When it Rains, It Pours. PT. I - Marcus & Milk Carton's
22 Jun 2017Nsite
When it Rains, It Pours. PT.1 (Official Record Ongoing) (Recap: Marcus has been missing since April, there's been no contact with his acquaintances or crew. Sydney, Marcus' closest friend, has returned to Citi in an effort to figure out what exactly happened to Marcus. (Direct Link to Disappearance - Marcus Goes Missing)
(Continued from INGABA - Direct Link )
The Docks:
There was a familiar comfort Sydney found in that low consistent rumble reverberating through the dock as ships would arrive and depart. She was a low frequency kind of being after all, a bass line in most cases. Relentless, predictable even, rarely would she act out of her own character, and even more elusive to her was any practice of outward and public display of vulnerable sentiment. Sure, her temperament would spike from time to time, but when it did, those who know her well could often rely on what they knew would come next: measured and clever cynicism mixed with sincere affirmation as to her position, feelings, and intent. In short, much like the healthy roar of meticulously tuned thrusters on a well piloted ship, you could not only see her coming- but you could feel her conviction. She definitely couldn't' be described as flat by any means, she was animated alright- but it was the same every time, and it's because of that most people enjoyed the results of building a trustworthy relationship with her.
Some have argued that her gaged level of practiced consistency and predictability could be a defect- but when it comes right down to it, how many pilots will sit in the mail slot when they feel the magnanimous roar of a fully outfitted Anaconda purposefully barreling it's way in their direction? It's not altering its path, nor does it have to, so the options become pretty clear- either get out of the way, or hope you can afford to take the hit. Most people preferred not to gamble with Sydney, even if they were a slight favorite. Most people, anyway.
Quietly staring at her data panel, she breathes calmly in almost a meditative state. Her eyes jumping every so often from one corner of the screen to the other, the light chirps and beeps of her instruments the only thing accompanying the audible landscape of a mildly busy dock.
Blake enters the bridge of Sydney's clipper from the main bulkhead, his arrival shattering the silence like a bull in a China shop as the door hisses open while his unthoughtful gate and heavy footsteps echo across the room.
'So much for that drink.' He remarks plainly.
Sydney reaches to her right where a plain looking glass of Brandy, recently poured, rests on her instrument panel. Still refusing to break her attention from the information cascading across her screen she takes a sip, smiling somewhat proudly in the process.
Blake smirks. 'Kind of you to offer.'
Still focused on her screens, she reaches for a mildly obscured bottle now resting by her feet. She gestures it to Blake while tapping on her panel with her free hand. Blake walks up and grabs the bottle from her, taking a second to read the label. With an approving 'Hmm!' he spins off the lid and takes a whiff. Blake walks behind Sydney to the back of the bridge where a custom Buttler's Pantry had been installed -- just another luxury accompanying the rest of the extravagances on board Sydney's Clipper.
Blake opens a cubby and pulls a glass out for himself.
'So, now that we've blackballed our way out of any diplomatic approach or volunteered information from those two, what's your plan?'
He walks over to the First Officer's chair and takes a seat, a disgruntled moan accompanying the move in the process.
'They volunteered plenty already.' She says with a challenging candor.
Blake, who now had the neck of the bottle buried into his glass, paused his pour.
'Did I miss something? You didn't give them a hell of a lot of time Sydney, pretty sure we would be closer to going home if you had--'
She interrupts him coldly, her head snapping in his direction.
'Had I what Blake?'
With a stunned pause and a rather put off expression, Blake finishes timidly 'kept them talking...' He begins his pour again, albeit less confidently than before..
Sydney smirks, still staring at Blake coldly, letting a brief beat go by before turning back to her panel.
'Noooo, I'm sorry, we didn't leave money on the table Blake. We folded a bad hand and got a ton of information in the process. We got out without giving them any either. Had we stuck around much longer, that wouldn't have been the case.'
She continues reading while Blake looks at her as if she's slowly slipping towards dementia. He stammers briefly, confused as to how to express his thoughts currently.
'What, Blake?' She says, obviously growing annoyed.
'I'm concerned that maybe you're acting a little rash... maybe slightly out of character.' Blake almost winces as he prepares for the beating he's most likely about to receive, but the truth is he did care about her, as well as Marcus, and quite frankly he just didn't get it.
Sydney pauses, this was the first time she had really broken her attention and offered it to Blake fully since he arrived on deck, and only because she was picking up on his motive. However uneducated, he was sincere, so she'd let him get away with his outburst, for now.
'Alright look, you don't practice reciprocity with the military without their instinctive reflex to garner intel coming before just about anything else. They're not giving us information, they're gathering it. It's part of their programming.'
'How do you know tha--' Blake begins to interrupt...
'That we were dealing with Military? C'mon Blake, keep up. Besides, my guess is retired. Anyhow, take anything they tell you with a grain of salt. I did us a favor. We were unprepared to run into those two, so instead of falling for their little 'you can trust me' schtick, I focused my attention elsewhere. It's what they weren't saying that was the most interesting to me- except that whole bit about Rex's involvement, The Black Omega fraternity, and some ****ed up perversion of a placement exam. That was good stuff--. One of those two knows exactly where Marcus is, in fact my guess is he's monitoring him right now the way he kept glancing at his data link.'
Sydney looks back to her screen where the schematics of a Gunship are displayed on one open panel, and a scrolling search of ID tags scans through another.
'Marcus didn't disappear out of thin air, he was in a Taipan. Now, thanks to Marcus' 'friends' we at least have a solid place to start looking.'
Sydney turns to her screen and pulls up a new window, queuing once again the feeds from the day of Marcus' disappearance. She advances the feed to mere seconds before Marcus is obscured from the cameras-- by a well endowed Gunship no less, one that happened to be associated with none other than--
'Rex Snipes, coincidentally, owns this ship, and now that we know he's more than a little involved, we have a leg up in this race. Thanks for that, Phisto,' she raises her glass to her screen as if saluting him, then returning her attention to Blake.
Sydney's demeanor grows a little darker as she shares her screen with him.
'Marcus was on that gunship when it left here.' She finishes, but not before one final affirmation of her own peculiar behavior recently exhibited at the bar.
'Like I said, they volunteered plenty. As if I needed more time to figure out they were both full of shit. We're good Blake.'
She pauses while raising her glass to her lips.
'Plenty good.' she says before taking a drink, the mischievously prideful smile finding its way back to her lips in the process.
'Ok then... but where is he now?' Blake responds as he looks over her shoulder.
'We track that scrap metal down, and he'll still be on board. Mark my words.' She takes the last pull of her drink and slaps the glass on her instrument panel with confident authority.