Its the weirdest thing
06 Apr 2021User319792
I'm plodding around Cemiess and the close systems right now, working the odd job here and there. The man in the black suit sent me another holo saying something was up and that The Empress dropped off their radars for a short period of time before reappearing. I didn't think too much of it until I saw the GALNET entry about Imperator Hadrian's wedding. I thought it was weird that they were monitoring her and I sent a message back to him about it. He called me on the comms a few minutes later and asked me what it is that I meant about monitoring her.
"You said you'd lost communications with her people about her whereabouts."
The look on his face remained unchanged and he looked back at me with the same calm, and open demeanor I'd come to recognize as a sign of his total lack of brain activity. I lowered my head slightly and widened my eyes, beckoning further information and he continued to look at me in the same plaintive way. We remained like that for a while.
"What did you mean when you said it was weird that we're monitoring her?"
Now I was on the defensive. I felt my left eye twitch and I hated him for a few seconds.
"Can you hear me?"
"I can hear you fine, Cadence. What did you mean?"
He continued to look at me with that dumb look on his face.
"You said that we're monitoring her."
I turned my head slightly without breaking my eyes from his as the silence grew deafening over the comms.
"Cadence, have you not been paying attention to what's been going on?"
My left eye twitched again and I hated him again, but this time it was deeper, more instinctive.
"Are you just being a jerk?"
He started laughing and then looked at me in the same way he used to look at me in the first few weeks of my training whenever I would tell him that we were flying too slow to be able to keep up with the Mamba that Callie flew past his Python Empathy's Destitution.
"Cadence, everyone's watching everyone. The Empire is fighting a war with the NMLA and the entirety of the ACT is pretty much giving everyone the freedom to be as voyeuristic as they want to be."
My eye's squinted and I hated him quite a lot less, but still a little... enough...
"So are you watching me?"
"Of course I'm watching you, Cadence. It's my job, you dunce."
My squinted eyes left the screen for a moment before relaxing and they turned back to him and I didn't hate him anymore.
"So what's... so why are you monitoring Aisling?"
"I wanted to be sure she was a good wife for you, Cadence."
The deafening silence died a horrifying death with his half-guffaw.
"I hate you."
"No you don't, Cadence. We're looking into her current plans to see if we can find out anything useful to us."
"Yes I do. So is that why you have me in Cemiess?"
My shoulders slumped at the sound of his laugh and I didn't even bother making eye contact for the rest of the conversation before he told me to keep my chin about my neck and make sure that I made a good impression on the Imperials in the area.
"That diplomat might be floating around somewhere, Cadence. They want to see your attitude improve."
"I don't have an attitude. They all have cannon barrels shoved up their butts."
I squinted. He laughed.
"That's the spirit. Now go get some work done. Stop worrying about our end of the organization."
He gave me a big smile and pointed his fingers toward to corners of his mouth and his smile extended. I gave him the finger and he laughed before the comms cut out.
While sitting in Cemiess I decided to spruce up my outfits. I got some awesome sunglasses and I look awesome.
I had the livery pretty up Ovid, too, before heading out and running some missions.
I'm in Jameson now, after picking up the Burr and ducking and peeking around every corner on my way from the landing platform to the outfitters with the smell of onionhead raising the hairs under my flight suit with every whiff.