and that Sigmar's Templars were not renowned for their careful sifting of the innocent from the guilty. As a practical matter what sifting did occur tended to be through the ashes after they pyres died down.
It had taken Sayeeda considerable time to get used to being aboard a starship as a standard part of her life. She had seen plenty of star travel during her mercenary career of course, but the hum of enginens and air cycling pumps made her mind think of impending landings, usually heading into action. The extractions normally had a smell of antiseptic and stressed and burned metal that was absent from the Highlander most of the time. Fortunately in the time she had owned the Highlander she had begun to suppress the instincts associated with an imminent drop into lethal danger. Which was not to say they vanished completely. Taya appeared unexpectedly from a side corridor, her approach muffled by a particularly loud fluid pump. The girl was clearly excited and grabbed for Junebug without thinking. Junebug caught her by the arm yanked her off balance and slammed her against a bulkhead, a knife appearing in her hand and pressing to the younger womans throat, her dark eyes blank and focused well beyond the horizon.

"Junebug its me!" Taya squeaked spreading her hand wide. Sayeeda stared wide eyed for a moment before her grip relaxed and she dropped the blonde to the deck. Junebug stepped back, lowering the knife.

"Hey Taya... look I'm sorry... it's just..." she tucked the knife back into her belt, lowering her eyes in embarassment that made her skin flush and prickle with adrenaline.

"Hey, I get it, combat reflexes and all that," Taya said reassuringly. Combat fatigue more like but Taya was trying to be delicate which Junebug appreciated. Unfortunately once a soldier reached the level Junebug had there were few options but to keep riding the high. Veteran's had a saying, either you stayed hard or you got soft, but what they didn't mention was that most people that went soft didn't cheerfully re-enter civilian life. Mostly they burned out on booze or drugs, or fell into other lives of violence with predictable ends. Junebug didn't think she was special in that respect, she had to stay on the edge, but that meant one day and probably not a very distant one, you got sloppy, you made a mistake, like maybe pulling a knife on your friend when she surprised you in a dark corridor.

"Look I wanted to talk to you and Neil, and I guess Saxon? Does he get a vote?" Taya asked uncertainly.

"He does not," Sayeeda said emphatically. Taya nodded clearly reassured.

"What did you want to talk about?" Sayeeda asked, feeling her skin return to its normal temperature as her body finished processing the adrenaline she had generated. That was faster than it should have been, damn Terran bioengineering. One of these days she really needed to see a doctor about that. One of these days.

"I'll tell you in the in the galley," Taya said with a nervous grin.

Taya had clearly gone through considerable trouble to prepare food and coffee. Her culinary repertoire was small and ran heavily in the direction of spicy noodle dishes, one of which steamed in a disposable cardboard cooking box. Neil had already arrived, either directed by Taya or by Lonney at Taya's direction. He slid a mug of coffee across the smooth tabletop to her, which she stopped with a grin and raised in a toast.

"I've found us a job," Taya said, seeming nervous but determined. Junebug arched an eyebrow. Had the girl somehow negotiated a deal on planet? That seemed unlikely given she had been involved in the action herself.

"Who?" Junebug asked, helping herself to a bowl of noodles.

"Me," Taya replied her back straightening. Junebug froze genuinely stunned.

"You?" Neil asked, every bit as perplexed as she.

"Me," Taya confirmed. Junebug and Neil shared a perplexed look.

"I want you to find out what happened to my father."

------------------

"Let me get this straight, you want us to sail six months across the arm to reach a system that is probably overun with the most hostile xenos known to man, to locate your father who, at the time we left, looked like he was about to be liquidated by a millitary coup?" Junebug asked, staring at the projection of the RIP map Taya had produced.

"Yup," Taya agreed as she spooned noodles into her mouth.

"I know its a haul, and I'm not saying drop everything and go for it, but since we don't seem to have a goal in mind right now, its as good a one as any," Taya pointed out.

"We can take other work along the way, to defer costs," she pointed out.

"Defer costs," Junebug repeated not quite believing what she was hearing.

"If my father is alive, he will reward you handsomely for bringing me home, if not, then I am the rightful air to the Cho-Lan clan and I will reward you," Taya coaxed.

"And if your father is dead and a junta of hostile generals in power? Assuming that the lot of them haven't been eaten by bugs of course?"

Taya folded her arms, her posture becoming rigid and her eyes uncharacteristically hard.

"Then I want you to rectify the situation Captain Cykali, by whatever means seem good to you."

Junebug was silent for a moment and then cut a questioning glance towards Neil.
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