A Reunion, a Brawl, and a Cheerful Idiot

Posted on Wed May 13th, 2020 @ 11:50pm by Security Johannah "Mack" Shepard & Black Market Arturo Rosso & Civilian Xiulan Song

Mission: Bright and Shiny things
Location: Deck Three: Donuts Czar Us
Timeline: Immediately after Welcome to the Jungle

Deck One

Xiulan groaned as she peeled her face off of her computer console. Another late night on the Cortex and... how many bottles of booze? Picking up a bottle, she gave it a swish to hear if there was anything left. Thankfully, some of the blessed beverage remained and she winced at the burn as she chugged it down. Good burn, and sweet, yet surprizingly spicy, almost like peppercorns. Mmm, she was definitely getting more of this stuff! Finishing off the 'hair of the dog', she then set the bottle aside and used her shirt to clean off the sleep drool on her face, then she accessed the news feeds for the skyplex. As the news headers flashed by in her mind, she stretched then took off her shirt and used it to clean the drool off her console. Then she stopped cold.

A new Security Chief was announced:

Johanna Shepard

No... Way... Oh, and there was a fight... AND SHE MISSED IT?! Thoroughly disgruntled that she had missed out on a perfect opportunity to engage in a good brawl, Xiulan tossed her drooly shirt atop a small mountain of clothes waiting to be laundered, then she took herself off to the washcloset to make herself a touch more presentable.

Johanna Shepard... Mack... Xiulan hadn't seen Mack in what felt like ages. She pondered in the shower just how long it had been since they had talked; several months at least, but she couldn't recall for certain, all she knew was that it had been at least three years since they'd had dinner together back at the old homestead.

"Dammit, I missed a riot too!!!" Xiulan bellowed when the news feeds updated with that little tidbit. Now truly grouchy, she left the shower and dried off aggressively, dressing in a tanktop, a pair of shorts, and a hoodie that had to be three or four sizes too big. After shutting down her computer, she donned her shoes and grabbed her cane, then she was off to find Mack!

Deck Three: The Hub

The sergeant who'd been helping Mackensie 'Mack the Knife' Shepard, the newly minted Chief of Security and his new boss, supervise and coordinate clearing the Hub of rioters nodded appreciatively. Shepard had handled things damn well. Sergeant Michael Chang was a veteran of the Unification Wars on the side of the Alliance, but he'd heard of the Browncoat known as Mack the Knife. A lot of people had. The smart ones, when they heard they were about to face her unit, knew to bring their A game. The stupid ones didn't matter anymore, because they were all dead. Sergeant Chang wasn't a huge fan of Browncoats, especially the ones who gave up Alliance commissions to fight for the Independent Colonies, but... well, the war was over eight years now. Did any of that matter anymore? Chang guessed it didn't. Far as he could tell, what mattered was the here and now and what was to come. Shepard did a good job today. If she did a good job tomorrow, that would be another point in her favor. What happened in the past, well... that was the past.

"You did good, Chief," he said. "We can take it from here. You should eat something, maybe get some hot coffee. Between this ruckus and that shootout you were just in, you got a heck of a crash coming."

Mack started to object, but decided the sergeant was right. "Thanks," she said. "I will. But call me if things turn ugly again. And check in with me regular until this mob is cleared."

"Yes Ma'am," Chang replied.

Mack sighed. She should eat real food and would as soon as she could. But first, COFFEE... and maybe a doughnut....

Moments later Mack entered Donuts Czar Us and walked up to the counter. There was some kid in shorts and an over sized hoodie with the hood up ordering a gigantic coffee and... a ridiculous number of doughnuts for such a small person. Apparently she wasn't familiar with the concept of 'once on the lips, forever on the hips'. Of course, she probably still had a super fast metabolism. Mack frowned. There was something familiar about the girl... her voice sounded... then Mack noticed a cane leaning against the counter, a cane like a blind person might use... Mack's expression softened and try as she might, she couldn't help a small tear forming in her eye. She gently wiped the tear away and said, softly... "Meimei?"

Normally, Xiulan could recognize Mack's footsteps from a mile away, but this time there was all the noise from the recent ruckus and she was so focused on the fresh ponchiki being bagged up that she failed to hear the boots approaching behind her. Her eyes grew wide when she heard Mack's voice calling her sister, then she drew back her hood as she turned to face the woman.

"Jiejie!" Xiulan exclaimed with unbridled jubilance as she launched herself at Mack with the intent to squeeze the life out of her with full body bear hug.

Mack was startled for a moment but then laughed with unfettered joy as she caught her little sister in her arms, and hugged her. For a moment, the two women just held onto each other. "I've missed you, Meimei," the former Browncoat Captain said when she finally found her voice. "I've missed you so much."

As the warm, fuzzy moment dragged on far too long for comfort for the stocky woman behind the counter, she cleared her throat to get the attention of the loving pair, then announced the price for Xiulan's massive order.

"Oh, right..." Xiulan said sheepishly, then carefully extricated herself from Mack's arms. "So, was that the stock for your Shanxi poking me or are you just happy to see me?" she asked Mack playfully as she dug into the pocket of her hoodie for a bank note and set it on the counter.

Mack laughed again. "Can't both be true?" she said. Song Xiulan... the little teenager she'd escorted to the relative safety of the outer colonies, far from the disgusting Triad pig who'd wanted to take her from her father as payment for a debt... and sell the little blind teenager as a sex slave. "Hang on while I grab some coffee and a few of those ponchiki for myself. I know better than to think you're going to share any of yours with me. I take it you're still a bottomless pit?" Mack ordered a large dark roasted coffee, sweet, with cream... and a half dozen ponchiki for herself. She'd had a rough day and deserved a treat.

"Don't pretend like you're some reserved priss; we both know how much you can eat when Dad is cooking!" Xuilan replied as she gathered up her coffee, cane, and bag of donuts and balanced everything out so she could still be functional. "So, small 'verse, huh? How did we end up on the same skyplex?" she asked with amusement.

Mack moaned as her stomach rumbled. "Jerk," she said. "Don't talk about your dad's cooking! I haven't had it in a while." Mack found an empty table and sat down, ignoring the glares from the young Plexies taking up space at the other tables. "And as to how we both ended up here... dumb luck? Song Wei said you contact him now and again, but you never tell him where you are. You two have a falling out or something?"

"Nah, nothing like that," Xiulan replied with a shake of her head, taking a seat across from Mack. "We kinda have this understanin'; he knows I do dangerous stuff, so he don't ask where I am and I don't tell him. I think it's his way of maintaining his sanity, 'cause if he knew some of the place I been to on my own, he'd probably die of shock."

Mack popped a ponchiki into her mouth chewed it, swallowed it and washed it down with some of her coffee before responding. "Meimei," she said. "I'm basically private security here. My job involves public safety, access control, crowd control, loss prevention. So if you were to, say, screw with this 'plex or any of its tenants, I might have to get involved. But if what you're into only affected things not connected to this 'plex, well, that would be a federal crime. That would not necessarily be my problem, but then again, you'd create an enormous bàofēngyǔ, since I'm pretty sure the Marshal would arrest me if I were to refuse to cooperate with him."

"Don't worry, Jiejie, I'm a lot more careful than I used to be," Xiulan said to her 'sister', idling rolling one of her donut balls through the sugar that had collected within the bag. "And I don't do anything that involves Greenleaf or the 'Plex. Well, anytime there's a fight to be had, I like to be there, and I do partake in the entertainment of the gambling and adult varieties, but when it comes to my other activities, I don't shit where I eat."

Mack nodded, glad to have gotten that out of the way. She grinned. "Putting the sporting guys and gals through their paces I take it? Companions or amateurs? I'm guessing you can afford a Companion now and again, unlike us common folk who have to play catch as catch can?" Truth be told, Mack preferred company she wasn't paying for, and if she did have to pay for it, she saved up for a Companion, though that was rare. But she wasn't young anymore, and it was getting more and more difficult to find willing company that wasn't already spoken for.

"Eh, little of both?" Xiulan admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head nervously and inadvertently spreading the luscious powdered sugar on her fingers all through the backside of her long dark hair. "Them newbies gotta learn somehow. But in truth, I don't really like payin' for... that... so I normally don't... ya know... It's just all about the touch," she tried to explain, blushing slightly. Being blind, touch was vitally important for Xiulan, so the sensation of exploring a body through touch, or the touch of being explored, was a thrill all on its own. "So, I try not to indulge too much, but it is nice to be able to get that kind of attention when I need it," she added, then hastily took a swig of her coffee.

As Xiulan talked, Mack's attention was caught by what appeared to be a newly arrived traveler. He was young, too young for Mack, tall, olive-skinned, and handsome to the point of being pretty, while also appearing to be athletic and virile. He was rakishly dressed in a frock coat and vest, with a cravat loosely tied around and unbuttoned collar. He wore breeches that seemed to miraculously allow him freedom of movement while still being snug enough to accentuate the positive, so to speak, and tall boots. He wore a top hat and carried an stylish walking stick and a bag in his left hand. The stick was a bit longer than might be considered fashionable, actually, even for a man of his height. Mack was fairly certain it was a sword cane. He was looking around at the about half settled chaos. His eyes fell on Donuts Czar Us. He entered the doughnut shop, looked around, then went to the counter.

"Speaking of touch," Mack said. "I have no idea who the long, tall drink of water who walked in here is, but he looks kind of fun... you know, if I was in to men over a decade younger than me."

"What, you mean the fàntǒng at the counter with the rattling walking stick?" Xiulan said as she casually stretched, her back and neck still feeling tight from falling asleep at her computer last night. "Who uses a walking stick if they don't actually need to?!" she said with a laugh as she began to peel her hoodie off, feeling a bit warm from the heaters in the nearby doughnut display.

Arturo Rosso took his cup of coffee and sighed. He'd seen the other dining establishments and would likely patronize one later for a real meal, but thought to wait until after the chaos outside had past. He turned and surveyed the interior of Donuts Czar Us, looking for a table. His gaze traveled over the shabbily dressed plexies with their tattoos and piercings, torn clothing and garishly colored hair. In their misguided attempts at uniqueness, the only thing truly remarkable about them was how similar to each other they looked. The phrase 'different like everyone else' came to mind. And then Arturo saw her. A vision of loveliness in a hooded sweatshirt, tank top, and shorts! She seemed to be having coffee with a woman in her declining years. Was the woman praying on the girl's financial needs to fulfill her own twisted desires? Arturo could not let such a thing occur! Arturo took a few steps towards the table, intent on rescuing the young girl from the lascivious old hag when a group of ruffians burst into the room. They were clearly inebriated. Arturo watched them and waited to see what their intent was. The men made directly for the table where the geriatric pervert was attempting to corrupt the young, innocent beauty sitting across from her. Arturo knew trouble when he saw it. He walked over to a nearby table and set down his coffee, his bag, and his hat. He didn't worry about removing his coat, because he'd had it, and all of his clothing, tailored to allow him freedom of movement. He stood by his table and made as though he was using his encyclopedia to access the cortex, waiting to see how things unfolded.

Mack saw the men come in. She'd sat facing the door so she could see who entered. She recognized the men from earlier. Apparently they'd found some liquid courage and now they wanted to beat up the woman who'd stood them down just a short while ago. She sighed and hoped she was wrong. She wasn't.

"Me and the boys," their leader, the loud mouth from earlier, said. "We figure you did us wrong earlier. Disrespected us. You owe us an apology. We don't gotta take disrespect from some uppity mǔgǒu!"

That was enough for Arturo. The old woman might be a pervert, but there was no reason to verbally abuse the elderly like that. He put away his cortex. "Excuse me," he said. "That was no way to talk to lady... even if she is a pervert trying to seduce an innocent young girl. I'll thank you to apologize. Now."

"Wait.. what??" Mack said. "No, wait, you don't under--"

The drunkard turned and spit in Arturo's face without much warning. Still, Arturo gracefully avoid the flying saliva and mucus and lunged forward with the point of his stick, stabbing the man in the sternum with the blunt point, knocking the wind out of him. Behind Arturo, the other men started towards him.

Never one to turn down a good brawl, Xiulan leapt from her chair and tumbled through the air in a graceful arc towards the drunken men, her outstretched foot slamming into the face of one of the lackeys, hitting him with such force that she could hear the delightful crunch of facial bones, and when the man slammed to the ground he stayed down. As she landed neatly beside her felled prey, she could hear the ring of steal, a blade being unsheathed, a small blade, likely a dagger or even just a plain knife. Didn't matter what it was, Xiulan was not going to allow that kind of fighting, and moved in quickly, her rising knee to the man's chest knocking the breath out of him, then with another swing of the same leg, she managed to loop around the man's arm, wrenching him forward until he was doubled over, then with his arm secured between her legs, she grabbed the arm and twisted until she could hear and feel the pop of the ball joint dislocating, forcing the man to drop his knife. Xiulan picked up the knife and flung it into a wall where she knew it would be safely out of reach.

"Hey, you're gonna pay for that damage!" bellowed one of the Russian patisser behind the counter, but Xiulan was having way too much fun to pay him any mind as she continued with a series of lethal kicks at the next man advancing on her, all while wearing the biggest grin on her face.

Arturo was so busy being impressed by the young he'd thought to be so innocent punching and kicking her way through thug after thug that he almost missed one moving in on the feisty young beauty from behind, where she couldn't see him. Arturo leaped into the fray once more, this time to save the woman of that filled his dreams... well, not yet, but she would from here on out!

"In guardia!" he shouted.

He rapped the man on the knee cap, hard, and then proceeded to use the cane to pummel him, but not wildly. Arturo planned each hit and struck the man with precision. There were heard unpleasant cracking noises as some of Arturo's hits fractured bone, such as the blows he delivered to the man's collarbones. Arturo hadn't drawn the sword hidden in the cane because he didn't want to kill anyone. However, seriously injuring one of these rude, crude, and thoroughly unattractive men did not trouble him in the least. He finished the man off with a blow across the side of the head that wrung the thugs bell, causing him to collapse. Arturo grinned as he put down two more of them. Before Arturo knew it, he was standing back to back with the tiny spitfire, fallen men all around them, some trying to get up and continue the fight.

Mack watched the fight for a moment or two. She had to admit, Xiulan was very impressive. She hit hard and fast and she was brutal. The stranger... the stranger hit just as fast, but with grace and style. But the fun couldn't go on forever. She drew her gun as she stood up, stuck her fingers in her mouth, and whistled a loud, shrill whistle that carried above the violence in the room.

"That's enough!" she said. "Everyone who is unconscious is going to the infirmary and then to lock up. Everyone who is ambulatory better walk the Hell out of here or else they're going to end up with holes in their bodies that they weren't born with!"

That was all the excuse the men who could still stand needed to leave the store immediately.

"Sergeant Chang," Mack said into her encyclopedia. "I've got several miscreants here that need to be taken to the infirmary and then locked up until they cool off." She turned to Xiulan and the stranger. "You two okay?"

"I'm great!" Xiulan replied as she bounced slightly on the balls of her feet, her blood still racing with the thrill of the fight! "Did you have to call a stop to it so quickly? It was just getting good!"

"I am unhurt," Arturo said. He turned to the old woman with the big gun. "And... I clearly misjudged you, Signora. My deepest apologies." Before Mack could respond, Arturo turned to his comrade in arms and gave her a more considered appraisal. To Arturo, the, the young girl was beautiful, even more so because she was so capable. The girl's feral grin was as radiant as any he had ever seen. The girl was beautiful and confident and capable and her eyes... wait... was she... blind?? She was! She was clearly stone blind! She couldn't see him in all of his glory! If he was to win her over, he would need a... personality... wait... did he even have a personality?? Arturo wasn't really sure. He'd never needed a personality before. But, there was nothing for it. The girl was his destiny and if he needed an attractive personality to win her love, Arturo would develop an attractive personality, and quickly, before some personality possessing punk came along and purloined the heart of his new found true love. But first...

"Arturo Rossa, at your service, bella signora," Arturo said, taking her hand and kissing it. "Please, you must tell me the name of the beautiful xiulan (Graceful Orchid) who fought so bravely alongside me."

Mack fought back laughter. Boy, was this guy in for a surprise!

Xiulan's eyes grew in surprise when the man took her hand and kissed. She quickly pulled her hand back and rubbed it on her shorts to remove any cooties. "Ummm... my name is Xiulan..." she replied in an uncomfortable tone. "Jiejie, is this guy serious? Who talks like this?" she remarked to Mack.

Mack snickered. "He seems pretty serious to me, Meimei," she said.

Arturo grinned. "Never has a name been more fitting," he said. "And I assure you, Bella Signora... Xiulan, I am quite serious. And I would be honored if you would allow me to join you at your table... ah... presuming I don't have to flee to avoid arrest by the local constabulary?"

Mack chuckled. "I am the local constabulary as of a little while ago," she said. "So, no, you don't have," she snickered again. "Flee to avoid arrest. Just try not to break anything else, please. My name, not that you asked, is Mackensie Shepard. I'm also known as Mack the knife." Mack pulled back her jacket to bring the kambantuli under her left arm into full view. "So just know that if you hurt my Meimei, I'll either show you why they call me that, or," waved her pistol before holstering it. "Just shoot you in the ass and let you die all slow and painful like. We clear?"

Arturo nodded. "You have my solemn promise, Signora Shepard, that I will treat Xiulan with the greatest of respect at all times."

"Good," Mack said. "Now..."

"Security to Chief Shepard," came a voice from Mack's encyclopedia. "We've got a problem on Deck 7."

"Yǔ mǔqīn fāshēng xìng guānxì de rén (person who has sexual relations with their mother)," Mack muttered."I have to go." She grinned. "You kids play nice now!" she said, and then left before Xiulan could complain about being left alone with the handsome, charming, cheerful idiot.

Xiulan's eyes grew even wider. "Wait, don't leave me here with him!" Xiulan tried to protest, but it was too late, Mack was already disappearing into the crowd. "Jiejie!" she called out in one last desperate attempt to get Mack to return, then she found her chair and slumped into it with a grumpy pout. Then she proceeded to shove donut balls into her mouth so she would have an excuse to not talk to this bizarre stranger.

Arturo could see that he had his work cut out for him. He had always depended on his good looks and charm... and other attributes. He'd always thought those properties got him what he wanted. Recently he'd learned that while he thought he'd been charming the fashionable ladies of Osiris out of the clothing and into their beds, they'd all be leading him around by his... attributes. While Arturo thought he'd been like one of his heroes, Don Juan Tenorio from Tirso de Molina's Burlador de Sevilla, the Trickster of Seville, the fashionable ladies of Osiris had each been playing him for a fool, manipulating him, using him as a 'boytoy' until they grew bored of him and passed him off to one of their friends. At least they enjoyed his company... unless they lied about that, too? In any case, Arturo's confidence when it came to women had been powerfully shaken and greatly diminished. And yet.. Xiulan was not like any of the women he'd pursued before, and nothing like the one who had broken his heart and caused him to be banished from his home. Perhaps...

"Ah... Xiulan, Bella Signora," he said, shy in Xiulan's presence in a way he hadn't been shy around a woman in years, but trying to sound confident. He wasn't doing a very good job of sounding confident and he knew it. "May I... may I join you?"

Xiulan made a collection of noises that sounded like it was meant to be a form of communication, but with her mouth full of sugary ponchiki, any semblance of real words were obscured beyond coherency, although there was a rather reluctant shrug which one could possibly interpret as a vague form of permission. Doing her best to ignore his presence, she dug through her hoodie for her encyclopedia, a custom device with a textured surface that allowed her to read and input data through touch alone, and she began moving funds around to pay for the damages they had caused to the bakery.

Arturo decided the shrug did, in fact, mean that the beautiful Graceful Orchid was giving him the honor of allowing him to join her. He retrieved his bag, hat, and coffee from the other table and took a seat across from Xiulan. "So..." he said, tentatively. "Tell me about yourself. How did such a lovely gir... er... young woman come to be in this place? Share your story with me and I shall tell you mine... if you wish to hear it." Arturo wondered if she'd think him boring. The women of Osiris clearly thought of him as nothing more than a pretty face, and Xiulan couldn't even see his face. Arturo feared he wouldn't even be able to attract Xiulan's attention, let alone hold it long enough for a meaningful connection.

Again, Xiulan merely shrugged, but after a moment, she sense that he seemed genuine in his curiosity, so she leaned forward to get her coffee and take a swig to wash down the donuts, then leaned back with a sigh. "The Greenleaf 'Plex was just a stop along the way to somewhere else. The transport I was meant to take to my final destination was delayed, so I ended up stuck here for a few days. When the transport finally arrived, I'd decided I liked this place and canceled my travel plans. Been here a few weeks, maybe near a month?" she finally replied.

Arturo smiled. Now they were getting somewhere. "Where did you learn to fight like that?" he asked. "You were sensational! Poetry in motion." Okay, Xiulan's fighting style was more like heavy metal or punk music in motion, but that was a kind of poetry, was it not? Arturo was surprised to find that Xiulan's rough edges made her even more attractive in his eyes. "Teaching the rich to fight was my family's livelihood. I know a well trained fighter when I see one... and I'm guessing you continue to practice in some way that lends reality to your training, from the way you so effortlessly bested those malcontents."

"My family taught rich and poor alike on Sihnon," Xiulan answered. "I am a master of our family's fighting styles, and I was set to inherit the temple one day, but I don't know if that will happen now. Still, I keep practicing, and maybe one day I'll be able to carry on our family's traditions."

"My father told me he felt I'd mastered the arts he'd taught me," Arturo said. "The ranks in my family's arts are Scholar, Free Scholar, Provost, and Magister. My father felt I had completed all of the academic requirements and learned all of the techniques required of me with sufficient skill to be a Provost, if not a Magister in my own right... but I am too young, too inexperienced. So officially hold only the rank of Free Scholar or Laureato d'Armi in Italian. I've recently been..." Arturo hesitated, then continued. For some reason he felt Xiulan would understand what he was about to say. "Banished from my home, Osiris, from my family, due in no small part to my own foolishness. I asked my father how I would advance if I could not return home to be tested when I came of age for each of the remaining ranks. He said that I would have to decide for myself if I was ready to be promoted and do so on my own, and that he trusted me to make the right decision, my apparent foolishness and poor judgement." Arturo smiled again. "But back to you. Why are you unsure if you will ever inherit your family's temple? Have you become estranged from them?"

"We had to abandon our temple," Xiulan confessed, pausing to swirl the coffee in her cup for a moment before taking a sip, then continued. "There was foolishness involved, not necessarily our own, and by now it has been taken care of, but we don't know if the temple still stands, and my father isn't even sure if he wants to return; he's found peace and tranquility in the new life we found, and I... I guess I'm still searching for who I am, or who I want to be." She didn't know why she was telling a stranger, a very odd stranger at that, all this stuff about herself, but there was something compelling about the sound of his voice, soothing even.

"I'm sorry that happened to you and your family," Arturo said. He didn't probe about the foolishness involved in Xiulan's loss. If she wanted to tell him, she would. "But glad that it led to our meeting. I, too, am on a journey to discover who I am now that the illusions of my former life have been shattered. I want to be, well, I suppose I want to be more than what I was. I want to be more genuine with people and more honest with myself," Arturo blushed. "I must sound very melodramatic and foolish to you," he said.

"Melodramatic? Absolutely! But foolish? Nah," Xiulan relied, finally cracking a smile. "'Sides, if it was, wouldn't be right for me to judge you on something I just admitted to about myself," she pointed out. "So what part of that journey led you here?" she asked, then downed the last of her coffee.

"Necessity," Arturo replied. He thought about how to best explain while remaining vague enough as not to involve young gir--young woman, in anything untoward. Then he realized that if he wanted honesty from others, he should start by offering others honesty in turn. And... Arturo very much wanted an honest relationship with Xiulan. "In truth, my family is indirectly connected to the Lastra branch of the Mafia. They helped broker the deal that kept me from being imprisoned and they provided me with a letter of introduction to the Bratva here on Greenleaf Skyplex. Apparently the Bratva here have agreed to secure employment for me here. Something that utilizes my skills, but does not sink me to my elbows in blood, at least I hope that is what they have in mind for me. I presume I will be utilized as security for one or more of their operations here. I know what I may be getting myself into. I am familiar with the criminal element from the seedier areas of Osiris." Arturo sighed. "I must be more mindful, more aware, more deliberate. I deluded myself about the nature of my amorous adventures back home. I thought I was seducing the fashionable women of high society and leaving a string of broken hearts behind me. Then I fell in love with one. I was willing to kill the man her father had chosen for her to marry. I challenged him to a duel, was victorious, but almost killed the man. I thought to run far away from Osiris and take my lover with me. When I went to her and told her she was safe now, and that I was ready to take her away from those who would imprison her in a loveless marriage, she laughed in my face and called the authorities. But, before she sounded the alarm, she explained to me what a fool I had been. She explained how she and her peers had, in fact, seduced me. That they had each in turn used me for their pleasure and then passed me on to the next, like a hand-me-down toy they had grown out of. She said none of them, not a one, had ever had any real feelings for me. Besides, she said, who among her peers would ever lower themselves and actually fall in love with... the help. My true self has been revealed to me. I am not who or what I thought I was, and I want to be more than just the foolish plaything of rich, insincere women. And so I will, for to do otherwise would be to wallow in self-pity, and that I will not do." Arturo suddenly feared he had said too much. He lowered his eyes. "That was likely more of my tales of woe than you wished to hear. My apologies for troubling you with my sorrows."

For a long while, Xiulan said nothing; she didn't think she'd asked for his life story! When her senses finally returned to her, she stood and walked over to the counter to order another coffee and a blueberry almond pastry, and while she was there she informed them that she had sent them funds for the damages from the fight, then she brought her goods back to their table and sat down. After a long, slow sip of her fresh black coffee, she finally spoke.

"So, what part of your journey led you here?" Xiulan 'asked, then she continued, doing a decent impersonation of Arturo's accent. "Necessity; my family has connections with the mafia, so they arranged for me to find work here on the Skyplex." Then returning to her usual speech patterns and accent, but with a slight mocking tone. "Oh wow, good luck, and thanks for not telling me your TALE OF WOE!" Then with a huff, she took another sip of her coffee before continuing. "So I have to ask, do you tell your whole life story to every stranger you meet, or am I somehow special?"

For just a brief moment, Arturo felt his temper start to flare, but the moment swiftly passed, and a sad smile formed on Arturo's face. Despite the brutality of Xiulan's honesty, Arturo welcomed the sharp rebuke. It was pure and uninhibited, and contained not a trace of guile. The scorn he could do without, but perhaps his words and actions had earned it. Her words stung but did not drive him away. "I meant no offense," he said. "And... yes, you are somehow special, at least I think so, your anger with me notwithstanding." He sighed. Could he do nothing right? Clearly this attractive personality he wished to possess would take more work. He rose from his chair, put on his hat, and picked up his bag, sword cane, and empty cup. "I am sorry to have upset you. I sought only an honest connection with you. I shall take my leave of you for the time being. I must secure lodgings for myself and then seek out employment. Despite what you may think of me, I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I earned my bread there and I shall do so here." He hesitated a moment, then decided to take a chance. "Xiulan," he said. "I find your directness and blunt honesty as alluring as everything else about you, if not more so. With your permission, I would like to call on you soon. May I?" Arturo had come to Greenleaf Skyplex neutered and timid, yet his brief time with this crass, blunt, bold, and beautiful blind girl had somehow given him courage.

Xiulan blinked in surprise, her blind gaze staring into nothingness for a long while until she broke out into a fit of unrestrained laughter. After her laughs subsided, she wiped away some moisture that had formed in her eyes, then with one last chuckle she spoke: "Sure, call on me, do whatever makes you happy," she said with amusement. "I know I sounded angry, but I wasn't, more annoyed than anything, yet somehow that amuses me." She rose to her feet, shrugging on her hoodie and began gathering her things. "You're a weird one, but at least you're new and interesting. Guess I'll see you around?"

Xiulan's laughter puzzled him, until he realized how pompous and ridiculous he probably sounded. A broad smile formed on Arturo's face. That he'd made Xiulan laugh, albeit as his expense, warmed his heart. That he'd captured her interest lit his heart, and other parts of him, afire. "You shall indeed," he said, his joy evident in his voice. "Perhaps you could give me your surname to help me find you again?" Mischief crept into his voice. "Otherwise I might have to... pluck my way through every Graceful Orchid on this skyplex in order find you."

As Xiulan picked up her cane, she paused to consider if she should tell him her surname; making him search after her might provide some amusement, as well as a good story to tell later... "Pluck away, plucky," Xiulan said with a snicker, her course for mischief now set. "Although I would be surprised if there was another Xiulan on this 'Plex, but good luck finding me," she challenged him with a grin, then shoved her blueberry pastry in her mouth. With coffee in one hand and her cane in the other, she departed with a rhythmic 'tap tap tap' of her cane to ensure her path was clear.

Arturo laughed softly at Xiulan's coyness. While this new straightforward honesty he was trying on for size was at times puzzling to him, coyness in a woman was something he had plenty of experience with. He frowned for a moment, coyness in a woman was indeed something he was familiar with. Was Xiulan only teasing him and nothing more? Did she intend to use him and discard him when she was done with him, or worse, pass him off on her elder sister, the geriatric pervert?? Arturo took a deep breath and steadied himself. One step at a time, he told himself. He would take things one step at a time. Step One: Lodgings. Step Two: Employment. Step Three (the most pleasurable of all the steps) track down the Graceful Orchid who was quickly taking over his heart. Arturo nodded and set off for the residential area after tossing his empty cup in the trash. He would have to live a bit rough to start, but he was fairly confident (though not absolutely sure) that he would be able to afford at least a minimal level of comfort before long.

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