Week 87: Silence and an old friend.

Silvia, walking at high speed towards the airport, noticed the motorcycle pull up alongside her, slowing down to her pace, but she dismissed it. She had bigger things to think about. As such, she was momentarily taken aback when, with an array of curse words, the short rider removed her helmet revealing a chinese woman, face covered by a surgical mask.

"Stupid smeakers...hey Sil! Need a lift?" asked Tansai, leaning over the handlebars.

"Oh, uh...Tansai." Silvia stopped walking and turned to face her former colleague. "I...uh...wasn't expecting to see you here. I mean, you've been...away." She hesitated, awkwardly trying to decide what to say.

"I...thanks for the offer. But I...I'm just going to the airport. I'll be fine." Even for Silvia, she didn't seem very...lively. There was a certain air of...depression about her.

Tansai stopped as well, still leaning over the handle bars to talk to her friend. "Yeah, well, I got a bit curious about what was going on, so I'd thought I'd come along, you know?" She nodded her head towards the direction of the courtroom before continuing. "And then I noticed you heading away and thought I'd say hi. Off on a mission or something?"

Silvia nodded. "Yes. Well, following up on a lead, anyway." There was more confidence in her voice as she talked about things that made sense to her. "There's somewhere in the wilderness that needs investigating, so I thought I'd get out there and have a look."

"I would have thought you'd be back there." said Tansai, jerking her hand over her shoulder back towards the courtroom. "With Hugo." She paused, free hand drumming on the handlebars of her bike. Silvia's depressed mode and unconfident way of talking (even by her standards), leaving so quickly after her boyfriend's trial...

"Ok. What happened between you two then?" she asked.

Silvia looked away in a motion that wasn't quite a flinch, but was definitely involuntary. "Oh, uh, we...we broke up," she said, taking a moment to get the words out. "Just...just beforehand. So I...thought it was probably best if I didn't...hang around." She stared at the floor, unable to meet Tansai's eyes. "It...it was probably for the best."

Tansai sighed. "Right." She swung her motorcycle into a parking space, the chip lock clicking into place as she swung her leg over the side and hopped off. "How important is this thing you're heading off to, Silvia?"

Before the other agent could respond, she held up her hand, the other one reaching around and pulling down her face mask. "Look. I know you Silvia. When things go wrong, you go into the wilderness, where there is no one else to talk to, and while you're there you let any problems you have stay inside you, not solving them. I'm not going to force you to stay, but I think it could be a good idea for you to talk this out before you leave." Her tone was level and her expression was soft.

"It...it is important," Silvia replied, a little defensively. "I mean, it's a really promising lead. But...well..." She hesitated, and glanced back up towards Tansai. "It...it doesn't need investigating immediately. But I...don't really want to talk about it. I'll be okay, I just...need some time. It's not like this is my first breakup."

Tansai sighed and straighten her jacket's cuffs. "Come on. We'll head over to a restaurant and we can have a catch up while we eat. If I let you disappear like this I'll never be able to find you again." She smiled, an odd sight with her mask still off. "Not when you get into that jungle, anyway."

"That...was sort of the idea," Silvia said, a little embarrassed by the admission. "But...I don't really want to talk about...about Hugo much. If that's okay. Other stuff is fine. Might be good to talk." She shrugged, looking away uncomfortably. "But for now...just other stuff. And food - food does sound like a good idea."

"Right. Come on then," said Tansai, snapping her mask back into place "we're two millionaires in the middle of a huge EI city. How decadent do you want to be?" She linked her arm with Silvia and began steering the taller agent away from the airport towards the city centre. "I'm in the mood for some seafood. Real seafood, you know?"

After an initial moment of resistance, Silvia let Tansai steer her away. "That sounds...pretty decadent. And...well, decadence might be nice right now. I mean, besides anything else, we should be celebrating, right?" The words sounded a little hollow, but she was evidently trying her best to not to act depressed. "And it's been a long time since I had seafood."

A couple of phone calls and obscene money transfers later, the two agents were standing in a beautiful fish themed restaurant in front of it's special "Living menu", a fish tank filled with various specimens of fish and other sea creatures with information boxes about each delicacy following the fish around the tank. Prices were given both for the actual fish and for a multimeat product that tasted very much like it. Tansai was currently leaning over and admiring some lobsters that had made a home in the bottom right corner of the tank. "Hey Sil, ever had sea anemone before?" she said, pointing at a particularly large one at the back. "It says that they were a delicacy before the Corporate Wars"

"Not that I can remember," Silvia said, shaking her head. "We never really went for much by way of unusual delicacies. Though I remember one time when Dad got a big bonus and we all went out for an expensive family meal - his treat." A small smile hovered over her features for a moment at the memory. "I had...some form of synth-crab." Her gaze drifted to one of the crabs in the tank, which was scuttling along the bottom and then flicked guiltily back to Tansai. "Sorry, I...I guess I'm in a...in that kind of mood. Didn't mean to talk so much."

Tansai grinned and nudged the younger agent with her elbow. "Don't apologise, it's nice to hear you speaking more." she said, as she ordered the anemone. "I might as well try this. It kind of reminds of that squid monster we faced once in a dream. Still not sure if that was real or not..." she tailed off, and patted Silvia's arm. "Come on, choose your...poisson. It'll be easier to talk when we're sitting down."

"I think I'll try the crab again," Silvia said. "It'll be...interesting to see the difference. I don't think I've ever had real seafood. And...I don't know. All that stuff that happens in dreamhacking...it seems odd to think there's anything real about it. You hear such weird stories."

Tansai nodded. "I keep meaning to look into telepathics more. You get some weird ass stuff going on with that, and I need something to keep me busy." She swiped the screen and placed Silvia's order. "Right, come on. I've got us a table near the back." she said, leading the other agent to a small table at the back of the room, hidden from most people's view.

Silvia followed Tansai without protest, sitting at the table with a quick glance around at the other people. "I...guess I can see you with telepathics," she said, carefully. She didn't say that this was because SY telepaths tended to be rather eccentric, but it was a sentiment that was easy enough to pick up on.

Tansai smiled beneath the mask. "I know right? Jumping off of buildings, healing myself with biokinesis, accidentally stabbing myself with a psi-blade...okay, maybe not that last one." She reached forward and pressed a button on the table, and after a very slight whirring sound that most people wouldn't notice, a compartment in the wall next to their table opened, revealing a large bottle of slightly odd looking wine.

"It's made of modified sea plants, apparently." Tansai said, taking the bottle and pouring herself a glass. It was slightly green. "Made by some bankrupt Corp called...Aldiel? The logo's rubbed off a bit." She pulled out a straw and stuck it in, the other end disappearing under her mask. "It's not too bad either."

Silvia took the bottle and looked at it for a moment, apparently somewhat intrigued. Then she shrugged and poured herself a glass, eyeing the liquid carefully. "Looks expensive," she said, slightly mournfully. "But I guess we are in the EI."