2023-01-11: Hot or Not

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<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

Everyone's been busy these days. The children supporting Tsutsujidai have their own ways to relax and unwind, and a chance discovery has given Orie Takarada a reason (or perhaps just an excuse) to give the adults something of their own. And so, fliers have been distributed, advertising a casual mixer to be held in Junk Shop Aya. Adults only, of course.

For those who have been to Aya before, the shop's transformation may be a little surprising - the floor has been rearranged to allow for a greater number of people to sit comfortably. The normal menus have been changed out, instead advertising alcoholic beverages. A number of different kinds have been put together in order to cater to a variety of tastes. Some in attendance may be interested to note the drinks in which chocolate is a key ingredient. (One might literally be just a shot glass for a chocolate candies.)

But, it's not just drinks on offer. With so many people trapped here and separated from their usual wardrobe, Orie has taken the time to prepare a number of outfits to be lent out, making sure that there's options for everyone with to Takarada family facilities on offer in case anyone needs to go change real quick. Looking good is an important part of morale, too, especially on a night like this, and Orie is eager to make sure everyone's accomodated.

Orie herself, of course, has taken the same opportunity. Instead of the usual blouse, jeans, and Aya apron, she's dressed tonight in a bright red cocktail dress. She doesn't get the opportunity to show off that often, and tonight's the perfect night for it!

After all... tonight's festivities are bound to be something else.

With everyone gathered and seated, Orie scans the crowd.

"Welcome, everyone, welcome. So glad you could make it tonight! I know things have been rough for everyone... but let's all forget that tonight!" Orie says. "Instead of worrying about the present or the future, why don't we look to the past? I think it's time we give appreciation where apprecation's due..."

With that, Orie winks.

"To the things that really matter. That's right, I mean... are they smokin' hot, or are they not?" She says. And it is then that they may realise what exactly they're all in for tonight. 

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.



        Sayla Mass is unsure if she really needs or if this is a terrible idea, and has decided it's both and she's going anyway. She's raided the Aya Wardrobe tonight, because if they're gonna make this a mixer, she may as well go for it. As such, Sayla is wearing a tightfitting backless green dress with some light jewellery. Her sunglasses sit on the table for four in front of her, with a cocktail in front of her. No one has to know it's her second of the night.

        She's been amiable so far, cheerful enough, but it's pretty obvious she's exhausted. Her eyes track to Orie as she announces herself to the crowd. Hot and would, Sayla notes to herself. Though it might make things weird for Rikka- and Orie is distressingly straight.

        Everyone has been handed a sheet of paper with a series of numbers and checkboxes. Someone really on the ball might notice that Sayla has one more box per question than everyone else. As Orie finishes speaking, the quiz begins!

The 'quiz' such as it is, opens with four pictures on the TVs in Aya, numbered 1 to 4, and each with a name.

https://forms.gle/sXU8nbiQFhvjDBvy8

The first is a famous face, pictured at a party. Garma Zabi, the youngest scion of the Zabi Family. It bears the watermark of Zeon Earth Media, early in the Earth Campaign.

The second image is of a blonde woman, Killy Garrett. It's a military publicity picture, taken just after the battle of Loum. Whatever impact she had on the war is unknown.

The third image is of a blonde man in Federation OYW uniform. The name there is Sleggar Law- there's no watermark on the picture. White Base scholars might recognize him, but he seems here mostly for looks.

The final image looks like a publicity shot, featuring the name Crowley Hamon. It's from a bar in Zeon, but those in the know know she fought with Ramba Ral in the OYW.

        The contents of Sayla's glass seem to have disappeared as she looks at the pictures. Then looks at her sheet. And then looks at the pictures. Then looks at Orie. "...You owe me another glass for this." It... seems playful? Mostly. "I mean the rest of them have some reason to be up there but Sleggar? The man had all the charm of a dud space mine. The most that 'movie star' jawline of his got him was slapped."

        Ah, that's why Sayla is drinking so fast. So she can skip the maudlin in the face of this. "...Never should have dug through those magazines." As she goes ticks her sheet. 8 ticks. 

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

Qivi has been busy, for the last while. There's a lot of things to do in Tsutsujidai, after all. While Qivi may not consider herself very useful at figuring out how to get out of the sealed-away space, nor does she have any good ideas to help with Akane - she hasn't even been able to find her - she has been very helpful at making sure the people of Tsutsujidai keep having a home and supplies until then.

The sight of a friendly giant carrying equipment, moving rubble, or building short-term structures (and, at first, rescue) has become common enough, as is Qivi's presence in her smaller-scale form performing salvage and scavenging, jury-rigging repair, coordination, and volunteer duties. She doesn't know everybody, but she knows enough, and she's not afraid of dirty or unpleasant work.

But she could do with a break now and then. And, frankly, this sounded like a good one. She's in and out of Aya enough to hear about it.

The only downside, of course, is that she doesn't have anything to wear that's fancier than a shirt and jeans, and so she decided to borrow something. Unfortunately, for all her grab bag of useful skills, tailoring is not one of Qivi's stronger talents, and the type of fancy clothes she prefers definitely require tailoring for her; dresses aren't to Qivi's taste. Which means it took a miracle to find something.

Aya had a miracle.

Qivi is currently at her 'normal' height of about five foot six and wearing a fancy outfit that consists of a pair of dress slacks and a waistcoat. Under it, a white shirt, long-sleeved, and a tie that has the last inch or so hang loose. It... mostly fits, though she could do with a better tailor as it's a bit tight through the shoulders and chest. She still manages to look at least reasonably classy. She's left the headband off, so her pointed ears are visible if not accented; she has no earrings.

Also, Qivi has a sweet tooth and has appropriated chocolate drinks instead of her usual go-to of beer. It's fine.

"Huh," she says, leaning back in her chair. She has mastered the ability to make it balance at an angle with her feet against the table leg, which takes away some of the classiness of the outfit. "I gotta admit, that wasn't what I expected when I heard about this gathering." Which isn't stopping her from un-tilting her chair with a faint thump so she can actually fill it out. 

<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.

        ENTER STAGE RIGHT: <A mysterious and unnamed beauty.>

        A pitch black parasol clicks closed - a single fluid thrust purging it of almost all its accumulated water. Soon, it's handed off to someone who accepts it before even knowing why. The enigmatic enchantress who glides into the room as though pulled by the wind is clad in a most racy, decadently slinky midnight black evening dress - a looooong slit up the side reaching all the way to her waist the focal point of the whole affair. It's clear that she has a practically pearlescent hue of green to her hair tumbling behind her - it's hard not to catch a glance.

        But her eyes...? ...It's hard to tell. For inexplicable reasons, it's a little bit discouraged to look up past her catty little smile. Her voice is her eyes.

        If one were to check this mysterious maiden's ID, it'd have the name 'Cetra Clearbell' on it - even if for some reason she feels like she brings to mind a few other similarly fabricated names. Pay that no mind.

        A wine glass's worth of chocolate liquor swirls in the witch's hand. "Don't worry, I know very well that if I were in this contest, it'd be unfair, so I'll humbly withdraw myself from any rankings if I've happened to stumble into your appraisal," C.C. calls out, chin cupped in one hand, the exceedingly exposed leg recrossing over the more concealed one, in juuuuuust that sort of way that tempts examination - surely one could see- (but you never, ever will no matter how eagle-eyed you are.)

        The four faces presented are a little bit...hmm. Fingertip tapping on her lips. "...Well, we can't really be here to judge their actual personal charm. For all we know until you just said as much, Sleggar's a total charmer just like how he looks. ...nn, always was a little hard for me to go for the starlet types..."

        Garma Zabi is maybe the closest person on there to her actual, current, like, basically-boyfriend, but C.C. stares at the guy, and actually -does- know about his repute, and it's just . . . off-? A swirl of her drink - is her thing with Lelouch just a weird fling and he's not actually her type??? Is Garma Zabi, Space's Most Famous Twink, giving C.C. an existential crisis?

        Or is she just dangerously deep in high proof liquor already??? 

<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.

Milly, who has taken the chance to avail herself of one of the outfits -- a long black dress with white gloves -- has been settled in at the same table as 'Cetra' for a little bit, now. She is an adult, despite being an Ashford student, and has availed herself of some horrid chocolate cake martini drink.

As the images pop up... Milly taps her chin. "Well. Garma Zabi's a bold start. Definitely hot, but..." Her thoughts drift elsewhere. "... it'd definitely be weird." She checks off some things, as she looks toward Sayla. "Movie star jawline is right, though. I wouldn't, but there's a market for that."

Her gaze lingers on both of the blondes. After a few moments' thought, she reflects: "... I think if I comment on either of these, it's weird."

She is checking boxes, though. 

<Pose Tracker> Gai Kurenai has posed.

When Orie started moving the front of the shop around, there was some hobo crashed on her couch with a hat over his face and a duster coat pulling double duty as a blanket. By the time people started filtering in, Gai Kurenai, having intimated that there was no escape, has left the coat draped over a chair and his hat on the counter and is taking up position behind the counter, a dress shirt over his black tee and an apron on over that.

Someone's got to bring the heat, after all, and provide snacks for the drinkers.

That said, this compromise is... not as much of a compromise as he might have hoped. "You still have to play the game~" Orie had winked at him, and that was that.

The chief problem: Gai Kurenai has no idea who any of these people are. Flying blind it is! It's a good chance to get a sense for everyone else within this city, after all. 

<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.


Jana Cektru considered avoiding the outing; she might not be wanted around, as an outsider, and as someone... rather not like the rest of them. But then she thought of Orie, and decided that holding herself apart would be a terrible idea, actually. So she will try to have fun with it.

...A lot of fun, apparently; Orie knows her tastes, and Jana happens to have a cocktail with some chocalate in it--or, more appropriately for her, a chocolate drink with some alcohol in it. It's fine.

She's dressed in blue, a knee-length number that shows off her arms and shoulders, and her hair is down. She's wearing some light heels. She swirls her drink a little. She is in a good mood.

"Hmmm," she says with the paper, and considders. And then she looks to Orie.

"My," Jana says. "What a bold game. How interesting..."

Sayala mentions some of the faces, and Jana laughs a little. "I'm afraid I don't know any of them," she admits. She's rather--new to the Earth Sphere. Rather new indeed.

If she looks up at CC's face she doesn't say so.

"Let's see... This Zabi fellow is rather attractive, but seems a little young for my tastes."

"I'm not usually one for military types, but sometimes." She checks some boxes, too.

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais came dressed a bit lighter, tonight, very informally; she's only wearing a white t-shirt over tonight's dark pink bodysuit, with a somewhat beaten-up pair of sneakers. The wardrobe offerings were a surprise--but a welcome one. She emerges after several minutes of browsing, wearing a pastel-pink ruffled skirt that'd be rather breezy and carefree, if not for all the sequins, and an... interesting t-shirt. It's cream-yellow, and its worn screenprinting depicts a cute-but-primitive 3D render of an extremely pudgy dinosaur from an obscure late-0070s video game.

Sometimes an outfit just speaks to you. Nobody said the outfit that speaks to you would be *good*, just that it speaks.

She's seated not far from Sayla, cradling a drink made with irish cream and chocolate. It may take industrial amounts of alcohol to get the cyborg drunk, but she still enjoys the act and taste.

"Huh. Garma Zabi... I never really thought about it, but he's pretty cute." After a moment's thought, she ticks boxes. "Don't think I would, though..." she mutters to herself. She seems rather more interested in Killy, and... erases her initial marks at Sayla's remarks on Sleggar.

There's a blink, and a bit of a stare as she comes upon Crowley Hamon. "...goddamn." Two boxes are ticked, there-- hot, and would.

Nice.

<Pose Tracker> BC-001 Minae has posed.

        Minae is a perpetual presence around Tsutsujidai, having been spending a lot of her time coordinating messages from group to group - and not just in the physical sense either. It turns out that when you are effectively a mobile communications platform in a closed-off space, and when you have experience working within Federation, GGG and Nerv systems, your skills are somewhat in demand. It would be fair to say that part of her job description has effectively become 'walking aerial'.

        She's also a very stabilising presence. Times have been pretty rough, what with trying to get supplies to people and ensuring that everyone has potable water and a place to stay, but through all of it the robot has done her best to remain essentially unchanged. It's a deliberate attempt to give people a bit of peace and mind - Minae has learnt over the years that while too strict a routine can be a bad thing, a little bit of familiarity can do wonders.

        (Alright, it hasn't all been smooth sailing. There was one point where some robots tried to steal her, and Orie nearly mistook her for merchandise while she was busy dealing with a particularly large amount of traffic. But she's been doing okay.)

        Unfortunately, what she doesn't have a great deal of experience in doing is dressing up to the nines. Not that she looks bad most of the time - her long green hair is striking, and her natural upbeat nature does a lot to help carry herself. Maybe she looks a little bit too 'your teacher is at the school prom', but at least the sleeveless vest is pretty chic when you pair it with a brilliant smile.

        You might... expect a robot to be having difficulties with the quiz as presented. But if anything, Minae seems to be doing pretty well, tapping a pencil against her lips for only a couple of seconds per answer before scribbling down her answers. If anything she seems to be deliberately prioritizing going from her gut, and only stops to recoil at the sight of the third face. "Oh, dear. Oh, no. I definitely seem to be against sideburns," she announces aloud, as if this is something she has just discovered and she needs to report on her progress. 

<Pose Tracker> Yuka Ohta has posed.

Some people probably knew what they were in for here. Others are being blindsided. Yuka, for all her brilliance, is in the latter category. She's also, shockingly, not in her work uniform. SOMEHOW the people who got her to take a break and come here have managed to get her into a dress. A particularly frilly and mismatched lilac dress that, if a certain man happens to be lingering anywhere in the vicinity, would no doubt make him begin to sweat with well-disguised worry, bordering on panic. After all... Somebody thought it might be fun to give Yuka a touch of makeup as well, complete with... black lipstick, for some reason.

The event itself... Well, she's not COMPLETELY clueless. Yuka is, to be clear, aware of attraction, mechanically speaking. Even if she herself has not once attempted dating, or struck upon someone who made her heart race in that way. The problem is, she has no metric for 'what's considered hot'. So she has to ask some questions here. "Is this a matter of whether we personally find them attractive, or just, that they're considered an attractive looking person by most standards?"

The answer to that determines, largely, what boxes she ticks off. In the meantime, she's having a drink with low amounts of alcohol, and high amounts of chocolate and other such sweet flavors.

<Pose Tracker> Faye Valentine has posed.

Faye had slipped in as soon as she saw the fliers - predictably - and then seen Sayla - and committed - and now, in the very sleekest and most aggressively-slit option (black - she'd considered green, but matching is tacky, right?) in the arsenal of Orie Takarada, with a pair of crystalline green earrings dangling on each side, she has staked her territory at Sayla Mass's table for four.

Or, maybe - staked herself within Sayla's territory.

She actually is on her first drink of the night, sipping at one of the chocolate cocktails on offer, mostly-bare back oriented towards Sayla while she flicks her pen over the boxes and gazes at the images.

"Oh, he's not bad." Faye's not exactly the delicate type. She strikes at the quiz like she's taking stabs. "Sayla. Would you believe I'm not the 'women in uniform' type? Like, don't get me wrong, but... mm."

Another little sip of chocolate. It's sweet, but she'd made sure to pick something that would burn a little, too. She grins as Sayla speaks up on Sleggar.

"Oh, you're a woman with history. You're right, though - Just looking at him, that's a guy with an attitude about it."

The final option...

She'd been chewing through the game with her usual abandon, but she slows here for a moment before reaching for the checkboxes. Faye gives Crowley Hamon plenty of her time.

Maybe she's just into high-class blondes? 

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        Liam is here because he was quietly but intensely curious about the mysterious world of adult social activities. He showed up about twenty minutes ago, but--unfortunately--had no initial luck finding an outfit to wear. The one suit that was even close to his size was too tight in the chest, so he politely declined. He underestimated Orie's resourcefulness, and her daring.

        Liam sits next to Jana, wearing an iridescent green button-down shirt, form-hugging leather pants, and dress shoes. None of it does anything to hide the ports on the back of his neck, and the shirt is only buttoned up halfway. Orie said it made him look handsome. He's not sure. A bottle of beer (domestic, cold from the fridge) sits in front of him, but he hasn't touched it, and he occasionally looks at it as though it's posing a grave question about his social mores.

        He... looks at the pictures, pen poised. The first two: Zeon uniforms. Liam makes a face like he's bitten into a lemon, and he shifts in his seat. He tries to picture them both wearing suits, instead. But as he fills out his answers, he... blinks, his face slowly turning red.

        "What's 'would?'" he asks Jana (and everyone nearby), his voice tiny and awkward.

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

Luxuriantly lounging on a piece of furniture that perhaps did not asked to be luxuriously lounged upon, is Sonia. If requested by any, she willingly shows off her ID to prove that yes, she is twenty two, and yes, she would love a change of clothing thank you. While normally already in a skirt, that skirt is not this one... as in the back, Sonia has gone into a white mini-skirt of impeccable pleating, and a matching white halter-top.

She accepts the paper, and peers at it. "Ah." She says, gravely, with all intent of taking this *absolutely* seriously, when in fact, perhaps, she should *absolutely* not.

Rather than awkwardly write, her glass finds itself wedged between her knees as she uses her thighs as a table, glancing at the pictures several times as she ticks off boxes ... although Liam's question gets her to regard him from where she is, before glancing at Jana. All you. 

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

Orie fulfills drink orders as they come, and watches the gathered crowd intently to see their reactions. She seems, ultimately, pleased... especially at Sayla's reaction.

"Well, what do you think? Faces of the One-Year War, some well-known, some not!" Orie says. "They all deserve some appreciation, don't you think?"

Sayla says she owes her another glass, and a satisfied smirk crawls its way across her face.

"Of course~." Orie replies. As if anticipating this, another glass has already been prepared and sent her way.

"Well... I like a pretty face with not a lot going on upstairs, but in a pinch I'll take one or the other." Orie says, simply and quite brazenly, with a shrug. She seems satisfied, too, at Minae's remark.

"Making discoveries, hm? Well, I'm glad to help out~." Orie comments, She, of course, has also been given a quiz. She already knows everyone that's on the list, of course, so there's no surprise in her reaction. Just interest and consideration.

"...Him, though, I like him." She notes. She doesn't specify which 'him' she's referring to, but judging from what she just said, it's probably easy to guess.

There are some questions about the nature of the event, though.

"I want to know what you think. Don't feel pressured to answer in a particular way. No judgment here!" Orie assures, as Yuka asks whether they're rating them by their own standards or by most people's. And as for Liam... a smile crosses her face. Ah, to be young again. It's directed at Jana, but Orie can be incorrigible.

"Well~... Would you... spend the night with them? And let what happens..." Orie says, meshing her fingers together. "Happen. Whatever that might be, whatever you're both comfortable with."

She lets that settle in the air for just a moment before going...

"Anyway! How was Round 1, everyone? Do you have a feel for the rhythm yet? I'm very excited to see what you think of what's coming next~..." She says ominously. 

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.



        Taking her time to look around the room- and closer, well. "The look suits you, Qivi. The sorta thing a girl likes to see coming to deck someone and then sweep her off her feet. Pity you can't step out of the pilot seat in it, you'd get some swoons." Okay there is definite fun in her voice, now. She's hitting 'the zone' for events like this. Flirty, fun. Just gotta stay there.

        Cetra catches her eye, too, even if she's a bit of a headache to think about. Walls up, Sayla. "I mean you can't, but I can and will." She could say more but... that's a little too maudlin.

        Oh Renais no.... Sayla doesn't say anything. Just. Awkward. Big awks. "I don't think he ever really did much with them, just let them grow. She looks to Yuka. "Definitely personal. Otherwise there wouldn't be those last and second to last boxes."

        And then Faye makes her appearance and Sayla is silent for a while, because she is rather struck. "I. Damn." Is what she manages, and her eyes are on Faye for a little while, before she answers. "...Uh. Yeah. Uniforms tend to have implications." She sips her next cocktail, also giving Gai a brief once over, as Faye talks. "I'm sure he was someone's type. Just not mine."

        She notes Liam in the background and... leaves that to Jana. Not her problem tonight. Def not.


Round 2 comes up on the screen, four more pictures.

Shin Matsunaga, the White Wolf of Zeon, and one of the most decorated aces of the One Year War. He disappeared after A Bao A Qu.

Kycilia Zabi, the last commander of Zeon. A ruthless but smart woman, and an excellent tactician. She died under mysterious circumstances at A Bao A Qu.

Gentle Chapman, Earth Forces Sniper. The man who put the GM Sniper on the map, and for those outside Tsutsujidai, 2 time winner of the Gundam Fight.

Sayla Mass, Comms officer and pilot on the White Base. Also she's in the room.


        "Ah. Matsunaga." She pauses. "Honestly I think I like him better as a silver fox." Pause. "Hypothetically." She ticks Hot, and... a fifth box? Kycilia, however, gets a frown, and a quick marking. Look. It's complicated. Also the last time she saw that man, he was taking a bazooka to kill her.

        Gentle Chapman gets a... look. "...I am really glad Domon's not here." She whispers under her breath- still loud enough for Renais to hear. Still... tick, tick.

        And then the last picture comes up and Sayla nearly chokes on her drink. The picture has the MS Illustrated Swimsuit Issue watermark. "How? When? What!?" She shoots a glare at Orie. "That was on our first and only shore leave on Earth, how did you-" Wait.

        The was a camera on the White Base. Someone was setting up just after that.

        "Kai...!"

        ...Fuck did she rock that swimsuit though. 

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

Qivi, who is almost always more comfortable in jeans and a tank top herself, gives Renais' choice of shirt a thumbs-up as she walks in. "Nice," she says, and leaves it at that.

Instead she gives Sayla a big grin. "That's the idea," Qivi says. "Even if I really can't do the tailoring myself. I'm pretty sure if I try to put my arms all the way forward I'll blow out the shoulders, and if I go backwards instead I'll lose a button. But even I'm not brave enough to pilot in something like this if I don't have to."

She sets her pencil down, having answered the questions about the two men much faster than the two women. "Probably a bit of both," she says to Yuka. "That's the difference between the two questions, I figure. Like, I can tell that Garma's attractive, or was," given that he's been dead for most of the time Qivi has been alive, "but I absolutely wouldn't go for that. Fortunately," she says, brightly, "I know what I like." She glances over toward Sayla's table for a moment.

Qivi is very carefully not answering Liam though. Sorry, Liam.

The next set of images come up while Qivi is taking a drink. She nearly chokes on it, and breaks out into coughing after inhaling at just the wrong time, though she does wave away any offers of help - she'll be fine once it's not burning the back of her throat and up her nose. "Ah, god," she croaks, taking a moment to compose herself.

She is much more down on this group. "Eh, Matsunaga's okay I guess if you're into guys," she says, before checking the next two off very quickly. On the last one...

Qivi hesitates. "Hey," she says, brightly. If Sayla can tease her, it's fair game. "Am I allowed to pick *both* 'It'd Be Weird' and something else?" Her pencil bounces off one of the other options a couple times as she waits for a response. 

<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.

Milly spares a few moments to look at Liam. ... maybe he'll perk up with a few more calories in him... the rooftop garden is just now starting to sprout, too, and the community garden shouldn't be far behind. Maybe they'll have a bit better luck with food, at that point... though stores are getting just a touch low for her comfort.

Her eyebrow rises just slightly at Orie. "I think I could give you a few phone numbers, Takarada-san," she says, "though 'Britannian' might be a dealbreaker for someone living in a PLANT..."

She breezes along to the second set without too much thought, though -- that's too heavy. She also takes another drink of her chocolate cake martini; there's definitely a bit of pinkness on her face. When she sees the second set, though --

"Oh, hm. So this is famous philanthropist Sayla Mass..." She pauses, brow furrowing. "... This photo can't be more than three years old. Isn't it kinda cheating not to get all your pictures from the same era?"

Her hand studiously flies over the paper, marking a few more boxes here and there. 

<Pose Tracker> Yuka Ohta has posed.

The answer given for her helps. Significantly. Though there's one slight fluctuation in her markings, which she doesn't speak on. For some reason none of them really speak to her. Only a small twitch of something. "Odd." She doesn't comment beyond that.

She also doesn't really get Orie's whole 'pretty face and not much upstairs' comment? Though she gets the distinct feeling that applies to some people she knows, regardless. Moving onto the second page, she winds up wrinkling up her nose for a moment. Not because of any specific person. Just... an instinctive knowledge that there's a lot of 'not her interest' here. Sayla herself being in the lineup just makes her train of thought derail. Realizing immediately that THIS is what the 'too weird to think about' option is for. Because she cannot begin to even process whether she'd be interested or not, without mentally stalling.

<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.


A pretty face with not a lot going on upstairs... Jana laughs. "Is that how it is?" she wonders.

Jana appreciates the cute kaiju Renais has. She has been friendly with Minae! ...And she's keeping an eye over on Yuka, too. Someone answers her question, but Jana nods along. 'Your own', she seems to approve of. But as she sips the chocolate drink and gets more relaxed, she glances to the beer Liam has, and then his... question.

"The beer is probably fine for you," Jana comments. And then, he asks that question, and she opens her mouth and closes it. How best to explain? But Orie has her covered. "Yes," she says. "Just so. In a hypothetical sense, obviously; we don't know these people." Pause. "Well, most of us don't know these people."

...The others, though...

Round Two!! Jana marks a few down. She considers, looks at Sayla. "Hmm. Yes, I think he'd look good older," she agrees thoughtfully. "But not bad at this age, either." She considers. She gets a bad feeling at Kycilla, or maybe that's just from picking up on the energy in the room. Tick, tick. Tick, tick. And then--"Ah, nice suit..."

Then the last. Jana peers over at Sayla, thoughtfully, and--finishing her first chocolately drink--grins. "My," she says. "So it's that sort of game?"

Qivi mentions 'if you're into guys', and Jana reflects, "Gender isn't particularly important to me in these matters." But then, half the room knows she's an alien.

"May I have another of these?" Jana wonders of Orie. It's very good.

<Pose Tracker> BC-001 Minae has posed.

        Minae does not, thankfully, launch into the Talk for Liam's benefit right away. She might be very aware of social cues and mores, but she does have the occasional blind spot in her thinking, and 'being helpful' tends to be an overriding thought that often doesn't care all that much about tact or timing. Maybe it's just because she's a little preoccupied, but that's probably for the best. Still, some code somewhere just wrote a line to a 'to-do' log inside her head.

        Instead, she lights up at Orie's comment, looking quite pleased with herself. "Yes, actually! I don't have a lot of experience in making snap judgements like this. It might sound silly, but from my point of view it's quite a valuable learning exercise. The best way I can describe it is trying to train myself to not think too much and just follow my heart. Unfortunately, that 'just' is quite hard to overcome, but I'm getting there," she adds, which might go a long way to explain why the Brave Counsellor is here.

        "Ah, but, I'm afraid I feel like I have to put 'Would Not' for everyone. It would probably be technically possible with some assistance, but it does feel like it'd be stretching the definition a little. Besides, without legislation in place, I think most colonies might count me as a minor," she adds matter-of-factly, and then frowns. "Or worse, an-- attachment."

        Once again she ticks her way down most of the page in a blur - though this time she stutters at the end instead. Her brow flickers for a moment, and she glances up to regard Sayla. "... uh, ma'am. While I recognize the need for a little self-validation, I think there might be better ways to go about it," she follows up after Milly's comment. "Or, at the very least, I think you're perfectly hot enough that you probably don't need to put beer goggles on people first."

<Pose Tracker> Faye Valentine has posed.

"Aw. You know just what to say to a lady." Faye smiles up at Sayla from the rim of her glass, taking stock of the room. That tall, sad guy from before is here, huh? The outfit is actually a nice choice - she's kind of appreciating how he's built, seeing him like this - and then... he opens his mouth.

Oh. Poor kid. That's off the table, then. She does get kind of a goofy grin on her face when Orie offers her explanation, though.

The longer this goes, and the deeper she gets into her glass, the more her shoulders ease.

She's not too deep in that glass to fail to meet Qivi's eyes though, and her eyes flutter just enough to make it deliberate. She slips a little closer to Sayla. "You do, hmm? That's good to hear. Why make it complicated, right?"

She flips over that next page, narrowing her eyes a bit at Shin before finally making her decisions. Kycilla and Graham are faster - Not really what she goes for, either of them, though that IS a nicely fit suit -

"I." Faye reaches for her glass, trying to cut off a budding snicker with another sip, and doesn't quite get there in time. It's her turn to go softly red.

"Damn."

<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.

        There's a sliiiiiiight little trepidation in C.C.'s silky smooth demeanor as the unexpected prospect of a... """classmate""" here. But - "Well well! It looks like we're in similar camps as I expected, President." C.C. muses, fingers splayed over one cheek, swirling a finger in her glass as she takes in Milly's choice of attire. "...heh, you're right, Sayla really does look just about the same as she did back then, even though she works so hard these days...I wonder what her trick is?" asks the last person who needs to know those sorts of tricks.

        The other three, though...

        "Eeeh. ...I'm wondering if aesthetics just weren't to my tastes from back then. Or maybe my standards are just ~very~ high..."

        With a little sigh as she fills out the sheet for round 2, C.C. abruptly spins around, lounging across the table, hair fanned over her eyes, arm loosely bent to cover her forehead. "...ne, Milly. ...Any spare chocolates-?" Her lips part juuuust a bit.

<Pose Tracker> Lina Lombardi has posed.

         Lina furrows her brow at the next set of images. Shin Matsunaga...not bad. She didn't usually go for the burly types like him, but hey, she wouldn't say no once.

         Kycilia Zabi...She was 24? Yeesh, Zeon sure ages ya, don't it? Way too weird...

         Gentle Chapman! He's definitely handsome, but yeah, not really into the silver foxes that much.

         S-Sayla...Gotta be polite yes you're totally hot and like, yeah, I might, but...weird weird weird she's a war hero and philanthropist WEIRD.

         Anyone looking at Lina's face would probably be able to ascertain her answers, even without her saying a word as she fills out her sheet. "Man, are parties like this always this...personal?" 

<Pose Tracker> Gai Kurenai has posed.

So, Gai is not unaware that he's attractive, as human shapes go. You get asked to do the Fake Boyfriend thing and you can reasonably conclude that it is possible certain sets of humans may find you, as the colloquialism goes, 'a hottie'. So far, he's recieved at least one glance that he's pretty sure is appraising.

Everyone coming in so far as received a sunny smile and a wave - the only difference was a momentary lapse when Yuka stepped in, and a blink of confusion as though the young man (?) had seen a ghost. But recognition is not mutual, so he can just chalk it up to one of those Things that just Happens sometimes (and quietly enjoy the joke at That Man's expense) and carry on.

"Hmm..." He seems more comfortable speaking up as the second round starts. "Distinguished." He makes some marks and moves on. Kycilia's picture gets a simple, if inexplicable "Murnau" and is quickly passed over. He studies Chapman for a moment, before settling on "His eyes look tired."

Ah, so this is the kind of game it's going to be. Gai takes a sideways glance at Orie, and doesn't comment as he makes his marks for Sayla's picture. 

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        "Okay," Liam says, and he reaches for the bottle opener. The cap comes off with a delicate touch--for Liam, always self-conscious about breaking breakables, even if his control over his strength is both fine and practiced.

        Milly looks at him. Liam glances at the bottle--cheap Japanese beer, despite Tsutsujidai very much not being in Japan anymore--as if it is now daring him to drink it, and how is he even supposed to do this, and doesn't alcohol make your brain funny, anyway? How is he supposed to handle that? His hand shakes a little as he takes his very first sip. It tastes malty and bitter and a little sweet, and there's a biting chemical something Liam's never tasted. The alcohol itself, undoubtedly. He swallows. He does not become violently ill, or get angry, or turn into a tired drunken stereotype.

        "Hm," Liam says. He's not sure what he thinks. But then Orie and Jana explain his question, and... "I--I know what sex is," he stammers. "Hypothetical. Right. Understood." A pause, as he looks at Jana. "I... like one person. It's okay to... to think others are... right? It's not cheating?" Another little pause. "And... you can like 'a type', right? Is that what 'a type' means?"

        Liam frowns as he keeps ticking the same two boxes, over and over, and--

        Oh. She's cute. She looks like she's having fun, and the shape of her face reminds him a little of Lucine's. Maybe...?

        He takes another sip right as Milly drops the name 'Sayla Mass'. Liam turns even redder.


<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais ticks boxes quietly, giving Matsunaga a fair bit of thought in particular...

And then Sayla's picture comes up, and she turns crimson. She blinks a couple of times.

Holy shit.

She turns her ballot very pointedly away from Sayla, but even then, she's agonizing over what boxes to tick...!

Help her. 

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

When the images switch over, Sonia sighs very quietly, but her gaze isn't on too many of the pictures. She flicks her hand at the paper idly, only the very last (which is Sayla) giving her pause, as she looks up and down and over - up at the screen, down at the paper, and over at Sayla herself. There's a considering look in her eyes, before she finally ticks her last two boxes. Once that's done, she looks around the room. She only vaguely recognizes most everyone here, so, in fact, she might be staring.

Hearing a question- she glances over at tomato-going-cherry Liam. "Yeah, a type is like, having a specific set of traits. It could be ... you only like people taller than you, or shorter than you, and they have to be cheerful, you can't stand people that are conceited. It's why you like... or are attracted to people in specific. It could be a physical set or emotional set of traits - possibly even both.

"Then there's people that don't have any types."

Then, letting that hang in the air, she stretches, legs crossing over her chair as the miniskirt turns with them. "That would be..." She says, glancing back at others like Gai and Renais, "They'd be willing to give anyone a shot."

Oh, Sonia. 

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

"Oh?" Orie remarks with interest as Milly says she has phone numbers for her. "Ah, that would complicate things. And I am married... Oh well!"

She doesn't sound entirely serious about it, at least. Minae, though, gives her an honest comment. Orie looks on with interest.

"Well, I'm glad my little game is proving useful. If it's helping you learn more about yourself, all the better! Just keep working on that 'just'." Orie replies... and then winks. "I get it, I get... Like I said before, it's all about what you feel. It's that's what you feel, that's what you put down. ...I'm sure you'll find someone worth stretching that definition with someday, though~."

Jana follows up her explanation to Liam, and Orie nods.

"Yes, exactly." She says.

Round 2!

"A very interesting assortment this time around, wouldn't you say...?" Orie says, with the face of someone who knows exactly what she's done.

"Oh? ...Do you have pictures?" Orie asks with interest, as Sayla mentions Matsunaga as a silver fox. Kycilia and Gentle Chapman, though... she could take or leave them. The last entry, though. Orie looks innocent as Sayla glares toward her.

"Why, I don't know what you're talking about." She says. "...You look great, though. You wear that pretty well."

'Kai', she says, and Orie smirks.

"I thought about putting him on the list, too, but there weren't any flattering pictures on-hand." She admits. As for Liam... Ah, he's too cute, she'd actually feel bad to tease him any further on the subject when he seems so sincere about it. This one she does let Jana field - though when she asks for a refill, Orie gladly gets her another.

"Of course, of course. It ended up more popular than I expected, but I made sure I had plenty on hand for you." Orie replies with a nod.

She catches Gai's sideways glance and smirks Mysteriously, before looking toward Lina.

"Oh, no, this one is special. Just consider it... a bit of a release valve." She explains. Renais, meanwhile, is going very well. "It's alright. Just go with your heart. No one's going to judge you here~."

She lets things progress a little, before a smirk crosses her face.

"Well, everyone, wasn't that round fun? I have to keep you all on your toes, or this wouldn't be any fun~. Fortunately, this next round is going to be a little easier." She says, and lets that hang in the air before clarifying. "...For me." 

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.



        It's a good thing Sayla's not possessive- though it's a bit early to say what she and Faye are doing. "Good news- I have tailors." She smirks at Qivi. "And it helps to have a good outfit on it hand anyway, so I don't mind covering it."

        Sayla laughs at Milly's comment. "Oh that's flattering, but no. I was 17 in that picture, Milly." There goes Sayla's formality. "I really don't think I could still manage that swimsuit.

        "Apparently," Sayla mumbles at Jana's comment, only for Minae to deliver a conversational gutpunch. "I- no! I didn't know I was going to be in this, let alone those pictures." She looks over the Orie, begging with her eyes to get out of this mess. It is not going to happen. "...You'll pay for this, Takarada."

        This time, Sayla doesn't choke on her drink because she stops herself drinking it in time. "Oh come on..." Faye cosying up to her is... nice though. Sayla certainly makes room for her. "I swear, you too?" Sayla is definitely blushing, as she goes through half her drink in one go. It's astounding she's not hammered yet.

        "I." Does she really looks like she did back then? She usually see's the crow's feet, the frown lines, the emotional weight that she carries. She always thought that her people did at lot of work for foundation events to hide that. But. Hoo boy, there goes the rest of that drink.

        "Who even knows?" She says to Lina, over her shoulder. "But I do know a certain woman apparently likes to play dirty." She looks over at Liam, a little more cautiously. Poor kid seems to be getting used to it all. "The drink can help you relax in tense situations sometimes. 'Social lubricant', etc. But if it isn't your thing don't push yourself." Oh. Ohhh. "What you think isn't what you do. It's okay to think about other people, as long as you act with you and your partners best interests in mind. There are times when thinking is a problem, but it's an extreme case. But I'm not having that conversation tonight, and not while drunk. It gets real messy." She pauses. "But if someone tells you you can't think about someone else... there's a problem there." Sayla's still not slurring much, but her hand movements are a little exaggerated.


Round 3 comes up on the screen, four more pictures. These... are not One Year War figures.

Guy Shishioh, Chief of 3G Green. Hero of the Primeval Conflict. Evoluder. Known to most of the room.

Julia Ampere, Science Criminal. Electrical genius. Recent causer of problems. Known to some of the room.

Vit, Hyper Agent. Part time plane. Often present in Aya.

Faye Valentine, Bounty Hunter. Cowboy. Enigma. Right next to Sayla.


        "Orie........" Sayla's voice is tinged with... playful menace. "Was this your plan all along? Lull us in with a false sense of security and pull this?" Orie's responses disarm her attack. "Kai Shiden took at least five more years to get vaguely hot, and while it would flatter his ego he wouldn't follow up. As for pictures... not any you're seeing any time soon."

        She sighs, and goes through. "...Honestly Guy is too weird for me to make a call on. Koutarou was way more my type anyway, but... Married." Poor Sakura... Julia on the other hand. Sayla gives an approving nod, ticking away. Killer choice of outfit, nice energy. And as Catherine Vuitton has proven, science criminal is not a dealbreaker.

        Vit, though, Sayla just sort of stares and shakes her head. It's like there's not quite enough of him. Just like with Calibur, a sweet guy but... incomplete. And that leads to-

        Sayla ticks hot at record speeds, and the fifth box, which Faye can probably see by now, a little too indiscreetly. Her eyes flit over to Faye's, as she also ticks would again. It was a very good evening.

<Pose Tracker> Lina Lombardi has posed.

         Okay good, no OYW baggage here...Guy Shishioh...wait! Isn't that...the guy with the weird screwdriver! That's what he looks like?! N-Not bad. Yeah, I might...

         Oh. Her. I remember her. Pain in the ass, she is. I mean...she's also pretty alright, but...I think even a one night stand would get me tied up as an accomplice to something.

         Vit...Hm, a little plain, but I wouldn't call him unattractive. If he asked, maybe.

         Lina's eyes dart to the last picture, then back to Faye, then back to the picture, then back to her. Faye was probably the person in this room Lina knew best back from her time as a PMC. It's hard not to run into bounty hunters when you're in those circles.

         Okay, so look. Okay. She's hot. You know it, I know it, she's like...look at her! Come on! It's so effortless! And it's not even entirely her looks (a fair bit is her looks) but the pure confidence! I suppose that's part of being a bounty hunter, though.

         Y-Yes.

         "Geez, I gotta get drunk with you people more, huh?"

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

"Maybe it's not important to you," Qivi says in response to Jana, "but I only really swing one way, so..." She shrugs. "It's just how I am. Though I can still appreciate a good-looking guy, that's as far as it goes."

Qivi is easily distractable by Faye even by the brief of responses. Her smile returns, but she doesn't say anything to her, as Faye appears to be moving on.

Qivi does indeed check both 'it'd be weird' and something else. On Sayla. Sorry, Sayla. "Oh, I got a tailored one at home. It's actually pretty similar except for the colour. It's just, you know..." She waves a hand as if to take in the area around her. "Not here. I thought if I was going to get dressed up I was going to be stuck with a dress, and I haven't worn one since I was about... uh, fourteen maybe? And only under protest."

Oh, that's Milly, Qivi thinks, having looked over the woman but not caught her name until CC said it. She's seen her around in an organizational capacity but never interacted with her personally. Kind of a shame she's still in school, Qivi thinks, not knowing anything else about her or her current problems.

(Qivi never finished high school, but has since aged out of it. She kind of subconsciously assumes anyone in high school is real young, even though Milly is only about a year and a half younger than she is.)

She raises her voice a moment later, looking elsewhere: "Hey, Renais! You don't HAVE to pick if you don't want to," Qivi says, before hesitating - she's not sure how much she can get away with teasing someone she only knows from briefings and operations. Qivi decides to go for it. "Though if you're gonna turn THAT red, you might need to change outfits so you don't clash." Qivi's joking. Really.

More names - and images - come up. Qivi recognizes two of them at first glance, one more with another double-take at Faye that lasts a just-slightly-too-long moment, and the fourth... Who the hell is Julia Ampere? she thinks to herself. She covers her thought process: "Okay, now you're just playing tricks," Qivi says. "If *I'm* in the next batch I don't know what I'm gonna do. What would you even do, put up my gladiator headshot?"

She shakes her head. (What would actually happen is that Qivi would turn bright red and probably bluster, but she's not going to say that. Or admit it even if it happens.) 

<Pose Tracker> Faye Valentine has posed.

Faye can't repress another giggle, and she slips back onto one hand - conveniently putting it in Sayla's reach, if she's interested - as she polishes off her first drink of the night herself. She tips the glass at Orie with an appreciative wink and sets it down, carefully sliding it across the table and leaning in a little.

For the benefit of the audience, as it were.

She flicks onto the next page, drawing her eyes down.

"Mm. Intense." The way she words it doesn't make it clear if it's a good or bad thing. The first box goes down easily, as her eye slides down. "Where does he work and do they all go for the skin-tight bodysuit thing?"

She hovers over the other option for a bit, looking at that smiling face. This guy... Feels like a real charmer. She grins and flicks her pen across the page, and keeps moving on.

The next one is easy, easy, easy. It's reflex. Faye is a creature utterly free of drama - as long as it's not about her. Her pen dashes over the boxes in a heartbeat.

Vit... Well. He doesn't look bad. He might be worth batting around for a day or two, yeah. Why the hell not?

Surprisingly, Faye doesn't flinch at all when that last picture comes up. She does, however, stop and raise her eyes, first at Orie, and then at Sayla.

And then, at clarion volume and clarity, an impossible amount of mischief in her eyes, and her second drink firmly in hand:

"Sayla. You're playing this game at an unfair advantage!"

She looks back just long enough to check off her choices - flicking for a moment between 'Would' and 'Too Weird' before covering both options with her hand and flicking her pen - and then the hand comes down mischeviously over her choice as her eyes go back up.

Just to see how everyone else is feeling about the night. 

<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.


"Yes," Jana says. "It's fine and normal--even healthy--to have opinions about others when you're with someone. What's important is that you only act on those feelings within your relationship's ethical framework." Pause. He did say he knows what sex is. So that's probably fine. Especially with Sayla's answer, too.

In the meantime, she looks at Renais, who is... not literally steaming but having some difficulty. Should she help?

Nah, Orie and Qivi have her, and Jana is starting to get a little drunk... though one might notice, if observant, that she's barely had any alcohol. But now she has her new drink!

Qivi's response gets a nod. "That's fair," she says.

She laughs to Orie. "I think it's a nice way to break the water," she says. She probably means 'break the ice'.

Then she considers the last. "Hmmm," she says. Vit... She makes a habit of not getting involved with multi-minds. Guy, not to her taste. She doesn't know Julia. And Faye...

She looks over at Faye. "Hm!"

She checks some more boxes.

"That's unfortunate," she says. "Hopefully soon enough the governments here will recognize you appropriately. Good luck in following your heart, regardless."

She notices Faye's playful approach. She is feeling pretty good about it, if not quite fully relaxed yet. 

<Pose Tracker> Yuka Ohta has posed.

It's almost uncomfortable to watch, how quickly Yuka goes through the boxes and options now that she knows it's meant to be personal subjectivity. It barely feels like they're through the slides before she's finished with this set, and she's not even hiding any of her answers. "I'm definitely learning a lot about myself tonight!" She takes a drink. Almost no alcohol content, so she's not getting drunk or anything.

She IS getting a nice laugh out of seeing other people that are known, local figures showing up though. Seeing how everyone feels about that, and the... panic? rising in some of them, with the possibility they might show up next. But she's also kind of a gremlin, and everybody who's so much as heard of her reputation knows it. Though it's hard to imagine those traits at the forefront when she's all dressed up, so different from ANYTHING she might normally wear. "...I wonder why I've not felt any of these, so far." Questions she herself lacks an answer to. But other people might have an idea about.

For a moment she thinks about the work she was supposed to be doing tonight, but heads off those thoughts before they gain traction, by taking another drink, and tearing through a sweet, delicious snack. What everyone said made perfect sense after all. If she overtaxes herself and crashes, she might not be at her best in an actual emergency. Which are much more likely in their current location. 

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        Liam takes another drink. He's slowly getting used to the alcohol, and it isn't as if he can't push himself anyway to get the extra calories. He doesn't feel any different. The redness in his face is purely emotional, and it stays there as Sayla focuses on him. Talks to him directly. "I don't know if I like it," he says. "I don't feel sick, though." But he listens to Sayla's advice, despite the awkwardness of this whole situation. "...Thank you." Jana even gets a little smile. She's so understanding!

        Then the next images appear, and Liam stares at the first, jaw tightening slightly. He makes two quick marks, turns to the next, and then his whole face twists--like Orie just asked him to eat a bug, except infinitely worse. No. Absolutely not, never. The list continues. Liam moves his arm to hide his responses, a tactic he probably should've employed earlier. But his body language is talking for him: he's fidgety, he looks around the room to see if Vit snuck in, he does not look at Faye proper, just the picture. (His eyes linger a while on the picture.)

<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.

The calorie density will definitely do Liam some good, Milly thinks. She wonders a little if he even can get drunk.

Sayla's good-natured laugh gets a laugh back, and she says, "No, that'd definitely still work on you. Not a lot has changed, honestly." She thinks of saying something else, but decides not to -- hard for her to find the way to phrase it that threads the needle.

Milly takes note of the order in which the complications come out from Orie, shrugs, and moves on -- albeit with just a bit too much giggling. "This is a good stress killer, though I get the feeling the people this is putting on the spot are having a time of it..."

This is the easiest page yet for Milly. Simple checkbox, no time spent thinking.

She gets that 'eyes on me' feeling after a second, and turns to Qivi, even as she talks to C.C. "Aha... sorry, not with me. You'll have to ask Takarada-san..." before getting back to the pictures. "... I should really follow up with Julia," Milly mumbles, and all truths told, the more she thinks about it the more she starts to worry. It's not her usual style, but... 

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais shoots Qivi a glare, trying to make herself a little smaller. She doesn't say anything, but the teasing definitely hit home...

The first photo of the next round comes up. She blinks, wrinkling her nose and closing her eyes as Guy's photo comes up. "Right. Right, thaaaat's my cousin. No." That's weird. A wary glance in Faye's direction. "Watch it, he's taken." Softening a little, though, she admits, "But... 3G's uniforms are pretty good."

The second... she's got no familiarity with, but she nods appreciatively. "Hmm... the hair's a nice touch," she comments. Hot, might.

Vit comes next. She instantly ticks her approval.

Faye comes next, and Renais looks over at her thoughtfully. Another one she's not familiar with, but she's right here, and... hmm...

It's hard to tell whether the blush is new, or left over from the Sayla reveal. 

<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.

        Milly gets C.C.'s full Pout. Her full 'it's unfair that you're not going out of your way to treat me' sulkiness. But she doesn't press the issue, instead just staying lounged out upon the entire damn table like a prima donna, listlessly gazing at round 3's competitors.

        "...You know, isn't that Guy Shishioh in a relationship with...like, this really warm and sweet and innocent thing? Look - he's plenty attractive I suppose, but I get the feeling like you can't have a fling with him. It's marriage or nothing. You've gotta be so good for someone like him..."

        "See, with the other three, it's less of a strain there, isn't it?" Rolling onto her front, and then onto her back again. Dear gods, please don't keep drinks on this whole thing. "I suppose that Vit and that Julia - -" C.C. pauses for a bit, looking up at a roughly book-sized air duct in Aya's ceiling that would be tight and constricting even for cats. "Julia Ampere, if you're lurking above us and plotting and scheming based on our answers - oh, bless us for a sign that you'd fool around with people you shouldn't!"

        Faye doesn't even need to be asked. C.C. just knows this is a woman who knows she's about to wake up regretting a night before she even has that night.

        "I feel like each round is its own particular sort of psych exam though. How to unwrap the disparities between each set..." 

<Pose Tracker> Gai Kurenai has posed.

Having now accurately keyed into the Vibe of this game, Gai leans into it good-naturedly. "It's important to be passionate about things, huh? Throwing yourself at life one-hundred percent." It's pretty clear how he marks most of that list from that response.

Yuka wonders why she doesn't 'get' anything out of this and Gai speaks his mind on this. "That's fine too if you don't want to with anyone. S'just as much how humans are as any other possibility; there are as many different ways to live your life as the stars in the sky - at least, when we can see 'em, outside of this bubble." He leans against the counter, sipping from his own drink.

Hang on, that's not beer, that's ramune, was that even an option? 

<Pose Tracker> BC-001 Minae has posed.

        Minae is unfailingly polite, even to people who don't know she's a robot. "Um, that might still be a bit of a biological impossibility, unfortunately, but I do appreciate the words of support! ... I wonder if I could use something like this for the other Braves. Hmm..." she trails off in thought, as a new exercise promises to cause problems in the future.

        At least she snickers back to Sayla's complaint, apparently capable of teasing when she wants to. It's only when she turns the page that she immediately has to eat her words; she stops dead, and then furrows her brow severely. "Oh. Ah... would that be a conflict of interest? Sort of?" she wonders about Guy, then folds her arms as she pins the pencil between her lips and the bottom of her nose. "... I'm not really sure what to pick here. It doesn't exactly seem right to pick--..."

        For one hopeful moment she wavers and then tries to pick 'next', only to have the page error. "Hrrmm." This might have her a bit stuck. 

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

"That's why there's a "weird" option!" Sonia calls over from her seat, which has been progressively going from 'seat' to 'bed' for the petite woman.

However, she's a bit pouty, even as she checks off the first three sets, the looks at the last, and does the traditional down, up, and over, between picture, sheet, and person. "Hot." She mutters, and chucks off appropriately. 

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

Sayla begs, but Orie's expression suggests no mercy is coming.

"I look forward to it~." Orie teases, as Saya promises retribution. ...Though she does fondly take note of the way Sayla and Faye react to each other. It's nice to see.

And Sayla, too, throws in some good advice for Liam. She's glad there are others here to handle the serious stuff! She nods to Minae, though.

"You're welcome to welcome to borrow the framework. I'd be pleased to know it's helping out elsewhere." Orie encourages, in a mix of mischief and sincerity.

And then, round 3. No one expects a sucker punch to be followed up by yet another sucker punch, as the topic shifts drastically.

"Oh, every bit of this was sincere." Orie assures. "...But I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a real kick out of it~."

She smirks a little.

"Unfortunately, I had to disqualify myself from the runnings because I'm already taken. I know you all must be broken up about it." Orie comments.

"Hmm, is that so? ...Duly noted." She says consideringly. "As for the current batch, hm... yes, and yes."

She doesn't specify which goes to who, but... they've probably gotten a good enough look into her tastes now to hazard a guess.

She looks toward Lina, then.

"I can't promise I'll be able to do this a lot, but I'll see what I can do." Orie comments. "I just need to find days when my kid won't be in the house."

She did say she was married earlier... And some of them already know who she's talking about.

"Right? You get it!" Orie agrees with a nod toward Gai. And he has good things to say for Yuka, too, which she approves of.

Yet again, she waits to parse everyone's reactions before moving on.

"Alright, everyone! We're moving on to the final round... I do hope everyone's had a good time tonight. And," Orie says. She pauses, considering Milly's earlier concerns. "If anyone feels too on the spot, let me know, okay? This is meant to be good fun."

Elsewhere in Tsutsujidai, back at her home base, Julia Ampere sneezes. It's probably just a coincidence that it happens around the same time C.C. calls her out, right? 

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.



        "That's the thing about a mixer- you don't know who you're gonna meet. They're usually... sometimes, a bit more tame." This is spoken like a woman who has been to a touch too many in her twenties. It turns out, Sayla *is* interested, her hand sliding to Faye's, seeing how she takes the motion. Sayla is definitely getting a little forward touch wise. So the 'outburst' catches her offguard- "Wh-" Sayla shakes her head and gestures at Orie. "She made the list! If anything I've been set up!" She utterly fails to keep a straight face throughout. She is having fun of a sort, certainly.

        She'd like to help Yuka, but she's way, way too drunk for that. Explaining asexuality is beyond her. Instead she shifts to Renais- "And you still owe me those pictures of you in uniform." There's nothing flirty in Sayla's voice, despite the alcohol. What there is is a lot of care. "It took too long for you to get one for you to not show it off."

        C.C. draws attention and Sayla just stares. That. Happened. Fortunately, it's next round time!

        ----

Round 4, the final round, comes up on the screen, four more pictures. A mix.

Mirai Yashima, Helmswoman of the White Base during the One Year War. Future wife of Bright Noa.

Johnny Ridden, the Crimson Lightning. Head of Zeon's Chimera Corps. Not Char, goddamnit.

Yuka Ohta, STORAGE Scientist. Not really super into people that way, it seems. Also right there.

Ikumi Kaidou, 3G Blue. Co-Pilot of GaoGaiGo. Survivor of the Red Planet. Extremely pretty bird.


        She will get Kai for this, as she ticks Hot and the fifth box. "...Honestly, she has a really comfy lap too." Sayla might not have realized that slipped out. She misses when they were that close... Sayla shakes herself out of though because the second name.

        "Yeah, no, blue eyed, blonde haired, pretty boy pilots aren't my type. Hard not my type." She slumps a little, ticking boxes. "Way too fucking weird. How'd people mistake him for that guy, though?"

        Yuka is next and. Hm. Sayla looks at the woman maybe overlong. Cute but... very disinterested. It'd be rude to push on her. Tick tick. And the last... "...Wait is that the same kid who came back with Mamoru?" Sayla blinks a few times. "Damn. A bit young for me. But damn." 

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

Qivi realizes Milly is looking back at her and shifts her gaze slightly. "Uh, hi," she says, which means she doesn't actually know what to say. "Just didn't think you'd be here. I thought you were younger than that, I guess, given I know you were covering planning stuff at the school."

Qivi's grin broadens toward Renais. She doesn't mean anything cruel by it - Qivi herself tends to turn bright red in some situations, after all.

But that also means she's not going to keep picking in a mean-spirited way, and so she asks Orie, as the choices turn, "So what made that one easy for you? You already got a favourite? I guess it's easier for you because you knew all of them ahead of time and got your reactions out of the way." Does it count as cheating if you can plan ahead like that?

The last batch comes up. "You can't fool me, that one *is* Char with a spiky haircut," Qivi says, before squinting. "And a pointy nose," she eventually admits. "Okay, maybe it isn't." (Qivi has never met Char in person.) It doesn't change her response either way.

She does look at Yuka a bit thoughtfully before shaking her head. It'd be weird. She's one of the ones who had to ask about how this whole thing worked, after all; Qivi would be a little uncomfortable giving a yes to *that*.

"I need another drink," she says, mostly to herself. As a peace offering to Renais: "You want anything when I get up for it?" She's filled out the answers (and left this batch visible for anyone who looks as it didn't occur to her to turn them over, oops). 

<Pose Tracker> Lina Lombardi has posed.

         M-Mirai Yashima? H-How many White Base folks were on this thing?! I mean, she's not as...glamorous as Sayla, but she's got a nice charm to her. Lina tries to avoid eye contact with Sayla as she checks the top boxes for both.

         No no no ew gross Johnny is trying way too hard I can feel the grease through the photograph!

         Quickly moving aside from Johnny Ridden, she darts down to Miss Yuka. She had a similar simple charm to her as Mirai, and Lina figured she might.

         Lina takes another sip of her wine, lamenting to herself that she hadn't brought a bottle of the Custom up with her. I mean, why would I have even thought to? No other wine comes close...Focus, Lina. Ikumi. Is...is this guy even legal? Even if he is, he looks young enough that...no, weird. That's weird.

         As she finishes up, she also finishes up her glass. "Hey Orie, once I get the heck out of this town, remind me to get you a bottle of red from home. My family makes a hell of a wine."

<Pose Tracker> Yuka Ohta has posed.

Yuka promptly drops her glass when the new set of options appear. It shatters against the table. "I-I-IiiiiiiiiWHAT!?" The idea somebody thought she ought to be on this list is a WORLD-SHATTERING PIECE OF INFORMATION! She's never exactly seen herself as cute, by any stretch. Let alone that people might find her HOT. There's an audible whine as her everything deflates and she seems to... float away on a gust of wind? Oh, well no, nevermind. That might have just been all in her head, since she's still sitting right there.

But she clearly needs help on THIS aspect of confidence. Even if she's perfectly headstrong and self-assured in the workplace. When it comes to kaiju and machinery, or even making perfectly tailored drink mixes for everyone's health needs, she's completely in command. In a social situation? ...Well, she didn't exactly grow up with friends. Or going to parties. Or... any of the normal teenage and early adult things people do. She's only started gaining friends since getting her two doctoral degrees and entering her present workplace. Though that list of people has been. Ballooning upward very fast. 

<Pose Tracker> Jana Cektru has posed.


It's nice that Yuka's learning about herself! But she doesn't feel anything different... Jana looks over to her. "That's right," she agrees with Gai. "It's good to learn."

As for Minae--well, Jana does have some idea. But even if it's not possible, she should have the right to!! Without being an appliance!

...Eight misses seeing Minae in her fridge, though.

But Jana listens along further. A mixer, and then... Hmmm.

"I haven't been to something like this in a while," Jana admits. Only decades, but even so!

Yuka Ohta... Jana actually gets a little flustered at this one, the first entrant with whom she has an actual relationship. She marks down her responses quickly. It was easy to be cool and disconnected when it wasn't her friend! But she pointedly doesn't look at her for the moment.

How much of that is the chocolate? That's a mystery for the moment.

"Well," she says, "Probably a little young for me too," she agrees with Sayla on the last one.

<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.

Milly sees the fourth and final set... and bursts out into giggles, even as she fails to stop herself from checking easy boxes again. "Wait -- that's you?" she asks, turning her attention to Yuka. "You definitely have a... wow, someone cleaned you up a lot for tonight. It's not that the other picture's bad, but your energy is totally different." The fluster, if anything, makes her feel a little bolder. "Soooo, if you want a style consultation, I know people who wouldn't mind giving you a once-over for free~" A pause, and then, just to be extra obvious: "Me included."

"Hey there," she says to Qivi, with a wink. Qivi is adjacent to her type, and her relationship situation is... messy at best, at the moment, so she doesn't mind being casual about it. "No, I'm nineteen," she says, finishing off her chocolate cake martini. "I should have graduated last year, but funny story -- all of my exams were within half a point of the margin where I'd fail to graduate!"

She cracks up as if this is the funniest thing she has ever said.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        Liam's brow furrows, and he downs what little is left of his drink as the last batch comes up. Cute in the same way Sayla is, some guy he's not into who looks kinda like Char Aznable, and then...

        Oh boy.

        Liam's blush turns to thoughtful consideration. That consideration gives way to another lingering look as... yeah, that's Kaidou. Liam finishes his answers and then turns the sheet over.

        "It's... an interesting exercise," Liam decides. "But so much information is unavailable. Would they be trustworthy? Would they like cuddling? Would they like being carried?" Would they like to start a family with him, knowing who and what he is? (That thought is dangerous. His heart aches for it, and for the woman who isn't here.)

<Pose Tracker> Gai Kurenai has posed.

The context to most of these provided by the emotional tenor of the rest of the room has dropped away for Gai, so he's left to run on instinct. "Young," he agrees about Ikumi. But then, to him... Ah well. Get too caught up on that and you'll be a moody drunk, Kurenai, even on ramune.

Yuka he has to check off 'too weird' for both questions though. It's nothing personal, of course - it's hardly her fault that a super-villainess has her face, after all!

That leaves just the first two - has he done this one out of order? Well, that's something some people do. "Ridden is too superficial," he says casually, not announcing what he makes of Mirai out of respect to her friend in the room. 

<Pose Tracker> Faye Valentine has posed.

Faye's grin just spreads a little wider. Her fingers curl over the offered touch. "Just a tease, you know. She's a real devil, isn't she?"

Sotto voce, "I just wanted to see if you'd say something."

She goes back to her drink, slipping over to that last page and looking through the new line-up.

"Hmm. A little too sweet for me - but I can see why you like her." She smirks a little at the comment that slips past Sayla's filters, and gently mutters, 'soft...' herself before moving on.

"Ugh. Another guy with an attitude. Nothing ruins a good face like a bad expression. Pass."

The next one makes her hesitate a bit, and her eyes flick over, half-lidded, to consider Yuka slowly. "The lipstick definitely adds something," she mutters, and looks ready to make another comment before Yuka's outburst hits. Faye puts her attention back on the nearest safe thing - which, she realizes, has her staring up into Sayla's eyes - and blushes for two different reasons at the same time.

All the same, she makes her choice. You have to bring flowers into the sun to see them bloom.

Ikumi is... "Oh, he's complicated." Getting involved in other people's problems... doesn't make her happy. But there is something about eyes like that... and it's not like he's not cute. She hums for a bit before tapping out her answers, sliding the paper down (face up - she's not going to start being shy now!) and picking her drink back up, lounging back enough for her shoulder to brush Sayla's and working her way to the bottom of that second glass. 

<Pose Tracker> Sonia Sophia-Grace has posed.

"Ahhh...."

Sonia downs the entire rest of her cup in one go, then reorients herself, feet over the back of the chair, head dangling down as she gazes at the pictures upside down, and her paper right-side up. She does fill in her final questions easily enough, though. Contentment. 

<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.

        Dangerously, C.C. downs the last of her liquor, a wine glass's worth of what reeeeeaally should be in just a shot glass - and before she flippantly hurls the damn thing, she gives the cup off tooooooooo Lina! Lina gets to deal with her dishes now. Merry Christmas!

        Cheeks flushed deeply, C.C. finally Actively Locks Eyes - the -deterrence- she was using earlier as a safeguard fully dropped by now - onto Yuka, flitting back and forth between her and Milly. "The President has a real, real good eye for this stuff. You should accept her offer - I know I would, and I'm very very fussy about what I wear."

        ...The witch has to cover her mouth to mask a snicker. 'Adjacent to her type', eh...

        "Hmmmmm??? Who's this Ikumi Kaidou...how very cute. Beautiful, but moody, yet impeccably stylish. Orie saving the prime face for last, what a tease." Something croony's entered C.C.'s voice...oh no, she's seen something she likes. Kaidou is in danger if ever they meet, it seems...

        ...that said, by this point C.C.'s quickly devolving into an openly bratty, drunken mess whose voice is a little obnoxiously loud - a far cry from that sensual enigma she entered the party in. Seems she had a lot more stress in need of pouring than she let out...!" 

<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.

Renais hrmms. She looks up at Qivi as she makes a peace offering, "Oh, ah... one of those chocolate shots, please?" She doesn't seem too perturbed by the ribbing earlier.

There's not much to speak of for most of the final page, but she makes a bit of a face at the sight of Ikumi. "Mmm. Weird," she notes reflexively, and nods to Sayla. "Oui. Ikumi Kaidou. He was J's partner--like Mamoru was Guy's--before we sent them back."

The time gap still gets to her, as much as she doesn't want to admit it. It's hard to wrap her brain around the idea that so much time has passed. 

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

"It's like I said - I like 'em pretty. And the handsome one," Orie says as Qivi asks why that one was easy for her, nodding toward Vit's picture. "Is pretty spacy, which is another big plus."

She is, as ever, honest.

And then, the final round...

"Oh? Do tell~." Orie remarks with interest as Sayla lets something slip, seizing on the opportunity immediately. She looks toward Mirai's picture consideringly. "She is pretty cute..."

It's the most interest she's shown any of the women so far - but it doesn't seem to go any further than that.

The next three are pretty easy for her to decide on. Several checks are marked in short order.

"Oh? Well, I certainly wouldn't say no..." Orie replies to Lina's offer. She'd never turn down free wine.

Ouka's surprised response, meanwhile, seems to draw attention to her... Orie quietly wishes her luck. As for Liam, the only thing she can say to that is...

"That's really cute." She remarks.

Johnny Ridden is commented on, though, and Orie smirks.

"I think it's cute that he's trying way too hard. And besides... I've never minded superficial~." She says. She looks toward C.C., then, as she comments on Ikumi.

"I see you have good taste." She observes approvingly. ...She might be encouraging her. This probably isn't a good thing.

But, Orie seems satisfied.

"Well, that's everyone! Thank you all for indulging me. I had a great time with this, and I hope you all did too." She says. "Feel free to give your quizzes another look-over before handing them in to me. Your secrets are safe with me, promise~. For now... feel free to keep chatting amongst yourselves!" 

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

Yuka drops a glass. Qivi is too far away to catch it, though she almost tries - she jerks in that direction before she realizes she's not going to catch it as it is already hitting the table, then straightens up again. "Think of it as making the big leagues," she says. "I'll bring a dustpan back with the drinks."

"It's like that, huh?" Qivi raises one eyebrow in Orie's direction. Or tries. She's not very good at it and they kind of both end up going up a bit. She's not sure what she thinks about that, because Qivi is pretty sure in any relationship (not with Orie, just in general) she'd be that person.

Which is a weird thought.

Qivi gives Renais a nod as she walks over to fetch a chocolate shot for her and - well, Qivi may have a sweet tooth, but she kind of wants a beer anyway. She'll dig out a candy bar or something later. It's better than a lot of what she has been eating, if she wants to be honest. And a dustpan, for Yuka's broken glass.

"Oh, huh," Qivi says, at the admission that Milly is nineteen. Well, it makes sense why she's in here now! And, honestly, it's kind of a relief, she thinks to herself.

She grins, broad. "I can't talk about that. Technically I never graduated either. Not that I went to a school like Ashford." She probably would have finished it there. "Nice to actually meet you instead of running past with an armful of supplies or something." 

<Pose Tracker> Lina Lombardi has posed.

         Lina sighs, folding her ballot in half to hand over to Orie. She had kept to herself so much since being locked into Tsutsujidai that she had forgotten the simple pleasure of spending time with other people. Even if she couldn't feel them in her mind, she felt them here and now in her heart.

                                    Mantenere il cuore aperto.

         Having mentioned the wine to Orie brought the family motto it was named after to mind. Keep your heart open. Ironic that a Lombardi would become a Newtype with a creed like that. Maybe Great Grandpapa Alberto knew.

         She walks back over to her seat without a new drink and plops down. "You know, I really needed this, I think. Just...being around people again."

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