2023-02-01: I'm just going to leave this information unattended, and if it's gone when I turn back, that's neither my fault nor problem
- Log: I'm just going to leave this information unattended, and if it's gone when I turn back, that's neither my fault nor problem
- Cast: Ennil El and Yuliana Kafim's Lieutenants, Wen Yuan and Parminder Chaudhri
- Where: Shanghai, China
- Date: 2023-02-01
- Summary: Wen and Parminder have been tasked with killing a target in Shanghai -- but a case of mistaken identity leads them to Ennil, instead. Parminder decides it would be very, very funny to breach opsec and tell her all about everything, given she's probably too tired to remember it anyway. Wen plays herself face-down, because she's a trapped card.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Ennil's not usually the type to make mainland trips. For one thing, most of her identification has been established post-facto - which is to say, it's fake. Birth records for Ennil El undoubtedly exist somewhere in Zaftra - but, of course, those would tell you who she was and where she came from. And that's just so inconvenient. Being Nada El's daughter is helpful... in circles other than the government of the REA. In any case, the sort of identity she has is much easier to establish without scrutiny somewhere like Saints' Island, where everyone expects to be paid for everything anyway - at least this way, she only has to occasionally add a little extra to the work visa fees.
The problem, of course, is that those people who know who Ennil El is anyway might come to Saints' Island looking for her, and they might especially notice the sorts of purchases she's been making lately, and then they might think about the credibility of her background, and then they might start thinking about why Ennil would be arranging space cargo fees for the things she's purchasing, and what sort of things are near where she's shipping them...
But fortunately, Ennil El has been a Vulture for a very long time, and if she wants to move an array of miscellaneous parts that could belong to an Endra-class cruiser or about a dozen other things, there aren't that many other people who could tilt their head just right and see the magic eye puzzle. In fact, she's counting on there being exactly... one or two.
Either way, an exhausted-looking Ennil El is, finally broken away from all that sordid business, taking a breather with a Starbows cup in hand - even communism has not stopped the relentless march of franchising. And Shanghai is nice this time of year!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Target mark, bearing north by north-west eight metres, confirm."
The voice which creeps into Parminder Chaudhri's ear, as he sips a cup of coffee in Starbow's, is too low for anyone else to hear. The communicators they use are technology he brought with him from Intelligence, after all.
He sips his coffee, and glances, sidelong, in that direction. "Unclear," he reports back to her, sotto voce. "Back's to me. She's got the red hair, though..."
"Confirm," Wen insists, again, voice tighter. She does like to shoot the right target, but something's making her a little more nervous, about this one.
"Geez, it's not like it's personal..." Parminder grumbles, as he stands up, and moves about the tables so he can approach Ennil's more head-on.
He actually is surprised, though, when he places Ennil's face. "Hey, you're--!" He exclaims, only to cut himself off to emphasise: "NOT who I expected to see here!"
"OW SHIT," Wen complains at the sudden volume, considering how she's tuned her communicator -- and Parminder, too, winces at the voice in his ear.
"Nnnot since that wedding, anyway," he grits his teeth a little, before he shrugs and waves it off. "Hey, how's it going, uh, you?"
Perfect save.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Parminder only sort of recognizes her, but Ennil's got a decent memory for faces, and the Nega Force is so very distinctive, in that "don't pay too much attention to us" black ops way.
So she pivots and waves, though she can't keep a surprised arch out of her own brow as she puts it together. "Ah, yep, wedding..." She shifts, slightly, her head canting for a second like she's letting something drop out of her brain -
"Parminder! Meet anyone nice yet? Maybe I should show you this Zent--" The joke goes a bit dry in her mouth. "Ahh, forget it. Yeah! It's been a while. ...How's the crew? Sounds like your Captain's had it rough. Though, god, you fall out of reality for a month and everything goes to shit at once, doesn't it? This is why I don't go out to space much... though, wouldn't you know it, got another trip up the elevator due in a week..."
She leans into her coffee a bit, taking the opportunity to breathe and soak in a little warmth. Not to mention the caffeine. Gods, she hasn't gotten a wink in...
Well. Don't think too hard about that.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Me?" Parminder asks, though he looks past Ennil, to a red-headed woman, Han Chinese, who's hastily shoving things into her bag. "Nah, not so much. Even when I'm looking right at them, they always slip away," he sighs, a hand sliding through his mane of orange hair. "Right out the front gate..."
"Goddamnit!" Wen hisses, into his ear, as she tries to follow the target, only for her to escape into the Shanghai crowds. "I lost her!"
"Oh, well," Parminder sighs, and collapses himself down into a chair at Ennil's table, putting his cup of coffee down, too. He doesn't even ask! How rude. "Ennil, right?" He asks, companionable. (He ignores Wen's, "I knew it!", at the back of his ear.) "I mean, the Captain's always going through shit, but let's be totally real with ourselves, she brings most of it on herself. Cascade's still a dick, and Wen's still in denial. Oh, and the Major's having a goddamn fit, but when isn't he? Guy's gonna die of a heart attack before he hits seventy, probably."
Zero regard for anything. He's not really worried. Even odds Ennil forgets this entire conversation on account of being powered solely by pharmaceuticals, as far as he's concerned.
"What, it gonna take a week because you're due to sleep that long?" He points out, with precisely that vibe. He ignores the distant sounds of Wen packing up her sniper nest in his ear.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Ennil blinks exactly once at Parminder making himself comfortable at her table... and then shrugs and drinks more coffee. Caring is more effort than it's worth.
"Aw, Yuliana, she's - " Ennil has to think about exactly how she would describe Yuliana in that moment, and decides to pivot. "Okay. But c'mon, Wen's..." And she manages exactly half a smile, thinking about Wen Yuan's choice of employment, "Sweet. And dealing with a lot, considering who her bosses are. God, I think I met Pham once and -- ugh, he reminds me of someone. Not half as good looking, though, but to be fair, the other guy never made it to 60. Who does?"
Her fingers drum against the table for a moment, only to stop when Parminder takes his next shot. She giggles, a little strained, and... well, hell. Parminder doesn't care. That's the best thing about him. She leans for a moment, fingers slipping into a jacket pocket - there's a soft 'pop', and then she slips something into her mouth and swigs it back with more coffee.
"God, is it that obvious? I wish, I just - ugh, I should never take on these big projects. And out in the Sides, too, so everything takes twice as long. Yeah, 'm a wreck lately... but after Tsutsujidai, I kind of had to get a lot of plates spinning at once..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Parminder just snickers, as Ennil tries to argue against his assessments. "Heheheheh..." He leans back in his chair, and shrugs, one leg slinging over another to sway merrily in the air. "Oh, yeah," he grins. "The only people who make it to sixty in our profession are the ones who get real good at making sure they're never the ones under the bus. But hey, what do I know? I just turned 27! I've still got a good, what, five years?" He pauses, for a beat, as if for confirmation. "Five years," he agrees with himself, cheerfully.
And, indeed, he doesn't care. He doesn't even raise an eyebrow. Yuliana's his boss, so he's more than used to people taking pills on the sly.
"So, Tsutsujidai, huh? That whole thing was wild," he grins, lifting his own cup of coffee. (Black, four sugars.) "I read the reports, and hoooly shit... man, this whole thing with the Captain bringing reality down around her ears doesn't sound so crazy when a whole goddamn PLANT can just appear and disappear without warning."
yuliana did WHAT to WHAT
He lifts a hand, and counts down, on his fingers. Under his breath: "3... 2... 1..."
"H--hi!!" Wen Yuan exclaims, suspiciously not out of breath, considering she would have just run across a few blocks to get here. That pinkhaired cyborg jogs up to their Starbows table, in a stiff-collared blue shirt and crisp pants. (She's actually wearing something respectable, unlike Parminder's usual slogan tshirt and tracksuit pants combination.) "Parminder, I'm here-- oh, and Ennil!! Hi! How's it going?"
Parminder laughs. "Your girl here was just telling me about all these plates she's spinning," he grins, entirely too amused.
"We're not --" Wen's cheeks puff out, as she takes a seat. "I invited her as a friend, shut up!!"
"Nah."
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Ennil gives a mildly uncomfortable laugh at Parminder's self-assessment, but... Behind the bleariness, the look is sympathetic, not questioning. "Old man," she jokes back, giving him a wink.
"Yeah, Tsutsujidai... the world's stranger and stranger still til it ends, I think -" Of course, then he rolls right into the next thing, and - it's not the shocked gasp you might expect, but those eyes go owlish again and she has to blink - "She's been - how the hell?"
Not that she has much time to press. Wen is here! "It's going good, Wen. And it's good to see you!"
Those catty blue eyes sink towards Parminder, narrow a little bit, and... "We're not?", she drawls, affecting playful shock. "You looked so nice at the wedding, though! Who'd you dress up for, then? God, though, it sounds like there's a lot I need to catch up on - you're in deeper than usual, it sounds like."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Uuuugh you're both terrible!" Wen wails, as she reaches over to steal Parminder's cup of coffee. Gulp. She offers no complaint about the bitterness whatsoever. (She couldn't.)
"Hey!" He protests, as he snatches it back. "Get your own, you vulture!"
"That's mean to vultures," Wen sniffs, particularly given present company. "If you're still using it, I'm obviously being a cockatoo."
"And not a seagull?" Parminder issues back.
"Okay, sure," Wen shrugs, "seagull works, too."
It's not that they've forgotten Damocles hanging over their heads like that, or anything, but they've been in the trenches together for years. They gotta cope somehow.
"Anyway," Parminder shifts gears without missing a beat, "we don't really know, but I guess she's associated with those weird dragon kaiju which keep cracking the sky open. G-Hound had some real livid statements about it. We were even supposed to see some of them!" Whether Parminder hacked his way to reading the rest of them he leaves to implication.
"H--hey," Wen frowns, sinking into her chair, a little. "We really shouldn't talk about..."
"So what?" Parminder shrugs. "Ennil's right, y'know. We're so deep in this shit we need a fucking snorkel at this point. Like, even odds you get recalled and shoved in a box as soon as get back from this job, same as the Captain and Alma."
"Shh!" Wen hisses, alarm crossing over her strange, red-ringed eyes.
Parminder rolls his eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Parminder," Ennil huffs with a dry desperation, "please tell me men know when you're flirting with them. I can't bear to think of you suffering this way."
She can't help but chuckle at Wen's choice of revenge, draining her own coffee and then staring at the cup a little forlornly. Ugh...
"Ugh, G-Hound? Diet Titans. If that - I'd put money on half the bastards at least being the same old shit, freshly laundered. Yuliana might make a lot of her own trouble, but nobody makes enough trouble to deserve that."
She sighs, but nods along with Parminder. "I -- wait. Where'd they stick Yuliana? And... Alma Stirner? Since when is she - I didn't even know she was still active, come to think of it, should've asked someone... God, that explains - Ugh, you know what, one crisis at a time. What the hell is going on with Yuliana? Parminder can't shut up anyway, or he can but he thinks this is funnier, so you might as well explain."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"You'd think I was pretty obvious," Parminder shrugs. "I'd be blunter, but last time I tried 'hey, cute tie, wanna fuck?' the dude just completely did not take that well."
"I really think you're missing some important parts in the middle," Wen points out.
"Must be some real stupid parts, so I definitely don't care," Parminder dismisses the art.
... they can joke around like this, even with everything that's happening.
Wen sighs, folding her pale arms on the table and flopping her head into the nest of them. "Uuuughhhh..."
"G-Hound captured the Captain after they caught her defending Pendragon against some rogue Macross-class which wasn't watching its step," Parminder takes over from his superior's despair. "Which is new depths of stupid, even for her, since she had to know the Federation was looking for her after that stunt she pulled. Like, I've reviewed the data, and don't even think it was in service to anything," he shrugs, hands lacing behind his head, as he leans back a shade more precariously. "She just up and decided to go take a Masquerion and get in its face for no reason!"
"'Scalled carin'bout civilluns," Wen mumbles, from her despair pile.
"Sure, that, whatever." Parminder doesn't get it, but he just moves on. "Anyway, G-Hound was pretty clear about not handing her over to us, right up until a couple days back. Then all a sudden she gets transferred back here -- and goes straight to Medical, next door. She's not the first, either. Alma Stirner -- oh, she's this brainwashed attache the Captain dragged in with her recently -- got recalled back there a couple weeks back, after the Captain pulled that shit at JOSH-A. Ruined my taskforce to do it, mind you," he huffs, though it probably wasn't, strictly speaking, all his. "Annnyway, Medical's shipping trucks out at all hours of the day, so my bet is the blacksite got compromised and they're moving to a new location. If we weren't on the chopping block, I'd guess we were gonna shift offices real soon, but Command's riding our asses on this one. I'm surprised the Major was able to send us out to take care of anyone, with the pressure we're under right now."
"Wandedt' get rid've us," Wen mumbles, still firmly in a face-down position. "Askin' t'many questions. Easier'd geddus off-site."
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Alright, but we're thinking of the same Yuliana here, right? You've gotta admit, Parminder, the consequences aren't exactly the first thing on her mind." Her thumbs brace against the outside of her eyes, fingers rubbing at her forehead. "So... picked a fight... Feds drag her off... And the REA cared enough to buy her back. Not right away though. So they're not worried about information, because if you care about what someone says you don't leave them in a G-Hound hole for a week, and they don't get 'safely returned'."
Her stomach sours. She looks nearly as distressed as Wen. And she's putting all this together pretty quickly, for a supposed civilian, even one in the mobile suit market...
She thinks back to Denver Colony, and to Yuliana's discomfort with the idea of folks digging through the files there. "So they're done pretending. She's a specimen now. Packing up a bunch of Newtypes and Yuliana... And if they're on the move, they'll be in a mood to cut anything they think they don't need. Damn."
But then, she's not a civilian. And it's not the first time she's seen someone keep a 'stock' of human beings.
It's her turn to sink, arms still propped up as her chin comes to rest between her elbows. "And you're just out here keeping on? Five years my ass, Parminder. Wen's right, they don't want you anywhere near this 'til everything's shipped out, and even then..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Pffff, yeah, fair enough," Parminder grins. "She does kinda act first and think never." Wen mumbles something despondent, and Parminder doesn't explain why it makes him snicker, rocking back perilously in his chair.
(The joke is that Wen is frequently the one who has to think because Yuliana isn't.)
"I don't reckon that was entirely the plan," he points out, though, to Ennil's conclusions. "We were trying to get her back this whole time, judging by what I caught. But G-Hound was pretty stubborn on this one. If they got the Captain to talk, I'm guessing it wasn't part of the Republic's plan."
Wen mumbles something else miserable, as Ennil keeps thinking out loud.
"Yeah," Parminder swings back forward, hands sweeping back down so he can fold them over his chest, instead. "I reckon they'll just dump Cascade in a box on the side of the road, since they haven't bothered getting them back yet or anything. They are kinda middle-of-the-road as far as human weapons go, apparently."
"Or they're still workin'," Wen mumbles, face down.
"I guess there's that, too," Parminder shrugs. "It's not like they're a flight risk. Like, re-education's pretty standard over there, right?"
Wen mumbles something else indistinct, and that might explain why she's not the one talking, here.
"Right, yeah, so as long as they've kept on top of it, they're probably not worried about keeping track of any of their indoctrinated soldiers," Parminder shrugs, and maybe that's why he supposed Alma was brainwashed so casually. It is casual, to people in their position. "Me, I've never trusted Medical -- and I'm a Natural, so they've never figured out a good reason to get me to go next door. I would love to get my hands on their intranet... but not enough to go stick my head in a lion's jaws, you feel me?"
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Ennil huffs, but she doesn't perk up. "Yeah, maybe. Still - I don't think 'Captain Yuliana Kafim' is walking out. If she comes back out at all. Her, and that Alma..." She shakes her head, a little ragged. "Nah, that sits bad with me."
Slowly, she crumbles into her own little pile of arms. "Mm, can't really fly a Dreissen into REA airspace though." Her teeth tug at her bottom lip. "So they'll drag Yuliana off somewhere, take all the servers they can't afford to dump overboard when they go... Parminder will just have to suffer his unfulfilled curiosity..."
She lifts the coffee cup a bit, gives it a sad little rattle, and, resigned, fishes something else out of her jacket that she's forced to swallow dry.
"Say, if someone did feel like going a couple rounds with a big cat..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Yeah," Parminder agrees, and doesn't sound terribly bothered by it. "I really don't see how the Captain's wriggling out of this one. Like, I'd love to see her pull it off, but the consequences are really crawling up her back here. Too bad about that attache, though," he shrugs, drumming his fingers on his arm. "I'm pretty sure she's just collateral damage, on account of her being so devoted to the Captain and all. Easier to drug her up and throw her in a cell than have her out here asking questions and causing problems. The real wild thing is why they sent Wen out on this job instead of pulling the same trick twice, once she finally pulled her head out of the sand about it."
"Lookn' a mirror stupud," Wen grumbles.
"What, you think they sent us out here because of me?" Parminder pulls a face, looking over to her, before he pauses. "Oh, wait, no, yeah, no, yeah, actually, yeah. Lmao," he says it out loud and everything, lah-moe, without apology, "I was just talking about how I never went next door, too. Guess I'm the one who needs to take some speed about it," he grins, all too savage, looking to Ennil.
"Anyway, yeah, don't fly a Dreissen into the Republic. Even if we're in a backwater like Sri Lanka, there's still troops. They'd eat you alive if you just appeared on the radar out of nowhere." Which is to say: if she appeared on her own, without a distraction.
Not that he's telling her how to live her life, or anything.
"I--I don't think that's a good idea..." Wen manages to speak up, finally, lifting her head to frown at Ennil. "The... the Republic is strong, so... I don't want you to get hurt, you know?"
"She's probably right," Parminder shrugs. "Besides, it's not like our office is public knowledge, or anything. You wouldn't be able to look it up in any of those dry Fed databases, so I wouldn't even bother."
The Nega Force's offices are, in point of fact, technically public knowledge kept within dry Federation databases which anyone can technically search at any time.
And Parminder did just talk about how the horrors were right next door.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Oi," Ennil huffs a bit at that one, "see if I show up as a character witness for you, tall guy..." But man, even that's not really keeping her head up. It's pure stubbornness at this point.
"Hmm, yeah, no one-woman charges. Bet a place like that draws heat though. Maybe not the Braves, but... those loud-mouth types with the Gundams? Aren't they all about busting up war shit?" She shakes her head a bit. "Sweet to know you care, though, Wen. Don't worry, I'm not gonna get myself killed. You remember that crash at the wedding, right? Never did drop by while I was healing up. Shame..."
She gives a little shrug of her own, too, though she gives Parminder a lopsided grin with this one. "Mm, yeah, I'd never guess where to look, would I? Means I can't send you any flowers, and you've been so nice. I'll just have to drop by in person, I guess."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Parminder just grins, to Ennil. They both know he doesn't need any character witnesses, surely! He is just that great.
"Sorry... work got busy, with the Captain on her honeymoon, and all..." Wen does sound like she regrets it, addressing Ennil more directly. "But -- but I'm glad you're okay. But you're not -- you know, you're not really okay, right now, right?"
She frowns, looking aside. "I never got to ask about it before we started talking about all this... but you're not sleeping, right?" She presses, and she's worried. "So I'm sure you're not quite thinking right... I-I mean, we all say crazy stuff when a mission's kept us up for days, right...?"
"Sure," Parminder agrees, mildly, watching Wen with interest. He just lets her dig as big a trench as she wants, while Ennil's putting her on-guard.
(He's pretty sure he can future space google how de-indoctrination works, but he doesn't really feel like putting his own neck on the line to figure out how bad she's got it.)
"So... just promise me you'll try and get some sleep, okay?" Wen presses, and feels a little bad, falling on something as manipulative as 'promise me' when she hasn't really known Ennil that long. (But she really doesn't want her to do anything stupid, so it's fine, right?) "We have to finish our work before we think about anything else, but all this work stuff, it'll work out, don't worry!"
"I wasn't worried," Parminder can't and won't stop himself from saying.
"I wasn't talking to you," Wen scrunches up her nose, pouting at him.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"I'm..." And she sighs, because Wen's (kind of cute, though she'd be surprised to hear it -) red eyes are on her and Ennil's always been very aware of when she's being observed;
"I'm working too hard," she settles on, and like most of what Ennil says it's a true statement that contains very little practical information. "I know my limits, though. I won't pilot like this."
The problem is that she will be piloting, almost certainly, and she will need to be in better condition than this -
It's not like she doesn't know what the programs looked like, even if she'd been washed out back then.
"So you don't need to worry about me!" Which is a pointless thing to ask Wen Yuan, especially when she hits back with - 'promise', huh? Ugh... She really doesn't wanna disappoint Wen. Well. There's a bit of space here.
"I promise. I'll try."
Sure. She can try. It's just - in the condition she's in, it's not all that likely to take.
"You keep yourself safe too, alright? Don't let 'em throw you in a box like that. Parminder, I swear, if she ends up tossed in a cell you better have a matching pair of bracelets or I'll... I dunno, what's the second-worst thing that could happen to you?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"I dunno," Parminder shrugs, all too casual. "Bees? Bees."
Not the bees! Not the bees!
Wen frowns, straightening up to chide him. "If you joke around like that, she won't realise you're allergic..."
"Ain't my fault if she doesn't take her own terms seriously enough," Parminder grins.
"Ugh," Wen slides her hand down her face. "But... I'm glad it matters to you, you know?" She says, more seriously herself, to Ennil. "I always thought if people like us disappeared, no one would really think about it..." And she doesn't necessarily think that's a bad thing, either. "So -- so I mean, I really am happy, I mean, that you're worried and all."
"Anyway," Parminder claps a hand on Wen's shoulder and uses her to push himself standing again, "we'd better get moving, or we're gonna have to start from scratch again." Yeah, it's definitely the wetwork. That's absolutely why he's pulling them out of here.
"Oh, yeah... don't worry," Wen smiles to Ennil, "we'll be careful. It was good to see you! I'm so glad we recognised you!"
"Yep, time to go," Parminder leads her out, before Wen can tell Ennil she was a few millimetres away from splattering her brains out on a case of mistaken identity.
"Though, I gotta say, it really would've been funny if she'd shot you instead."
DAMNIT, PARMINDER!