Week 29: Darya meets Cobra.

The reason for the normally perceptive Darya colliding with the new woman was simple. She had a lot on her mind, and she was carrying as much of her stuff to store in her office as she physically could, which, given her strength, meant she couldn't see where she was going before she felt like she ran into a brick wall. A brick wall that fell over with her, leaving a scattering of boxes of mechtronic tools, textbooks on morality and dresses over the corridor floor.

"Ah, ah," said Darya, desperately catching some of the frailer equipment before it hit the ground. "Sorry, sorry! Wasn't looking where I was going..." she said, grabbing the stuff from the floor.

Cobra jumped back, startled by the woman suddenly walking into her. For a split-second she reached for her knife, then she remembered that this unfamiliar building was her base of operations now, and only allies would be able to enter.

Looking at the woman properly, Cobra recognised her from the Oracle personnel files she'd been able to read and snapped to attention. "Capt'in Demeter?" Her speech revealed an incredibly strong Australian accent - between that and a lack of practice, her Mandarin pronunciation was quite unclear in places. "Sor'y, Capt'in. I was distrac'd by thoughts about my n'w circumstances." She then crouched down to help Darya pick up her dropped items. "I'm Cobra, a new age't here. Nice to m'et you, Capt'in."

Darya pulled the last few tools across the floor make together into their boxes and stood up carefully. "Pleased to meet you, Cobra. Just Darya is fine. I can't imagine myself as a captain." she said,bowing slightly to the other agent.

"Sorry, do you mind just grabbing that?" she asked, nodding to a box that remained on the floor, before pointing with a finger under her boxes down the hall. "My office is just down there, I'll just put these away and then we can talk properly." she said, opening the room and placing the boxes on the table around a giant stuffed fish and an EMP rifle in a display case.

"Right then." she said, turning around to the new agent. "I'm guessing you've meet the CEO and know the layout of the place?" she asked, smiling to the new agent. "Or would you like a quick tour?"

"I've a'ready mem'rised the layout, but tha'ks for the offer," Cobra responded with a smile as she set down the box. She glanced around curiously at Darya's office and at the boxes she was bringing in. "So wha' do you do, Darya?" she asked, falling back on the obvious line of conversation for a new agent in a team.

"I'm...a combat specialist, I guess." said Darya, shrugging. "The team has been...reconfigured...recently, so I'm not sure how everyone is going to be fitting in again, but I'll probably still be one of the ones who shoots at things. How about you?" she asked, looking Cobra up and down. "Where are you from, if you don't mind me asking?"

Cobra opened her mouth to answer Darya's question about her profession, but closed it again when the senior agent asked where she was from. For a moment she froze in hesitation, remembering how her old colleagues had almost universally reacted when they first met her. No, she assured herself. You came here to get away from that, to go to a more open part of the world. Besides, Agent Wei and Agent Li seemed completely accepting...

"I'm from the Aus'ralas'an Freestate... I don't hav' any danger'us mutations or a'ything to worry abo't. I train'd as an age't with the Western Federation aft'r they took me out of the Freestate."

"I'm an engineer, spec'lising in wo'king on combat vehicles," she added quickly.

"Oh, the free state? I've been there a few times myself in my old job. I liked it, much less stressful that what I normally had to do." Darya said, carefully stacking some of her tools up while the other agent talked.

"Also, talk to Ace. He's our helicopter pilot, from the Western Fed as well. I think...I think he could use a new friend." she looked slightly sad as she said that, but she soon snapped a welcoming smile back on and stretched out a bit. "Come on, my cybernetics are telling me to eat something. There's a good noodle place up the road if you want to have some lunch. I'll pay."

Cobra felt greatly relieved by Darya's acceptance and the further sign that Oracle didn't care about her nationality, but at the same time a slight chill ran down the back of her neck. This woman had seen the Freestate as relaxing compared to her normal work. Sure, it sounded like she'd only been there briefly, and Cobra was no stranger to working with the type of soldier who was fundamentally dangerous at heart, but together with Darya's faint aura of melancholy it left Cobra wondering just what kind of combat it was that Darya specialised in.

Cobra smiled. "Thanks for the of'er, Darya, I'd lov' to. I've not had a pr'per meal for a whil', and I've neve' tried nood'es bef're... And I don't have any money until payd'y."

((OOC: Are we moving the thread to Keng's?))