Week 55, Late: Ramen and Hello

Hugo didn't like authority. He wasn't a formal person. It was one if the many reasons he didn't fit into the Fed military, even if he did love his guns like people. He always felt a bit bad about it, but it did mean he enjoyed a relaxed atmosphere more. It didn't get much less formal than than Park's Place.

The little ramen place sold one thing (spicy pork ramen) in three sizes (small, large, and agent). It was no more than a little room that smelled overwhelmingly like synth pork fat and sizzling vegetables, but there were a few tables and even a holoscreen playing thus week's newest episode of Shanghai Summer, a teen agent soap opera that was in its 14th season.

Hugo waited at a table looking out over the street while he lovingly buffed Una with a fine cloth. The massive galvanic cannon seemed to help him keep his bench free, but it was a slow afternoon anyway. He wondered, idly, how teen age agents could still be in high school after 14 years.

As Karishma entered the small establishment she paused for a moment to look about her. She had never visited Park's Place before, and at first glance it gave her the impression that it was doing quite well, even if it did seem a little empty there and then. Once again she glanced about herself, this time attempting to ascertain which of the current patrons was her fellow Agent, Hugo. Straight away she thought that she had spotted him sitting next to a window; the fact that he was the only person sitting alone made him stand out, and she smiled slightly to herself at the sight of the heavy weapon next to him. "Good way to keep a seat," she thought to herself with a small chuckle, and walked over towards him.

As she neared the table, she said politely, "Hello, is your name Hugo? I'm Karishma, you wanted to meet me here for lunch." She smiled warmly, doing her best not to be as timid and nervous as she had at previous encounters.

Hugo was already smiling as Karishma approached, nodding as she spoke. He seemed very comfortable, but as a looming giant of a man, he probably felt comfortable in most places. "Yeah, I'm Hugo. And you're Karishma, right?" His voice was slightly stilted, but not as much as if he was using an internal translator. Probably a process chip.

The nuke stood as he gestured to the seat, still grinning a little. He really was huge, and all his clothes seemed a size or two too tight. The thin fabric of his jacket showed off the musculature of his torso, though it didn't seem intentional. It would probably be hard to find clothes in his size, and he did look good. (Pass LG by 8, bitches.)

"Lemme get you and me a large so you can meet Una. food helps with these kinds of things, right? Er... If you want more you can get more. Back in a moment." And with that, Hugo walked off, standing in the short and briskly moving line. His gun was left on the table. It's shell was purple, green, blue and orange, a peacock swirl of anodized iridescence. It was very obviously a galvanic cannon, but not one of any commercial make or model. What parts of her working that were visible looked.. weird. By the time Karishma had time to sit down and look over the massive weapon, Hugo was already coming back with two small buckets of salty spicy smelling soup.

((Multiple humble apologies and prostrations!))

The extremely unusual heavy weapon before her piqued Karishma's curiosity; she had never seen a galvanic cannon anything like this before. "Sure, thank you!" she said as Hugo rose from his seat, then returned her attention to the cannon.

It took an effort for her to tear her eyes off it to greet Hugo when he returned with the food, despite the extremely enticing smell rising from the buckets (the only way to describe such enormous bowls). "Thanks, this smells amazing!" she said when Hugo passed her portion to her, "I've never eaten ramen before." She picked up her ((OOC: spoon? I've honestly never encountered ramen, so I don't know what it's eaten with)) and tried eating some, finding that it was delicious; very much to her liking. She looked up from her soup at the huge Agent sitting across from her.

"Thanks for inviting me here; it's a lot nicer meeting someone in such informal surroundings!" she said sincerely. "I tend to get a bit nervous when I meet someone for the first time, you see." She smiled apologetically and took another mouthful of the ramen.

Hugo nudged over Una, leaving her on the table. He used his chopsticks to pick out a clump of noodles, which he slurped as he nodded. He managed to swallow after a second. "Oh yeah, don't worry about it. These things are weird. I'm used to training drills with the new guys, yanno? And El Chulo, in that office with the wood, and that cyberframe? Oh boy." He was talking about Ace, certainly, but that wasn't the name he used. He grabbed a chunk of synthmeat and put it in his face, grinning. "I have been trying to try all kinds of new stuff. They don't have most of this stuff in the free states. Ramen, you eat all the bits with the chopsticks and then drink all the broth. Pretty easy once you get the chopsticks down."

He gave Karishma another look over. She was kinda pretty, and a little drab in that overworked Comorosy way. Still, she had something that was amazingly appealing in anyone, and that was an admiration of Una. He couldn't help but notice her glancing over when he got the soup. He grinned, gently patting the massive weapon with a large hand. "She's beautiful, isn't she? I saw you looking at her."

"Oh, right!" Karishma exclaimed at Hugo's explanation of the food; her movements became more purposeful once she was sure of what she was doing. She looked across once again at the almost-certainly unique weapon, and with a slightly mischievous grin replied, "Yes, she is exceptionally good looking! Did you say that you call her Una? I've never seen anything close to her like before; is she unique? Her inner workings look very strange from what I can see compared to other galvanic weapons." Her grin widened slightly. "Although, if I were you, I wouldn't let me take a closer look; technology I take an interest in tends to end up dismantled." She chuckled to herself a little, then added "Don't worry, I was just kidding." With that she then tucked into her ramen once again.

Hugo gave Karishma a blank look before blinking and giving a polite smile. "Ah, yes, I should have said. I'm a nuke, see? A Fed nuke." He waited a moment to see if this would sink in, then sighed and continued. "Most of us don't even like it when people touch their heavies, see, let alone threaten to take them apart. Them's fighting words." The moment of seriousness passed, and the massive agent pat his gun reassuringly. "Now with me, you're lucky. I'm not like most of those other guys, and neither is Una. Not only is Una one of a kind, but she's kinky. She'd like being stripped down somewhere more public by a pretty girl who knew what she was doing, but for my sake, if you're going to undress her, at least wait until you get somewhere more private."

Despite his worrying personification, he was smiling at Karishma, and nodded in between mouthfuls. "She is unique, though. An AMS prototype, but they cancelled her development before she even had any siblings or an official name. She was 'too powerful' for 'average use'." He scoffed, obviously annoyed at this decree.

Karishma seriously considered pointing out to this 'nuke' that she was a 'reverse engineer'. An ex-Comoros reverse engineer. And that she was simply making a joke based off of this fact. However, for the sake of good relations, she decided it would be best to just let the moment pass.
"Right. I'm sorry, I didn't mean any offense; it was just a joke." she responded politely. Her movements became a bit more robotic in nature, and she stopped paying as much attention to the flavour of her food. She was a little disturbed by the way Hugo was referring to his gun as though it were a person, and was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable with the situation as a whole, despite his renewed friendliness. "A discontinued prototype, huh? It must be pretty dangerous for AMS to cancel it's development." Karishma deliberately avoided personification of the cannon, shooting it a partially nervous, partially intrigued glance as she continued to eat her ramen. "Though I suppose that power just adds to its attraction."

Hugo shrugged, obviously not offended. "It's really cool, sweetie, but nuke's aren't know for their sense of humor, normally. It's just a warning from someone who spends a lot of time with them." He took a few more slurps, considering her words. "AMS went with the more streamlined Jupiter range, which doesn't need to significantly discharge into, ah, nearby objects while fired. Less damage over all, but no.. Soul. I think it just makes her even better in close combat." He shrugged, grinning a little.

"But, you know, AMS wants more fashionable guns, so I took her and left. Ex-weapons tester, looking for work, doing the amateur welt ball and gladiator circuit, and then Oracle found me. You know the drill." He seemed unbothered by the momentary kerfuffle, and didn't notice her hesitancy about Una's person hood.

Feeling somewhat relieved by Hugo's response, Karishma began to relax once more. This did not last very long however, because she was immediately on edge again as soon as it was mentioned that the weapon would "significantly discharge into ... nearby objects". Even though she knew that this would only happen when the weapon was fired, the knowledge that she was sat right next to this atrocity-waiting-to-happen, with no galvanic grounding whatsoever, was rather disconcerting.

"Thanks for the warning, Hugo. I'll make sure not to get too excited around nukes' weapons in future." She tried to smile warmly, but it ended up rather weak and tinged with nervousness. "I'm ex-Comoros myself, a former Reverse Engineer. I think I might have mentioned that in my message to everyone, though, so sorry for repeating myself." This time her smile was much warmer as she began to get over the possible-horrific-death-by-electrocution device (a.k.a. Una). "It got to the point where I just couldn't justify away Comoros's methods anymore, so I left. Shortly after that, I was recruited by Oracle, so here I am." She shrugged, then returned her attention to her slightly neglected ramen.

Hugo nodded, patting his gun and he went back to his soup. Karishma was nice, and that seemed a little rare at Oracle. Even if she wasn't used to nukes. He couldn't blame her. "I never got Comoros. The kind of wanting to save the world but kind of also wanting to take it down thing. Fund schools and the Underground, you know?" He shrugged, pulling a boiled eggulike from the broth and eating it. "Of course, I never really got the Feds either. Oh sure, protect people and be loyal to the corp that protests you, sure, but the whole trust us to know better thing, I never really understood."

He smiled a little self-depreciating smile. "They say Free Staters make the best Feds, but.. I guess not." He shook his head, using his chopsticks to find the last remaining s'pork cutlet. "And I don't mind you looking at Una, either, at some point. She has these weird capacitors and I'll feel better knowing someone else knows how she works and how to take care of her... But you'll wanna be grounded, first." He smiled, the paler scars on his hands a tribute to galvanic weapons users everywhere.

Karishma listened and nodded in agreement at Hugo's comments on Comoros, then leaned forward slightly and cocked her head a small amount to one side as he continued on to the WF. "I see." she said thoughtfully. "Truth be told, I don't know all that much about what it's like in the Western Federation; I've spent most of my time as an Agent in Eurasia and Africa, so it hasn't really been that often that I've come across the W.F." She paused for a moment in thought. "I've never been to a free state, either. That's kind of pathetic, thinking about it..." She frowned slightly and returned to her ramen for a moment.

As Hugo talked about Una, Karishma smiled warmly. Considering what he'd said earlier, she realised that it must be quite a show of trust for a nuke to suggest that someone else could take a look at the innards of their weapon. "You can say that again; I'm not sure I really suit the battle-scarred look!" She chuckled a little to herself. "Thanks for offering to let me take a look at her at some point; if you want me to, I'm pretty certain I can work out how she operates, maybe even create a copy of her if you like. Although that would entail dismantling her as part of the process, and I think I understand how attached you are to that weapon..." She looked across at him, hoping to gauge his reaction to the suggestion of taking his beloved gun apart into little pieces. "Obviously I'd reassemble her afterwards, but I just wanted you to know."

"Hey, I had never even been to the EI, let alone Ai-Jinn territory. I don't even speak Mandarin, not really." He clicked something in the back of his head, waving a process chip. He clicked it back in place, and gave a little shudder as he felt the cold but familiar knowledge slide back into place. "But you travel everywhere with Oracle. It's pretty fun. Una and I have been taking into the world, and it's been really good." He gave a small slurp of the broth of his ramen, and grinned. He had no apparent issue about Una being disassembled, smiling a little broader as he appeared to consider it.

"And as for Una, that might not be a bad idea. I mean, if I ever wanted to wield two, I'd want another canon just like her. But.. she's the only one of her kind, I'd never want her schematics sold." He looked thoughtful, tilting his head and looking at the ceiling before refocusing his dark, bright eyes on Karishma. "And she's okay with being taken apart, as long as you put her back together. I've been trying to improve her pieces over time. She's much, MUCH more reliable than she was, but there is only so much I can do at once. You upgrade the capacitors, and then melt the firing mechanism. You replace that, you need to upgrade the chassis. You know how it is." He shook his head, sighing.