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Maverick's gold eyes glittered beneath his mask as he took Silken's hand, bringing it to his lips, before giving her a warm expression; a smile somewhere between polite and charming.

"Be glad to. I could use a real drink myself actually. Something with a bit more bite than the punch. Let's find ourselves a seat, shall we?"

His voice hinted at a southern drawl, smooth as single malt whiskey, and rich as caramel. He seemed polite enough, though there was always a hint of something deeper about him, something unseen.

"Well then, perhaps it would be prudent to hold it somewhere else?" Yll'r asked. "My locomotion does not take into account the same hazards as yours, as following me may cause distress either to yourself or to another. It would put my mind at rest if you were to... not follow me. I have no need for liquids. Except to filter hydrogen from in an emergency situation should no gases be available for consumption."

John Doe smiled wider, not picking up on the discomfort. "Where was I?" He suddenly froze, standing with one foot off the ground. After a pause, he continued. "I was in sector 5G, spatial grid coordinates lamba 13-negative 24-beta 6. I was in a ship with rocket boosters, with five human crew mates." He started to dance again. "Would you like to know their names?"

Gabriela narrowed her eyes slightly at John, but managed to keep the smile fixed in place. "Sure, friend. Let's hear their names."

The punch-bearing droid pauses for a moment, then slowly reverses itself to roll up against a wall. It stands there like a punch-holding statue, tucked out of the way.

"Yes," said John Doe. "Their names are Sleve McDichael. Raul Chamgerlain. Todd Bonzalez. Mike Truk. And Bobson Dugnut. They were my family. What is your family like?" He froze again, his head pivoting to watch the punch droid backing up to the wall. "That is a ritual?"

Yll'r's tentacles drooped, feeling as though they had somehow upset the droid. With hesitation, they floated back over, but avoided shoving their 'face' against it this time. "You-... you can follow me if you want... just... try not to get hurt or hurt anyone, alright? I apologise for chastising you. I am simply worried for your safety." they awkwardly patted the droid on top of the head with a tentacle, following up with a rather mechanical "there there."

"My family?" For some reason, this rings alarm bells in Gabriela's head. "They're very, uh.... human. Hey, speaking of, what species are you, friend? Nah, don't worry about that ritual, we're all done with the punch bathing ritual," she hastens to assure him, not wanting to have to dunk her head again.

The punch-droid whirs and buzzes for a moment, then announces, "Preventing harm to sentients is one of my prime directives. This unit will always seek to avoid harm."

Just then, an announcement comes over the station's PA system. "Attention all visitors and residents of Radiance Station," a rich, deep female voice burrs out. "A pod of space whales are currently passing within viewing distance of the station. Those interested in viewing this phenomena will have their best view in the arboretum."

As it happens, the newly built arboretum is accessible through a large arch-way off the commercial core, leading into the steamy heat of the verdant gardens and the jaw-dropping views of space through its glass dome.

John Doe's smile remained, but his eyes widened, and he once more stopped abruptly. "I am a human! A human, see--" He grabbed the hem of his shirt and angled it for Gabriela to see. "I wear the sign of the cheeseburger."

Jadi didn’t feel as much enthusiasm as Kolt did about the drudges of low level operations department work, but she grinned a little at his sentiment. He listened as he described dealing with telekinetics. Her experience was limited in that field so she could only wonder. “Wow, you had to clean that up? That doesn’t sound fun”, she said with a chuckle.

“Maybe our work is more similar than we think.”

She also added, “say, should we go check on those space whales? Sounds like a sight!”

Silken lets out a low chuckle and shuts her eyes for a moment to add to the effect, and silently tells her mask to scan for an appropriate table: Off to one side, but not against a wall, respectable lines of sight over the area but not conspicuously so, and ideally with seating she could turn in to not catch the flare of the back part of her "skirt."

Once one has been found, she closes the dainty claws over Maverick's hand and leads him to it with more pep and bounce to her step than her reserved look would suggest. She pauses for a moment, giving the cowboy a chance to pull a chair back for her if he likes but not forcing the point, and either way twists the chair sideways so her outfit doesn't get disrupted. If only that back section weren't so impractical, and yet so very, very needed to complete the look.

Once the two are seated she asks, "Should we introduce ourselves? I know we shouldn't divulge too much, the mystery is important, but at least monikers of some kind would be helpful. Silken, by the way."

She looks up at the PA announcement, tilts her head, and twitches her ears before saying, "Mm, drinks first. Leviathans are lovely, but if we really feel the urge to watch them I could probably ask my ship to go get a view and feed it to my optics. Speaking of drinks, I hope you like them strong."

"Space Whales..." Yll'r commented to the droid. "What a vague expression. I wonder if I would recognise a species. I suppose if they are a local-only species, I would not, but I have met many beings that could be described as space whales."

Yll'r patted the droid on the head again and hurried toward Gabriela, pausing at the sight of John Doe and carefully manoeuvring around to stay well out of his reach. Something about him just didn't sit right, even to the jelly's limited understanding of bipeds. "Is there one of your airlocks nearby...? If your space whales are safe to approach, I would very much like to meet them up close. I am capable of interacting with electromagnetic communication systems even without my translator should I need to be contacted."

"Oh right," Gabriela hastens to say, blinking at the cheeseburger shirt. "The sign of the cheeseburger. Of course. How silly of me. You are clearly the humanest human I have ever seen with my human eyes." She turns to Yll'r with some relief, breaking off from the dance. "The closest airlock is one level down. There aren't any on the commercial level. But the space whales in this sector tend to be extremely docile, I'm sure it would be safe enough for you to approach." Indeed, the big, lumbering beasts are in many ways just bags of gasses, gleaned from gas giants as the mammoth spacefaring creatures glide silently through space. It's the big "eyes," or rather, long-distance light receptors, used to detect planets in neighboring solar systems that make them so endearing to mammalian species.

Yll'r did their best representation of a bow, then wooshed up into the air vent that they had entered from at the start of the party in search of an airlock. They were exceptionally quick, given that they were capable of keeping up with spacecraft and could even create FTL bubbles around themselves, though that would have had disastrous consequences if they tried that inside a station.

John Doe's smile widened further when Gabriela came to her senses and recognized the cheeseburger, as any sensible human should! "Yes, human." He rotated his head towards the direction the announcement had come from. "I will partake in looking at the whales," he said. He drifted off the dance floor without so much as a goodbye, smiling all the way to the arboretum.

"Oh, yeah--the whole palace is decorated with etchings in the walls. The goo stuck in those like you wouldn't believe." he elaborated, giving his story a bit more oomph. "Ha, maybe it is!" he agreed, with a grin.

It was then he paused to look around, taking notice of Cinder. "Oh, hey there! You were one of the ones dancing to the space music earlier, yeah?" he asked. "I should've brought Cryostriker out to give that a try." the guard added, gesturing toward the floating spear on his shoulder, which bobbed toward the small creature as if greeting her. "It seemed way more energetic and fun than those boring dances they do at balls and such."

He looked up at the sound of the announcement. "Space Whales?" he echoed, his voice laced with impulsive excitement. "Oh, cool! Do you guys wanna go see those?"

Ever the southern gent, Maverick was at the ready to not only pull the chair out for Silken, but to also keep a watchful eye on her expensive garments. He makes an effort to make sure they are all safely back in place before he rounds the table and seats himself. His mustache and goatee twitch in a crooked smile as he takes her in. Curious.

He overhears the PA announcement as well, but for now his attention remains focused on Silken and the promise of stiff drinks.

"They call me Maverick. But you? You can call me Rick." He winks and then takes his hat off, setting it on the seat beside him. His long, dark hair looks very soft and silken, and in all appearances, he seems to be a man who takes grooming and etiquette seriously, in contrast to how he's dressed.

"As for drinks, the stronger the better. Whiskey, if you don't mind. Kind of you to entertain an ol' cowboy at such an event of finery though. I'm honored."

Cinder sat in a relative slump, thinking to themselves as well as overthinking their concern for whatever that space jellyfish truly was. Their attention was only taken when Kolt finally addressed them, and as they listened, they realized they hadn't been paying attention to the table conversation at all.

"Yeah, Cinder offered lightly in response to his question, still distracted by the occurrences with Yll'r. "Dancing is good for the...." they claimed before stalling, staring at them with the same expression as had been on their face since they sat here. Surely there couldn't be so much evil here they would be approached twice right? "Spirit, it's good for your spirit," they claimed in decrescendo. Yll'r had sapped their drive for excitement, something that was said to be an ability of a Spectralyte.

Theres a dim flash of dirty light and a man in creased and stained overalls appears, holding an equally well-loved tool bag. On the side of his face is a small, pitted and scratched box which looks like the glue keeping it there is having difficulty doing its job. The well work patch on his overalls proclaims 'Stic----Time Insurance' and a name badge 'Nigel'.

“Space whales sound like a sight”, Jadi replied. She too turned to Cinder, almost not noticing her at first. She felt a little bad for that. Looking to Cinder she said, “that music did sound pretty fun!”

With a look of warmth she added, “I’m not really much of a dancer.” She turned and started walking towards the hall which led to the arboretum. “That’s more of my thing.. Trees. Space wildlife.” She really did enjoy as much nature as she could find. She hadn’t had much time on planetary surfaces for some time.

Botany bays and halls of trees would have to do. She was aware that this station was not as advanced as those in her part of space. That was the beauty of galactic travel. There were always countless timelines, among endless worlds. Sometimes different ones would intersect in brief moments of harmony.

She finished her punch before leaving the area, setting her cup down before getting too far.

"Oops, sorry, wrong day". He mutters, glancing around for something, or someone.