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#Miner'sRespite – October 7, 2016
Yan Sun flinches as Jessica's mock punches bump against her cheeks repeatedly, but continues to listen, a small grin remaining as she looks up at her. "Owf..." she says when Jessica gets to the last part. "Got to admit, I don't really see the appeal in getting shot at and 'blowed up' for a living..." She runs her hands idly up and down Jessica's outer thighs as she speaks. "Then again I'm-" she stops mid-sentence as her hand
brushes against Jessica's wound, or rather the medigel covering it, after wandering up her sides. She lifts the bottom of her shirt a little to get a look at the injury. "唉呀... that looks bad. Are you sure you should be walking around?" she asks, looking a little concerned.
Jessica winces slightly from Yan Sun's touch, but doesn't pull away. Her excitement from her own story fades as her gaze lowers to her wound. She gives a dismissive shrug, lifting her shirt slightly higher so she can get a better view of the damage. "Is fiiine." she assures. "Doctor looked at it, mmm? You worry too much." She settles back into a comfortable seating position as she contemplates Yan Sun's previous statement. She
falls silent for a few moments until finally giving yet another dismissive shrug. "I have been getting shooted-... shot at for a long time, kitty cat.... At least now they are paying me to do so, yes?" she says, though she doesn't sound so convinced.
Yan Sun very softly brushes her fingertips against the medigel that covers the wound as she studies it in silence. She doesn't seem entirely convinced by Jessica's claims, and the final comment causes her to glance at her face before looking up at the ceiling with a shrug. "Yeah, well... I've been... not getting shot at, for a long time. But I guess I never really got paid... technically."
Jessica opens her mouth to speak, but has second thoughts and shuts it tightly, biting down on her lower lip. Her gaze travels to the walls, then to the ceiling as she avoids conversation for the moment, her mind running through the past ten years of her life and all of the fighting. "I don't think many people believe they are bad, mmm?" she finally says, seemingly out of the blue. "You-... You justify the things you do
sometimes. Maybe you have to, mmm? Maybe is just what needs to happen to survive. This past year? It has been like-... like a mirror. Just one big mirror. Martin and I-..." a small smile tugs at her lips, bit disappears just as quickly, "....we would make all these plans. How we were going to get away from Adrasteia, mmm? And go to Earth. Live these-... these wonderful lives." She gives a quick, embarassed chuckle
before sucking a deep breath in through her nose and shrugging. "But we both knew we would probably just die in that city. Neither of us said it, but we knew. A year would pass and nobody would even remember we ever existed. The Terminus is good for that. Just takes allll of the galaxy's trash and makes it disappear. Aite is good for that...." Her hand moves down to Yan Sun's sleeve, fiddling with the cuff a bit to
give herself something to stare at and avoid eye contact. "But now he is gone and those plans are gone. And I-...." she trails off, simply shaking her head as she avoids getting to her point.
Yan Sun blinks, quite obviously caught off-guard by the sudden and utter change in gear to heavyhearted monologuing. She looks up at Jessica in silence, suddenly feeling rather uncomfortable in the position she's in. When she trails off she remains quiet for a moment before wriggling her midsection free so that she can prop herself up on her elbows. "Jessica...? I-... come on, don't-... don't say that stuff." she says, a deep
frown in her face as she looks her over. "I don't like it when-... I mean-..." She shifts again, sitting up further and supporting herself with her right palm while her left reaches for Jessica's wrist. "You're not gone. You're still here. And I'm here too..."
Jessica shakes her head as she releases her grip on Yan Sun's sleeve. "Is not-... Urghh...." she stammers. "No-... I am saying-..." she sighs loudly, "Maybe-... Maybe you are right... For once!" she suddenly corrects. Can't give her too much slack. "They carried an asari they didn't even know through a desert just to-... to protect her." She sighs loudly, shoulders slumping slightly. "After everything went to hell in
Adrasteia, I joined up with these people. I am thinking that maybe they would be my best shot at-... at killing Cross..." she says bluntly. "They wanted to make a difference. To do something good for this planet. I just wanted to stick a blade in that fuck's throat... Back on that planet? I see Redrock carrying her and feeding her and all I am thinking is that they are wasting our shit on someone who is probably going to
die anyway... Is not the person I want to be, but-..." she shrugs her shoulders as a hint of guilt creeps in upon her confession, "Is just who I am. Maybe I do not belong with these people. I am not a soldier. I am not-... not selfless. I convince myself for sooo long that I am just doing what I have to. Adrasteia eats the weak, and I will be strong, mmm? But maybe-... maybe I am just a bad person, mmm?"
Yan Sun 's frown softens for a moment before returning in full force. "You're not. I don't think you are. A bad person doesn't wish they were different." she insists. She pulls her legs free and sits on them as she looks down at Jessica's hand, fiddling thoughtfully with her fingers using her other hand. "You're just... used to things being a certain way. To acting a certain way. But... you don't have to. You can be whoever you
want." she says, a small, soft smile tugging at her lips as she looks up to meet Jessica's gaze again.
Jessica rolls her eyes as her gaze meets with Yan Sun's once again. "Orrrrr maybe you are just too stupid to realize this, mmmm?" A long sigh escapes her. "I am not looking for your sympathy, kitty cat. I do not need it, mmm? I am just saying maybe-.... maybe is not the job for me... In Adrasteia, things were simple. Here? Is maybe not simple so much..." She shrugs her shoulders and shifts into a more comfortable sitting
position. She sucks in a deep breath and gives a shake of her head, "Is fine... I will figure it out. For now, I need the credits..."
Yan Sun 's fledling smile never manifests, but she looks otherwise undeterred. She wasn't sure what she had expected. She slips out of bed, going back to her seat by the computer terminal, eyes scrolling rapidly across the screens as she checks what she missed. "So what is the job for you?" she asks as she starts typing.
Jessica remains on the bed, giving a small shrug as she returns to the bowl of noodles. She scoops some more out with her fingers and shoves them into her mouth. "I am thinking..... maaaaaaybe I would make a good pimp, mmm?" she says while chewing loudly. "I could probably get a couple of credits for you." she decides with a nod as she slips off the edge of the bed to finally follow Yan Sun, noodles in hand. "Plenty of lonely
miners to entertain downstairs." she adds as she leans over Yan Sun from behind, resting her chin atop the woman's head.
Yan Sun pauses her typing as she registers what Jessica said. "Wh-... You are such an 屁股. That's disgusting!" she exclaims, seeming a little flustered but not turning her gaze away from the screens. Among the windows open are a chatroom moving too fast to read, a newsfeed, some code, and, partially behind another window, her photo album of Hong Kong. "I'm not a whore, you jerk." she mutters, sounding only lightly annoyed, but
she reaches up and puts a hand over Jessica's face, flattening her nose and trying to push her off her head.
Jessica furrows her brow as she's pushed away, but loud laughter erupts from her soon after, seemingly pleased with Yan Sun's reaction and her ability to get under the woman's skin. "Mmm. Of course not." she says sarcastically with a shrug. "Is good way to make credits, though!" she insists. "Maybe if we make the bathroom look like an elevator it would make you feel more comfortable, yes?" she continues to tease as she looks over
Yan Sun's shoulder at the monitors, shoveling more noodles into her mouth. Though as she spots Hong Kong poking out from beneath one of the windows, she leans over Yan Sun once again and points to it. "Is pictures, yes?" she asks, "You never finish showing me them before. Let me see."
Yan Sun quickly turns to her side, placing an elbow on the back of the seat and looking over her shoulder at Jessica, embarassment overtaking annoyance. "Wha-... that wasn-... I wasn't try-... you approached me!" she blurts out defensively, half of her case lost to rambling. She furrows her eyebrows. "No, no pictures for you!" she says, sounding more grumpy than she is, and pushes Jessica lightly in the belly. "Not when you're
Jessica leans back, as if offended. "Oh, no! Don't you even try that bullshit with me! You lure me-... lure me! Into a dark elevator! You think you are soooo smart and can just play the innocent card, mmm? We both know what you were trying to do!" She swats at Yan Sun's hand, "I am not jerk, you are liar! But, is fine! If that is what you need to tell yourself, then sure. I approached you. Mmhmm." she nods, shoving the
last bite of food into her mouth before licking her fingers. She steps forward, leans over Yan Sun and puts the bowl in her lap. "Whateeeeever you say, kitty cat."
Yan Sun looks down at the empty box for a moment before setting it aside on the desk. "You're the worst..." she says as she turns back to the terminal again. "You're lucky I like you, or you'd be getting the nastiest electroshock right about now..." she adds in a mumble, pulling one leg up into the chair and resting her head on the knee as she reads the news headlines. A plague on a turian planet. Another missing colony.
Elections on Illium. Winners of the biotiball finals. Investigative article on undocumented vorcha populations.
Jessica gives another shrug of her shoulders. "Sounds like fun." she says as she resumes hovering over Yan Sun's shoulder. Her hand moves to her own side, resting on her wound. "Blah, blah, blah...." she mutters as she reads the headlines. "Boring... Boring... Don't care.... Fucking vorcha... None of this is interesting, why are you reading this shit? Mmm?"
Yan Sun frowns, actually sounding more annoyed by that question than anything else. "Because it's important. Out here it's easier than ever to loose grasp of... just how big the galaxy is. Of how much is always happening out there. I care about staying connected... as much as I can, anyway." she says with a small shrug.
Jessica falls silent, looking genuinely offended this time for the briefest of moments. But Yan Sun wasn't wrong, even if the statement wasn't directed at her. Jessica was mostly out of touch with the galaxy. For most of her life, her entirety revolved around Adrasteia. Aite. She knew little about the state of the galaxy as a whole. Despite all of the useless knowledge she had collected on Earth over the years, she knew little
about the state of Earth as well. "...Whaaatever..." she mutters. She reaches over Yan Sun's shoulder, pointing to the 'missing colony' article. "Mmm. That one. What does it say?"
Yan Sun doesn't see Jessica's expression, her eyes still on the screen. "It's another abducted colony. The Collectors? The Alliance still haven't managed to stop it. It's... unsettling. Seems like they're targeting human worlds. I... I wonder if they would come here." As she speaks she brings up the article, enlarging one of the pictures showing blurry security camera footage of two twisted insectoid figures placing a human
child in what looks like a hovering coffin. She can't help a faint shiver after looking at the picture for a moment.
Jessica looks over the photo from her position behind Yan Sun's chair. "Mmm. I hear about this. Was all over before I leave for this job. They tell us stories about them out here, you know?" she says. "The Collectors?" She leans in a little closer, letting out a long sigh as she continues to study the screen, "Martin used to tell me when I was little-... 'Keep being an asshole and I'm going to sell you off to the Collectors when
mom and dad aren't looking!' I was terrified of them! But as I get older, I figure they are just a story, mmm? Told to keep younger sisters from annoying their older brothers... I guess... I guess is more than just a story..."
Yan Sun reaches back with one of her hands, running it across Jessica's neck as she looks at the picture. "Yeah... I guess they are." she says quietly. "I wonder what they are... why they're doing this. There... there has to be a reason, right?" she asks, frowning thoughtfully.
Jessica gives a brief shake of her head. "Maybe they are just assholes, mmm?" she offers. "Humans can be assholes. Turians can be assholes. Batarians can be assholes. Asari can be assholes." she snorts and rolls her eyes, "And fuuuuck can krogan be assholes. Why not Collectors, mmm? Ooooh! Maybe they do some kind of zoo! Is why they are 'collecting'!"
Yan Sun shrugs. "Sure, but... it's like it's the only thing they're doing. I mean... where do they live? Where are they taking all these people? They're doing something with them. They're not just killing people, they're capturing them... that's a lot of work. It's... it's strange is all. I... wonder if they're still alive somewhere, kept prisoner..."
Jessica shakes her head confidently. "Mmm. No. Definitely dead." she says. "Think of how expensive it would be to keep them, mmm? Food? Space to store them? Is too much work. They have to be dead, yes?Unless-... maybe they are making them fight to the death for their amusement! Like that vid, yes!?" she says, nudging Yan Sun, "You know... the-... the popular one, mmm? I never see it but-... gahhh, what was it called? Where the
Yan Sun frowns, still staring at the picture. "It's not funny..." she says, flinching slightly as she's nudged. She starts to close windows. "Seems like everything out here is out to kill you..." she says, bringing a hand to her mouth as she yawns. The last window open is the one with the pictures, currently displaying a view of endless skyscrapers from Guangzhou proper, sticking out of the ground with such density that it
would be easy to take their roofs for ground level at first glance, until you notice the gaps leading down to the streets. Bridges run between buildings, connecting them to each other. Even highways run right through buildings in some places, and skycars swarm all over.
Jessica frowns and shrugs her shoulders. "I am not saying it is funny. But there is nothing we can do about it, yes?" It's just the sort of thing that happens. Living in a small nook of the galaxy your whole life makes everything that isn't directly affecting you seem so far away. These might as well be fictional stories rather than news articles to her. "You are worried Collectors are going to come and collect you, mmm?" she
teases before her attention is pulled to the photo and she suddenly seems less interested in talking about Collectors. "...Is so big..." she mutters, leaning in to get a better look.
Yan Sun is about to respond to Jessica's question when the woman's attention is drawn to the picture. She smirks slightly and nods. "Yeah... That's central Guangzhou. Hong Kong is part of it, the outer edge. One of Earth's biggest megacities. Over 90 million people..." she says, swiping over to the next picture, showing the ground view from somewhere in the same area. Or at least that's what it looks like at first. On closer
inspection it's actually the view from one of the bridges. It's very wide, and full of pedestrians. Glass barriers line the edges and a row of trees are planet in the middle. Above buildings stretch up toward the skies, and below they plummet out of view.
Jessica's mouth slowly opens as she stares at the photo. "And you leave that for this!?" she asks, gesturing around their small room. "Like I say before, kitty cat. You are stupid. If I live there?" she points towards the picture on the screen, "I would never come all the way out to this shithole..."
Yan Sun shrugs before closing down the terminal. "Mmh... maybe I am." she says as she stands up and walks past Jessica, throwing herself into the bed on her back, putting one leg over the other and folding her hands behind her head as she eyes Jessica. "I mean, I keep putting up with you, don't I?" she says with a grin, her tone obviously lighthearted.
Jessica spins around, one hand still pressed to her side. She rolls her eyes as she slowly strolls up to the edge of the bed and cocks her head to the side. "You think just because I am hurt that you can talk to me that way? Mmmm? I can still kick your ass!" she threatens.
Yan Sun raises an eyebrow, looking as if she's considering this. "Doubt it..." she says, playful grin remaining as she waves her feet slightly back and forth. "You just spent a week in the desert... getting blown up. I... think you're too tired to stop me." she suggests, moving a leg to poke Jessica with her foot.
Jessica frowns and swats at Yan Sun's foot with her free hand. "You see!?" she says as she places a knee up on the bed. "You push and push and push!" she continues, grabbing Yan Sun by the ankle and threatening to yank her off the bed. "Mmmm!? Is what you want, yes?" she threatens, giving her a playful tug.
Yan Sun snickers, grabbing hold of the bed to stay in place. "Mmm, right, I push." she says, bringing her other foot over to kick her leg free. "Not like you just called me a whore a few minutes ago. But no, I'm the jerk." she says with a roll of her eyes and a grin, prodding Jessica with her foot again as soon as it's free.
Jessica's frown deepens and she grabs at Yan Sun's ankle yet again. "Hey, I did not call you a whore! I just say that maybe if you were a whore we could make some credits, mmm!? Is difference!" she corrects. She removes her other hand from her wound and grabs for Yan Sun's other ankle. If she was going to be difficult, then so be it! She gives another tug. This one harder, aiming to pull her to the edge of the bed.
Yan Sun lets out a loud yelp as she's pulled to the edge quite easily, losing her grip on the bed. She attempts to kick her legs in resistance with little luck. "大象拉屎 you're supposed to be injured!" she exclaims, trying to wriggle free. "Go... rest, or something!"
Jessica gives an evil chuckle, your traditional villain 'mwahahahah'. "Maybe I am faking, mmm!?" she says, her hand moving higher up Yan Sun's leg as she gives another yank to pull her off the bed, "Or maybe you are just weeeeak!"
Yan Sun is yanked off the bed, falling to the floor with a thump. She flinches in pain as she hits her head, grimacing afterwards and reaching up to rub the back of it, legs still being held by Jessica as she lies on the floor. "...ow."
Jessica gives another playful 'Mwahahahah' as she places a foot atop her vanquished foe's chest. "You see? Even with an injury, you are still the kitty cat and I am the tiger, mmm?" she brags. "Is just the way things are."
Yan Sun 's amused look returns as the pain fades, looking up at Jessica. "You know, you seemed a lot more intimidating when I met you. " she says with a shake of her head, and then puts a hand under her head to cushion it. "So... can I get back up now?"
Jessica seems to take that as an insult as she looks down at Yan Sun. "Mmmm? Is that so?" she asks, putting more pressure on Yan Sun as she remains pinned underfoot. "Well maybe I will make you stay down there, then. Mmmm? Do not forget who saved your life! I own you now!"
Yan Sun grimaces as Jessica puts pressure on her chest, but shrugs. "I'll manage. It's not too bad down here."
Jessica scowls as Yan Sun continues to ruin her fun. "You are reeeally asking for it!" she continues to threaten as she removes her foot from Yan Sun's chest and lowers into a seated position, once again using Yan Sun's midsection as a seat. Once seated, she studies Yan Sun's face silently. The smallest hint of that old self doubt comes creeping in as she shifts to the side, subconciously maneuvering to obscure the scarring that
decorates her body. "Maybe I should make it bad down here then, mmm?" she threatens confidently, betraying her own body language.