Week 87, Immediately After The Trial: A Motherfucking Cool Dude

Several minutes had passed since Hugo had been acquitted, but not very much more. He had embraced Meiko and thanked her, and there was nothing left but to leave and officially talk to all the cameras that were still focused on him. He looked down at his suit. Cappalli quality or not, it was ripped and singed... But artfully so, revealing his abs*, and nothing that he wouldn't mind the public seeing. And what was with that galvanic cannon? His eyes scanned the crowd, looking for his friends.




*No, seriously, the GM told me this when I asked what state his suit was in.

Coraline reflected that it was lucky Hugo had been on trial since she had only brought the one set of clothes. She had wanted to alter her appearance but what the heck. The Oracle agent had gasped and booed and awwwed at the appropriate moments, despite being witness to most of the events in question. Still, she had never been to court before and was a little bit jealous of that dramatic drop Meiko had performed earlier. And really when would she get the chance again? Hugo was passing near the area immediately below as well. [Pass L&A by 2]

"Hugo!"

Coraline jumped down, intending to land on Hugo or better yet, in his arms but missed a little.

[Fail agi+atheletics by 7]

Hugo was nearish the defendant's side when he distinctly heard his name in a familiar voice (Pass Pobs by 11). He looked up, managed to see Coraline in time, and dashed to catch her (Pass reflexes+athletics by 8 ). She landed in his arms, the massive man softening her fall with a gentle and loving scoop of his arms. Hugo wasn't bright enough, or maybe not in the right frame of mind, to worry if Coraline was playing for the cameras, but he wouldn't have minded regardless. He smiled down at her, and then kissed her hard and briefly. "This was fun. We should do it all the time." A terrible joke. He laughed anyway.

Coraline beamed at Hugo and kissed him back. She tilted her head as she considered his joke. "Sure, just without the trial for murder, okay?" The plague doctor was all tease, squeezing Hugo before trying to get down and realising she wasn't quite tall enough for that to work. And the last time she had jumped, only a few seconds ago, well she had needed catching. "You can set me down now juicey." Despite her smeakered words, Coraline kissed Hugo one last time, "You did it, gained rank and you're not dead! You did great!"

Hugo dropped Coraline gently, looking a bit doofy from kissing and terrible teasing. "I dunno, I think the trial was fun. Not the threat of death, but.." He looked away from the tiny doctor's face and glanced around. "Were you sitting near everybody else? I wasn't able to find them." His eyes found her face again, and he smeakered, "Did you see that cannon? It was.. It sounded just like Una. Just like her range. The little pop at the start, so distinctive? Why use galvanic on me? Of all guns, why that one?" His voice belied an inner conflict that his amused expression didn't. (Pass lying and acting by 5.)

Coraline easily got her footing before turning an incredulous look on Hugo. "... I thought galvanic weapons didn't make any noise?" She must have chalked it up to being a nuke thing though because the petite cyberneticist shrugged and continued. "Well, if you're sure, then he probably had it because no one else knows about them. Its easy to hide something when the person looking doesn't know what they're looking for." Aloud, Coraline sounded both brighter and happier, "Well yeah, it was so dramatic! I haven't seen anyone since I got into the courtroom Juicey, sorry. An afterthought must have occurred to her because Coraline smeakered again as she slipped on hand companionably into Hugo's. "He wasn't shooting at you though Hugo, remember?"

"I guess, but I'm lightning rod and it.. it sounded just like Una.." But he seemed a little calmer by Coraline's words, and cast a glance at a large group of well dressed members of the media--or maybe just normal folks with cameras--filming him as they talked. He looked away from them and focused on his friend. He squeezed her hand back. "They'll turn up. If we stand here they'll find us, right? ..And we'll eventually stop being filmed?" The last was a little joke, spoken softly; if the cameras picked up on it, there was no sign.

"Congratulations, Agent Zumisimo." came Amets' level voice over smeaker. "It appears your good name remains unblemished." Her tone became slightly different with the last sentence, but it was difficult to tell exactly how via sub-vocal mumblings. ((Lying+Acting pass by 2)).

"Should I come down to join you? It may be good for Oracle to be seen to leave with you."

Hugo looked up from Coraline into the seating above, trying to spot Amets. He gave up after a moment. Answering would be easier. "Yeah, sure! Come down." He frowned,, looked back at his doctor companion, and added, "And call me Hugo."

Silvia had been watching the trial from a distant seat, not wanting to get too close to everything going on around Hugo. Or Hugo, right now. If he had been looking around during the trial, Hugo would have been able to see her, but her face had remained closed though she had kept her gaze on the proceedings.

At the attack, she had tensed and risen, but Hugo had intervened before she had a chance to do anything. She had remained half-standing just long enough to see that Hugo was okay and then had turned and slipped out of the door while everyone else's attention had been focused on what was going on.

Now, she was nowhere to be seen, and her seat was conspicuously empty.

Karishma watched from the stands, grinning happily.  She felt extatic that Hugo had managed to overturn such an unjust accusation, and that the aftermath of their previous expedition had been worth it.  Knowing that (admittedly regrettably) she urgently needed to get back to Eroz soon to coordinate and plan the next stage of her current research, she opened a smeaker channel.

"Hey Hugo, it's Karishma.  Very glad to see those charges didn't stick in the end; after that stunt they tried to pull on the judge, I think everyone knows their true colours now.  I'm sorry I can't stick around to celebrate," her voice was genuinely apologetic, "but I'm needed back at Eroz urgently; they're prepping for an expedition at my request, and I want to make absolutely sure that they perform ethically."  Somewhere high up in the stands, a long tentacle reared above the watching people's heads and waved to the agents below.  As she turned to leave, ignoring the startled and slightly fearful expressions of those around her (seriously, popping out a dendrite suddenly just to wave?!), she smeakered finally, "Good luck, Hugo."

Hugo caught the tentacle and waved back, though his eyes still scanned the crowds as he did. "Don't worry about it. Go and have fun with your science stuff. It's all just interviews from here on out, but you can get the feed. Nothing exciting... ..Hey, was Silvia sitting with you? She still around?" He returned his eyes back to Coraline, then glanced around once more, looking for Amets. Instead he was greeted by a fast moving small woman. She was average build, maybe a little short, with a dark bob. She looked professional, and would aggressively smeakering to someone. "Keota!" She responded with half a wave and motioned for him to follow; she was not interested in talking.

Fenris saw the group begin to get together on the main floor below, and tried to get their attention. "Hey! Hugo! HUGO!" But she was drowned out by the excited clamor of the crowd. Hmm... Fuck it. The free runner leaped over the balcony, landing gracefully a few paces behind the big Nuke. "Hugo! Nice work!" She gave her friend a quick hug, just relieved that he was going to be OK. "Not only did you clear you name, but you took down an entire Corp and became a WDN hit whilst doing it!"

Hugo turned a bit when hugged, and smiled when he realized it was Fenris. "Fenrir!" He gave her a huge hug, much to the annoyance of Keota, who was now aggressively motioning for the lot of them to follow. "Already big online, eh? Great!" He flashed a broad smile, and linked and arm in Coraline's while talking to his housemate. "Hey, you seen Silvia around?"

"...No." She was getting a little concerned, and started looking around to see if she could spot her friend. "I've not seen her since Freiburg... Hasn't she seen you yet?" If it was her boyfriend on trial, Fenris would make damn sure she was there for him.

Hugo shrugged non-committally, the flaps of his tattered suit shifting as he did so. He looked down at Fenris, and switched to smeaker. "Yeah, we uh.. talked before the trial, and I think I saw her in the seats when I was on the stand..." He wondered abstractly if Fenris would hit him, in front of all these people. Eh, it wouldn't matter. He frowned, looking down at her. "We uh, kind of broke up."

Coraline cuddled snugly into Hugo's arm, turning her face away from Fenris and smiling only very slightly. No matter how small she was in comparison to Hugo or tried to fade into the background, Coraline was very much present, very much on the huge nuke's arm and very clearly enjoying herself. Unlike certain other individuals.

What? Why? What happened? Now Fenris was moving from concern to worry, no wonder Silvia wanted to be alone, with this coming out of the blue like this. She couldn't help but notice that Coraline didn't seem as bothered by Silvia's absence as anyone else was, or at least as she was, and couldn't help but wonder if it had anything to do with her...

Hugo shrugged, smeakering quickly with a little.. insecurity. Hesitation. "I don't.. know. I thought I knew... I mean.. We were talking about the book and she didn't.. She acted like she didn't like it. And when I told her to tell me how she really felt... she didn't. I mean, way more than she normally doesn't. And I just..." He couldn't help but seem sadder as he spoke, his shoulders dropping a little. There was a pause, but he was obviously choosing his words. "She needs to be honest, cuz... Everything I do, well, almost everything I do, is gentle. Gentle gentle hold the glass, gentle open doors gentle touch other people. Leaving Oracle means I can get rid of some of the muscles, but still.. I can't even hold Junseo without... ...And when I fight, or when I fu--get, you know, involved, not even with hardcore sex, but I can't always control myself, and I need people who can handle me and.. stop me. I worried at first I might, like, break her but.." He realized he was rambling slightly, and swallowed, and looked over to Fenris before looking at Coraline. They moved toward the side doors. "...But when I told her I didn't want to be with her, she got really... I don't know, maybe she's right... Well, no! Not right about everything, but... She said she didn't know who I was anymore."

That didn't make sense If you just wanted her to be more decisive, then you just talk to her... Dumping her seems a bit.. Extreme. Who would break up over such a small thing? Unless there was more too it. She can take a hell of a lot Hugo, you should know that... So, what else was going on? There has to be more to it than that! She wasn't angry, she was just confused, and concerned, and trying to figure out just what was going on. Wait. She said she didn't know you anymore? Why? What did you do? Besides, you know. It just didn't make sense.

Hugo shrugged some more. "She said the Hugo she met wouldn't have been interested in all the EI stuff, and that if I really cared I wouldn't want to be famous. She said she didn't think I even wanted to help people.." He sighed audibly, and then looked back at Fenris. He seemed more confident as he continued talking. "She wasn't.. nice. I talked to her all the time and it was the first time I felt like she was saying something. But Fenrir, I just... I'm tired of holding back when I spend time with her. Maybe she's right, maybe I'm a bad person, but she doesn't want anything I want when we have sex and worse i'm afraid to hurt her or say something I can't take back, and she doesn't even want anything I want when we have free time, she doesn't even like cyberdogs, she doesn't like drugs, she doesn't like the music I like and the music I want to make, and she doesn't like heavy weapons, and..." He slowed down, a brief look of surprise on his face... "...I don't think it would matter if she was honest. Like, really honest. She just expects people to agree and not fight, and she doesn't say shit. And I don't want to wait around hoping she'll talk to me, and maybe I hurt her. I can't hurt her like that, I won't." He sounded a lot more confident, and even risked a grim smile at Fenrir as they left the main room. "Besides, she loves Oracle more than me, in a way even Una thinks is weird."

Amets decided against throwing herself off down into the courtyard next to Hugo, despite it seeming to be the default method of Oracle agents getting down. Instead, she departed with the rest of the crowd, slipping slightly away to stand at the edge of the courtroom entrance. The others didn't seemed to have left yet, and as Hugo spoke she pulled out her PDA and began making quick notes.

Fenris didn't get any less confused. But... She's always been like that, so.. there must be something else. I mean, you two hooked up, so you must have something in common, right? She easily kept pace with the larger agent as he cleared a path through the crowd. Why wasn't she "nice"? What happened? What does she think you did? Fenris felt like she didn't have even half of the picture. She shook her head to herself. And she wasn't going anywhere near Hugo's last comment.

Hugo gave Fenris a look out of the corner of his eye, an unimpressed look passing briefly over his face. "What did I do?! I wanted to leave Oracle! Write a book about it! She said I could basically do anything if it made me happy, even if she hated it. I guess I.. thought she wasn't so.. complacent. I thought the desire to fight would extend to fighting for us, I.. I don't know. She said I didn't care about anyone and changed into some.. Inflated media.. sex worker. Or something. It was Japanese." His brow furrowed, and he pursed his lips slightly. It was slightly less crowded in this hallway.

Fenris sighed, that didn't really make things clearer. I don't think any of us are... Comfortable, with your book. We've not exactly followed all the rules, and it's not like people won't figure out who is who, you know? And with how she reacted to her paintings getting famous, I don't think Silvia will like people knowing that kind of stuff... She paused, trying to get her head around the situation. But you said she wasn't fighting for you, but she was willing to let you put that book out, because you wanted it. Doesn't that count? Fighting for a relationship doesn't mean having an actual fight, it's about doing what you need to to make it work. I just don't get what the problem is!