Tuesday, Week 55: High class dining

The cafe that Silvia had selected for the conversation with Fenris was pretty high-end, as most places in London were, but not overly formal. Instead, it was tucked away in a relatively out-of-the-way spot, meaning it didn't attract quite so much business, but that it was fairly quiet and informal, unlike many London cafes.

Silvia was sitting at a table by herself, drinking a cup of what was called tea, although it had a few EI taste twists, which rather surprisingly made it taste excellent, at least as far as the ex-Shinjitsu Agent was concerned. It was getting near the agreed time, and it was only then that Silvia realised that she wasn't actually sure what the other Oracle Agent looked like.

Fenris? She tried, over the Oracle smeaker channel. I'm at the cafe now - small table, by the window, with the ponytail. Give me a wave when you come in. The English still felt strange to her, and there was a slight touch of a Spanish accent, even over smeaker, but at least it was there now.

After a short wait Silvia realized that her concerns were unfounded, as a tall athletic woman entered, with a clear tattoo of a wolf on her neck and face. The woman glanced around then waved at her.

As she looked around, Fenris decided that Silvia had chosen well, this place was a relaxed and out of the way place, but it still had enough class to make it comfortable. She spotted a woman who matched the description, and walked over to meet her, though she felt a little on edge, having to talk to a complete stranger yet again. "Silvia? I'm Fenris, nice to meet you."

"Ah, yes, hi." Silvia got up slightly too quickly at Fenris' approach, the tension that had been building in her at the idea of meeting another new Agent finally releasing itself. Especially considering how much she had made last time...

"You...you must be Fenris. Please, sit down." Her English was a little stiff and artificial, coming as it did through a chip, and her face was earnest, with a definite hint of nervousness. "I am Silvia. Can I get you a drink? They do a very good tea here."

"Uh, yes, tea please." Fenris sat down as instructed, but Silvia's obvious awkwardness was making her a bit more uneasy. The tension in the air was getting palpable as "Um, what were you specifically wanting to talk about?"

"I...well..." Silvia hesitated for a moment. This had seemed like such a good idea over the email. "I just thought we ought to...co-ordinate our efforts. Make sure we know what we're doing so we don't run into each other unexpectedly. And, you know..." She trailed off for a minute. "Say hi. What with us both being pretty new, and all. I'm sorry, I'm terrible at this," she continued, shaking her head and looking down. "I'll just...get you that tea." With that, she stood, intending to head over to get some for the other woman.

"Oh... thanks." As the other woman went to get the drinks, Fenris was furiously trying to come up with a way of making this easier for the both of them. She hated this part of dealing with people, but given the situation, it was just something she would have to push through. Fenris looked up at Silvia, and seeing that she was on her way back, wiped the sweat off her palms before speaking up. "Um.. Han gave me a- Wow, this is weird, but Han gave me a mandarin chip, if you'd rather.. you know, speak mandarin."

Silvia grimaced as she sat back down and handed Fenris her drink, although in a manner that suggested she was more annoyed with herself than anyone else. "Actually, my Mandarin is almost as rusty as my English. Haven't really been using it much lately. It really is weird, though, isn't it? Like..." she searched for the right image for a moment before finally coming up with something. "Like you're reading off a script that just keeps coming as you keep thinking." She hesitated as she thought of something. "I don't suppose you have the internal translator yet? I do, so you can go ahead with whatever language you feel comfortable talking in, I guess."

"Thanks, and i do have the translator now so you can speak what you like as well." Glad to finally be speaking in German again. "But anyway, Tansai asked me to look for ways into and out of the building in question, and if your mapping the inside, as i was led to believe, then we could help direct each other to potentially good locations, if you get what i mean." she said, moving on to business, something she could focus on, to try and get past the awkwardness of small-talk with a complete stranger.

"Ah, that is a relief," Silvia replied, reverting to the Spanish she felt more comfortable in. At Fenris' words, she frowned slightly. "Well, I'm going to try, but to be honest, I think that might be a bit...optimistic. I mean, obviously I'll try, but we are talking about somewhere locked down fairly tight. I'll see what I can do, see if I can get any way in, but I suspect I'll largely be dealing with outside surveillance as well." She shrugged, ruefully. "I wish I could say I was going to be inside, but there's really no way I'm going to be able to guarantee that. Or even say that it looks likely." Her voice too was a lot more confident now that they had moved onto professional matters.

Fenris' brow furrowed at this "I thought you were going to be renting a room, mapping the inside, then checking out before the mission?" Shit! This is still awkward as hell "So.. uh, what was it you were actually planning on doing exactly?" A couple of seconds later her eyes widened "Oh sorry! I did't mean to imply that you would be useless or anything! I was just wanting to know so that we could coordinate better, and i'm really sorry... " She then began to stare intently at her drink, as the infiltrators face turned pink.

"What, rent a room in the Savoy?" Silvia's expression was somewhat shocked. "I mean, I may not have been in Oracle long, but that sounds a bit, well...obvious." She hesitated, realising how the other Agent was reacting to her own words, and how hers might sound, and began rapidly colouring herself. "Oh, no, sorry...I didn't mean to sound like I was...and you didn't...I didn't think you were meaning anything like that...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to question you, or sound like I was...was devaluing your opinion..." She trailed off and looked deeply into her own cup, wishing she was better at this kind of thing. After a moment of awkward silence, she looked up again, having regained some control over her mouth.

"I...I was planning to find a place nearby, survey the Savoy from the outside, and see if I could find any ways in to do the interior. I...might be able to find a way in. I...have a few advantages in that area." She hesitated, colouring again. "Ah...I didn't mean to sound like...I just mean that I...I have access to some...unusual resources...oh shit, I'm terrible at this social stuff." The apparently Latina woman buried her face in her hands in despair at her own social inability. This was going almost as badly as the conversation with Coraline.

"What? no you weren't... are you alright? I don't even get what was wrong with "Special advantages" a- OH! OK, i do now, i didn't even consider that. Uh, not to say that you couldn't... if you wanted to... <sigh> It seems that i'm not that good at this either." Fenris was bright red by this point, and she took a moment to try and calm down and remove her foot from her mouth. "Sorry, Tansai told me that you would be in the savoy, I assumed she had some kind of plan. Didn't she say anything to you? Oh no... have i misunderstood the plan?" this last bit was more to herself than the woman opposite her.

"I...well, I didn't think she wanted to me to actually try and book in...I thought she just meant I should try and get as much of a look in if I could...maybe I misunderstood it? I mean, maybe she had some way of getting me in? Maybe I should have asked...I was just assuming I would do the normal sort of thing...well, normal for me..." Silvia was obviously troubled, partly by the potential for misunderstanding the plan and partly because she seemed to be slightly dismayed about how embarrassed she was making the other woman. She sighed, placing her hands flat on the table. "I'm...I'm sorry. I just...I haven't done much by way of proper teamwork in a long time I...I want to try and help, and...I'm not good at talking with people..." She trailed off helplessly, looking at Fenris almost beseechingly.

"Hey, it's my fault too! I'm just used to working with... and.. knowing..." Fenris blinks back some tears before quickly wiping her eyes. "Anyway! We can't really proceed without knowing what to do, we need to get Tansai here to talk this over." With that, she falls silent, continues to speak on her smeaker Tansai? This is Fenris. Uh, could you please head to the Café Nolo Contendre Lounge me and Silvia were discussing the preparations for the mission, and we think one or both of us did't quite get what you wanted from us. We need you to clarify.

"That...that sounds like a good idea," Silvia replied, breathing a sigh of relief. "Hopefully we'll be able to work something out." She took another drink of her tea, her hands clutching it a little tighter than might be necessary as she tried to calm herself down. Everything was going to be fine. This kind of thing was exactly what a preliminary meeting was for.

"So..." she said, trying to start some form of conversation, "where are you from, then? Oracle people seem to come from all over?"

Fenris grimaces as Silvia asks her question. Well, this kind of stuff was bound to come up eventually, i need to learn to deal with it. "I.. I was born and raised in Eden Spire, lived there most of my life. You?"

Tansai's voice came through a moment later. "Sure thing! I'll be over there in a few minutes or so then. Tansai herself turned and began to set off through the crowd of people, striding purposefully and dragging a suitcase along behind her.

"Japan," Silvia replied. "Yokohama, to be precise." A slightly odd look flashed across her face at the mention of her hometown, and a slightly melancholy note entered her voice. "It was...a good place. An open city, fairly well-off. I knew it pretty well. Spent a lot of time exploring." She sighed, mournfully. "I guess you can't do that now."

"Oh! Sorry.. I.. sorry." Damn! We're slipping again! "Um, where do you live now?What kind of stuff do you do for fun?"

"Oh, er...now? Well, me and a couple of the other new guys have a house in Seoul. A pretty good house too," Silvia said, with considerable understatement. "We figured that living together was probably a good idea. You know, stick together and all. And...for fun..." She shrugged. "I...I draw a bit. Read some. But lately, I've mostly been catching up on stuff. I've...missed a lot of things recently. Been...out away from civilisation. And you? Are you still at the HQ for now?"

"Yeah, I've not got a house yet, I've not had that much time you know? Though I was kinda hoping to find some place in the Spire, less of a change, i suppose. And for fun, well, anything that gets the blood pumping really. Sky diving, parkour, weltball... though i don't actually play... " Fenris trailed off as she realized that she shared no real interests with this woman. "Oh! And archery! I like archery."

"Archery?" Silvia's voice was definitely interested. "That's...unusual. I've not really done much of that...I'm a sniper, really. I mean, I'm sure you can use bows for sniping, but I've only ever really tried with rifles. But bows would probably be quite good for...well, I'm kind of a wilderness specialist. It can be a bit...tricky to keep a gun going out there. But a bow...that might be easier. To maintain, I mean. Less bits to...break." She hesitated again, aware that she was starting to exhaust that particular topic.

"So...why are you at Oracle? If you don't mind me asking," she added, hastily. "I mean, it sounds like a lot of people have some pretty...nasty stuff in their pasts here. So, I mean, you don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to."

"Because... I... I'm sorry, i can't." With that Fenris visibly retreated into her own thoughts, and Silvia could tell they weren't particularly pleasant ones.

Silvia nodded, her expression shifting to one of unfeigned sympathy. "I...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...bring up anything. I mean, I should have known there was something bad...I mean, I haven't even told many people about my...my...I mean, about how I ended up here." She paused to take a breath. "But it's...it's a good place, here. Really. Or it seems like it so far, anyway. Things...they should get better. I...I hope they do. Really."

"It's.. I'm.. Fine. I.. just, don't want to talk about it right now. <sigh> Wait a minute, we should be speaking on smeaker. Someone might be listening in." With that Fenris glaces around at the other people in the cafe. We need to focus on the mission, if we could get into the sewers, could you make a map of them? They could be a useful escape route.