Jason woke up. He felt like his head was resting on a comfortable, but very firm pillow somewhat like the arm of a couch. He opened his eyes to be confronted by 2 large orbs hover over his face. He couldn’t see past them but he had the feeling that he knew where he was. His instincts were to bolt upright, but his body didn’t respond, so there he lay. It was rather comfortable he thought and even though she was 300 years old, was always physically active, and lived in a society that wasn’t all that up on keeping clean or smelling good to the standards of Earth’s modern day, he found that Hanshi smelled nice. He’d have expected her to not have a scent or smell terrible. He assumed that was the case, but he hadn’t ever been in a position that put his nose in such close proximity to her and not been focused on other things to notice. He wondered what was his hurry was to move in the first place. This was quite a relaxing place to lay and it had been such a long time since he felt so relaxed. Maybe he had never. And despite his actions that might lead one to believe the contrary it was quite the nice sight to be allowed to stare at without being self conscious about what anyone might think of him.
It was long before the door to the preparation room opened and in rushed Rina and Mittana, followed soon afterwards by the Tik’rs. Jason rolled his head to the side to see what was going on. Seeing people come in he attempted to bolt up once more, but instead of pain forcing him to remain still, it was the hand of Hanshi holding him in place effortlessly. Rina ran to his side holding the cross ARMS ready to heal him. She suddenly spun it above her head saying, “Moon… ,” before bring it back down to her forehead and posed for a moment. She began to twirl around. “Healing… ,” her voice rose louder. Finally, she drew a circle around herself in the air with the cross and called out, “Activation!” The crystal on the cross lit up at that second and a green aura came over Jason. Neither party knew exactly how much he was injured, but Rina was sure he needed to be healed after the show she had just witnessed. Jason for his part felt his ribs moves beneath his skin and teeth began to grow in ihs mouth. It was an odd sensation that he thought would be more painful than it felt. He wondered if whatever was healing him was also anesthetizing him.
Mittana approached more calmly looking at Jason with sadness. She liked this Human and she didn’t want to see him hurt, but she also knew that he wouldn’t die from his injuries so she wasn’t all that worried. She also had mixed feelings about the other fighter. She was very interested in his fighting capabilities, but didn’t like how badly he’d beaten Jason. When Mittana followed Rina and the Tik’rs to the preparation room she wasn’t expecting to find Hanshi here. They’d left the audience area before the Arena medics did their job and so, they didn’t see Hanshi come out and haul Jason back to the room. Mittana was surprised that he was still hanging around this woman, thinking that he’d have gotten away from her by now. As she approached she nodded her head at Hanshi. “Kesruc,” she said scornfully. She knew about the history of the Kesruc and didn’t at all like them. They had killed their creators who looked like Humans whom looked like the highest god of the J`nk. Many of the J`nk felt that what the Kesruc had done was equivalent to desecration of a divine being. The J`nk understood that the Kesruc didn’t know anything about their gods, but it didn’t make that feeling go away. What’s more is that Mittana felt that the Kesruc were disgraceful for killing their creators. She loved creating machines and tinkering with technology so she placed herself in the mind of those the Kesruc had killed. How would she have felt if one of her inventions started attacking her? Even if the machine was right to do so, as it may well if she were honest, she would still feel betrayed that they had done so as their creator. So to say that she had a problem with the Kesruc was an understatement.
Meanwhile, Jason was unable to speak as his teeth were regenerating themself along with readjusting the bones in his nose to fix them. His mouth wasn’t sealed, but every time he attempted to speak the sensations that he felt felt to odd to continue. Hanshi ran her hand through his hair attempting to comfort him understanding what he was likely feeling and to toy with his feelings all the more. She watched the match through the support station and listened in on the conversation that the two brother had. The sense of betrayal of kin is something that she knew well. What she was not expecting was the audience. She did know anyone else was watching, but even if she had known she would not have expected them to come to the preparation room.
“What brings you here? Looking for a boyfriend? I’m afraid he’s spoken for,” Hanshi grinned wickedly at Mittana. Despite never approaching her Hanshi had followed up on rumors about a Sil`phane DRA engineer that she was curious about after she had run into an adventurer who had their ARMS worked on by her and it proved to be of superior quality than what she would normally expect. She had never approached Mittana nor many engineers directly, but Hanshi kept an eye on her and even helped her from time to time from the shadows. She wanted Mittana to excel at being an engineer just in case there came a time when she would be useful. There was a chance Mittana could die before Hanshi could organize a group to achieve her goal, but if that did happen it just meant that she’d have to find another engineering savant to nurture.
“No! I… I’m just worried about Jason. That was brutal out there. W... Why are you here, Kesruc?” she blushed under her fur and excitedly yelled at Hanshi. “It was bad enough that she was a Kesruc. Did she also have to tease me like that,” Mittana thought to herself.
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“Can’t you tell. Do you know of any other reason for why a woman would let a man lay his head in her lap?” Hanshi teased.
“Ye be nasty wench, Xev, flusterin’ Kitty like tha’,” Awlrek laughed at the exchange.
“Just playing with… Kitty was it? I thought I heard that your name was Mittana.” Hanshi said askingly.
“D...don’t you start calling me Kitty too!” Mittana cried out.
“But you’re a kitty, Kitty…,” Rina said with a frown.
“B...but I’m not a pet…,” Mittana said exasperated.
“What’s a Kitty?’ Xev asked.
“This is a kitty!” Rina pulled out a piece of paper and showed Xev.
“Oh! You’re saying on Earth you have an animal that looks somewhat like the Sil`phane,” Xev said, thinking that this information was interesting. “Mittana, do you know anything about this? Rucai didn’t have an animal like this in our history. The Debris Information Network must have recorded something about it.”
“I…I don’t know. I didn’t look into any of that. There are pets being processed though,” Mittana thought for a moment, “Wait! How do you know about the DIN?”
“That’s none of your business.” Xev told her, before she began to laugh, “So we’ll get to see these animals running around on Debris. I bet that will feel awkward.”
Mittana’s ears laid against her head and she looked as though she didn’t like the idea that Xev mentioned. She wanted it to not be true, but she knew that it was likely to be the case given that Humans kept pets and most animals that a civilization had on their planet was brought onboard Debris. The animals that they farmed or otherwise closely interacted with definitely were added to the flora and fauna of Debris’ surface.
“That aside, Jason and I are going to need support soon. We’ll need an engineer and someone to run the support station. You wouldn’t happen to know anyone who would be willing to join our little team, would you?” Xev asked Mittana.
Mittana was taken aback. She wasn’t expecting to be asked something like this, but she went right into DRA agent mode. She tried to recall if there was any candidates that would be willing to work with a Kesruc and Human. Anyone with that low of standard was already working with someone. She strained her brain, but no one was coming to mind, but then she got an idea, “I…I…I don’t like the idea of working with a Kesruc, but if I work with you I can make make sure you don’t do anything to Jason. We wouldn’t want another death on Kesruc hands.”
“Good, that’s an engineer. Anyone for support?” Xev asked smiling having gotten the answer that she wanted.
Jason heard Mittana’s comment about another death and wondered what she could have meant by that. He didn’t know the history of the Kesruc too well, but he didn’t think that any J`nk had any room to talk considering they seemed to be flying around the galaxy kidnapping and enslaving aliens and destroying civilizations. He then heard ‘Xev’, another thing he had questions about, since she had told him to call her Hanshi, had said that Mittana was an Engineer. There was no way that she would have known that about Mittana, so how did she. Same with the DIN. This innocent conversation seems to be bringing up many new questions that Jason thought he should get the answer to. The regenerative healing of the ARMS skill had long since ended its treatment of him, but he still felt sore and while he probably would have interjected to get his questions answered he noted that this was a hostile conversation between 2 parts women and 1 part cat. If there were things that you simply avoided as much as possible he had learned it was hostile cats and women. So, he just laid there listening and letting the view of Xev’s and Mittana’s busts that were now both over him, as Mittana had gotten in Xev’s face, entertain and soothe him while they bantered back and forth. He would have plenty of opportunities later to get his questions asked.
“I don’t know. I can do it until we find one I guess, Kesruc,” Mittana responded.
“For now, it’s not a problem. Jason needs to learn how to not get beaten every time he fights. Being a masochist in bed is fun. Being one in battle is a problem,” she smiled as she knew she was teasing both Mittana, who blushed, and Jason, who tried to once more sit up and protest instinctively, but like before Xev held him down while simultaneously gripping his hair just enough to cause Jason to cease his attempts. The hair pull was so subtle that no one but Jason knew what had happened.
“Stop acting like you know what he likes!” Mittana shouted at Xev once more.
“Xev, ye ken the way to rile ‘er up,” Awlrek laughed at the upset Sil`phane.
Mittana crossed her arms and huffed, “I don’t believe a thing you say about Jason, Kesruc!”
“And how do you intend to find out if I’m lying? Planning to take him to bed and whip him are we?” Xev’s eyes sparkled and her grin looked all the more sinisterly sweet as she teased Mittana, but she also knew just how much she was teasing Jason which gave her a sense enjoyment. Every tease caused Mittana to become animatedly excited which made her breasts bounce. With every bounce Jason’s imagination lit on fire and Xev could see that the fantasies his mind was generating were appealing because out of the corner of her eye she could see heat accumulate in his crotch and twinge there abouts with each wobble inducing bounce.