"Ain't nothin', jus' gotta ask a man 'bout a hol' up."
His hand slipped into his coat pocket, the light from the screen dancing across his teeth. The petite woman entering through the hangar bay didn't look the part, but the attitude smelled the same. He ground the toothpick with his rear teeth until it snapped and spit the halves on the floor.
Keepin' an eye on that one ain't gon' be too hard unless she finn'a wear a dress. Broad gon' get lost in a grocery bag.
Backing out from the group to post up against the wall, Sykes turned his head the Hemlocke.
"I'mma jus' be a house plaint til' you need'a roll up."
Hemlocke noted Sykes' disapproval of the hacker's presence with the snapped tooth pick, following his gaze to stare at Mildred, before his expression darkened, standing still as he watched the mini-me assassin walk into the crowd, before glancing back to Sykes.
Such inefficiency! Such a preposterous amount of wasted hatred and time! Audaz reflexed a moment and searched for some sanity in this already screwed up meeting. The immature behavior shown by the Golden Chrysanthemums, the Rogues idling and talking to each other, and now a timid mujer fatal arrived late to the party. How many minutes had passed since the first guests arrived? It feels an eternity when nothing useful has happened as of yet...
Hasty thoughts aside, saying that this meeting was getting unproductive would be an understatement. Even with some mutual goals intertwined between the different factions, apathy clouds the ambient; some people seemed gathered with their own groups or apparently afraid that the big talks would turn into a bomb ready to explode. Traitors, killers, thieves, smugglers, warriors, tech savvies and diplomats are just waiting for someone to make a mistake.
Considering the situation at hand, Audaz finally addressed the host and spoke to her loud and clearly, so all could listen:
“Alexandra Amelia: Can we just skip the formalities and start with this reunion? I think I speak for everyone when I say that we could be doing something more interesting outside this boring station, if this so-called meeting does not turn on. We have deals to make and scum to kill, let us make our time worthwhile here.”
Misaki was getting bored with the meeting and started to wander of from the group to look for interesting people to hang out with. She noticed Valdez and other familiar Outcasts, but she wore drawn to the rogues that kept arriving. She waited until Hemlocke looked at her before waving and made her way over to him.
"Hey Locke!" She looked up to him for a second. "Brought any Liberty Ale for me? I have no idea why we are all brought here to Ames but this whole thing is boring me already. They actually brought me to start shooting if all hell breaks loose again, but I also brought some new stuff that the Gen'an Sisterhood has created."
She put down her backpack and rummaged through it before taking a vial and showed it to Hemlocke. "Look. This is Shigeakiki."
Noticing that finally everyone important have arrived, it was time to start the whole thing, because the lack of patience was rather obvious.
"Well, seeing that everyone has finally arrived, I suppose we could spare the pleasantries, because certain individuals made it rather apparent that they aren't exactly the patient type. I suggest we move to the conference hall and get started."
Her lack of patience towards the misbehaviour of others was starting to show, though it wasn't a huge change.
Sykes shook his head slightly at Hemlocke not out of disrespect but to show it wasn't something he was interested in delving into at the moment. There might be some time to come back to it later, but hopefully it wouldn't take much of her time. He leaned over slightly to emphasize his height compared to the vast majority of assembled company, turned to Amelia, and tilted his head in the overhead lights so his eyes were visible behind smoke-lensed glasses.
"Depends on how long you gonna be talkin' so I'mma decide if I need a seat."
He took another toothpick and pushed it in a gap in front of his left canine before letting out a quiet snort.
"Spent seven in Sugalan' on yo' dime, I'm expectin' some greatness off'a yo' tongue."
He wasn't interested in holding grudges against Malta's high-and-mighty, but he wasn't shy about letting his opinion be known. He lifted his head so his voice echoed from the angular metal walls.
"Assumin' all ya'll done wipin' yo' straps all over each other cause it don't make it longer when you lookin' down in the bathroom'n you get a life sentence for it."
Hemlocke listened to the impatient man and his autistic screeching somewhere down the landing bay with annoyance, listening to Amelia make the announcement, the impatient had no place in this meeting. Those that sought to rush this were little more than self important dogs. He shook his head, some things would never change. Then his gaze met Misaki, he looked down to her as she showed him something.
"I assume by created you mean mixed with cardamine. I'll pass. As for liberty ale, the Xenos would likely kill someone if there wasn't any in the bar at all times."
Ashwood shared the view of this with the Hellhound, displeased with the impatience, though Amelia could see neither the Hound nor his second were in a rush to go anywhere until Amelia decided it be so. They simply waited for the word from the host as to what was to be done.
Audaz grinned. The boldness shown by the Rogue satisfied him, so he leaned forward to Sykes and saluted him calmly, but from a prudent distance:
“Ah…and here I was thinking that nobody had some pelotas to say what it needs to be said. I think we have not met before, Chico de Azúcar. Audaz Alarcón is my name, pleased to meet you.” The Outcast chuckled friendly towards him. “I guess we are not here to just listen to everybody’s sad stories, but I can partially agree with your sentiment regarding the current expectations from the meeting itself.”
Next, Audaz looked upon Amelia. He saw her apparent slightly frowned face; a sign that things should be in motion, after the behavior displayed by all the concurrence. Alarcón spoke to her and those around them, softly and well-mannered, trying to calm her down:
“Let us show some respect to our host and proceed to the conference hall, I would suggest to start talking about the recent Cardamine trade movements, there was a recent boon in that matter…”
Leaning against the back wall Zane observed the chatter and back and forths around the room, he almost didn't notice the tentative mumble of Alexandra. She speaks not like a prominent Outcast - her demeanor and tone of voice were anything but commanding as the room never ceased in it's chatter. She sounded like she couldn't run a bath yet alone a vast Outcast operation.
He scanned the other people present, and one other person stood out. Taller than the others, standing next to the Outcast, leaning down to her. It was reasonably bright yet he wore shades that didn't even hide his eyes properly. He had a tootpick in his mouth, and then incoherently half-shouted something that was hard to even make out.
MNS-Loco's El Capitano stands up and with his signature bubbly high pitched voice abrasively shouts across the entire room "Amigo Alarcón! Haven't seen you since the Orange Hammer!" When The outcast doesn't notice El Capitano he decides to whistle loudly, making everyone's heads turn briefly. "I agree papito, hablemos de las cosas buenas! Let's talk cardamine - we roughed up The Crayterians and cleared out The Taus, now it's time to boost the yields from Liberty - what recent boon are you talking about papi - should El Capitano be getting in on something?" His singing voice silences to everyone's relief as he slowly makes his way towards the other Outcasts to listen to what they have to say to him and the others that gathered here.