World Tree MUSH

  There aren't many bright points in Night City, but Watson District boasts the best tea shop in Night City, according to Tinyheart of The Animals. Having been there once, Agent Anneka Stojespal can corroborate this. (It's also the only tea shop she knows in Night City, so it's technically true.)

  She's invited Hyouka Kiyama for tea. Or for something stronger, if Hyouka prefers. Beyond that, the agent hasn't specified very much. It isn't hard to find her. The scarred woman sits at a corner booth of the tea shop with her scarred side to the wall. From the left she's fairly normal in a long-brimmed grey fedora, bomber jacket, jeans, and combat boots. Generic enough to escape notice in this cesspit of a city; to blend in without drawing too much attention.

    In contrast to the rather unimpressive sweats and tanktop she's been wearing to missions (because they're easy to replace if they get shot up), Hyouka Kiyama has come to this particular social meeting in a more properly fashionable ensemble. It still fits in; a pair of black track pants and zip-up hoodie, each with glowing blue stripes along the sides, but the material and cut are much more fashionable, and her shoes are rather nice as well. Practical, but nice. Between that and the elf ears, she manages to be pretty easy to spot herself, but at the same time, looks like she could live in the city

    It only takes the cyborg a moment to spot Anneka, and then she smoothly makes her way across the tea shop to slide into a seat. "Good evening~. Thank you for inviting me out. It's nice traveling to another world just to visit, sometimes."

  "I like to see new places. It beats looking at the same ones day in and day out," Anneka offers, tossing her hand in a wave just as casual as her tone. "This city may be a cesspit, but for now it is an interesting cesspit. Also it is not so hard for me to blend in, here." That part, at least, sounds mildly surreal to her by her tone. "Have a seat. Whatever you want, it is on me."

  She tosses her chin, gesturing toward the cyborg. "So. There is a chance I may have some work on the side. If that were the case, well, I might be interested in gauging your interest." Her lone eye sweeps the room, briefly, before settling on Hyouka. This place is anonymous enough that their conversation will be more or less confidential. That realisation seems to put Anneka at ease. "Though... it can wait," the agent offers with a crooked half-smile, "if you do not feel like discussing business just yet."

    "I know exactly what you mean," Hyouka replies, in the tone of someone who has known true drudgery. She takes up her menu and looks it over, thoughtful, before deciding to order some manner of blended coffee drink or other. Something with a fair bit of whipped cream. "Ooh, this does look good... hm? Ah, that's quite fine. I don't mind talking shop, given that my 'talking shop' usually involves fantastical adventure. It's the paperwork I don't like to think about until I have to."

    The faux elf sits back a little more comfortably in her seat, an interested twinkle in her eye. "So, what have you got for me?"

  "Have it on good authority this tea shop is good." So, everything on the menu is probably going to be quality. Anneka looks over her own menu, blue eye hooded as she scans the offerings, lingering every so often on anything that looks interesting. At length she places an order for a hot cup of mild black breakfast-type tea. The agent leans back, folding her arms and studying Hyouka with that hooded eye. Her regard is almost sleepy -- but the study of that blue eye is anything but.

  At length she grins, not caring how foreign the expression looks on her scarred face. "Sounds like you lead an interesting life. I'd expect no less. No one likes paperwork: Absolutely that is a universal constant." Sitting up, she laces scarred and unscarred fingers, fixing that lone eye on Hyouka, hawk-sharp. Her voice is lower when she continues.

  "There is a matter from my past I would like settled. It may involve some..." Her eye slides off to the right, slow, "...danger. Significant danger. And it will involve work I am not suited to. I think maybe you would be suited to it just fine, though. Might need a bodyguard for a short while. A strong arm -- or, uh, fist -- for an operation or three. Depends on how elusive my quarry is." She looks to Hyouka again, blue eye hooded. "Interested?"

    Hyouka can't help a soft, cynical chuckle. "Oh, I don't know. The management at my old job certainly seemed to adore their paperwork. Or making the rest of us do it, at least." She folds her hands in her lap, however, and listens as the grizzled pilot speaks. She seems to be considering it, but interestingly enough, her expression has grown rather neutral. She'd previously been so open and free with her emotions, but now there's a solid poker face there, a professional composure while she probes for a bit more info.

    "Well, recent work has led me to... re-evaluate the criteria I choose my work by. I want to make sure it aligns with my principles before I can move forward with it." Even her language has taken a sudden swing to careful, professional diction. "I don't mind bodyguard work in and of itself, but... I won't assist in doing anything untoward, let's say."

  "Covering their own asses, probably. Somehow." Anneka tosses the menu aside once she's done with it. The sight of Hyouka playing things so close to the vest earns a thin little smile from the pilot. She's well accustomed to that. Her boss is one of the hardest people she knows to read. Somehow she doesn't seem surprised by that potentially calculating angle, though.

  She shrugs one shoulder. "You would not have to. This place is neutral ground, and you are an outsider, so it is not so much a risk for me to discuss it openly." Resting her chin atop her laced fingers, she regards Hyouka with almost feline disinterest. "Let me tell you my story. Then maybe you can judge for yourself, I think, whether it is for you or for someone else." That red brow arches. "Does that sound good?"

    It's about this moment that Hyouka's drink arrives; she takes it without looking, keeping her attention directed towards Anneka. At the very least, she relaxes that guarded demeanor a little, although she's still keeping it carefully neutral. "I'd be fine with that, certainly." She settles back again to listen, and a hint of curiosity finds its way onto her face... at least, until she tries a long drink of her frappucino-equivalent, at which point there's a moment of sheer bliss. "Mm-! They might not have gotten the meat quite right, but they're pretty good at drinks like this at least."

  The pilot nods, briskly. Long, red hair bobs at the motion, and she glances aside as the orders arrive; they're respectably fast, here, as her black tea is with it. Anneka takes a moment to administer both cream and sweetener before stirring. Setting the spoon aside, she takes the cup into her hands, careful with such delicate balanced in her fingers.

  "I have only been a SHIELD agent for four or five years. I was a test pilot, before that. My name was Raisa Ivanovna Yakovleva. And my life was destroyed by HYDRA. They are a terrorist group that has been a problem for SHIELD since its inception." Her eye narrows. "They, or someone allied with them, wanted to recruit me for a project. They said I would be well taken care of, for the rest of my days."

  "I said no, in no uncertain terms. I did not know a life could be destroyed so quickly, but..." Her crooked smile is bleak. "I crashed a fighter." A hand flicks at her face. "That caused this. And they engineered my fall. Then, while I was fighting for my life in a hospital bed for the next four years, they killed my fiancee, my father, and my mother in rapid succession."

  Anneka pauses to sip at her tea, and the slight trembling of her hands is unmistakably anger. She continues, tone leaden. "I have made it my life's mission to destroy HYDRA. That I will probably not accomplish in my lifetime... but the subsidiary that destroyed my life? I do not know what prompted them to start this, but I will finish this."

    At the very least, Hyouka is a good listener. She takes pulls at her coffee here and there, she gives the odd little dip of her head to show that she's listening, and she keeps her attention on Anneka, the entire time. There's a quiet absorption of information going on. But it's when Anneka mentions that her family was taken from her - fiancee and parents both - that the faux elf visibly stiffens. The realization sets in, and her poker face cracks, just a little; the set of her jaw, a faint furrowing of her brow. It's a line she's not happy to hear they crossed.

    "...well," the cyborg finally replies, after Anneka has finished her story. Her tone is thoughtful, but perhaps a bit more serious than before. "I'll want to read some kind of dossier on this HYDRA, if you can provide it, but I think I'm interested. DARGN, can you forward her my basic specs? So she can plan around me." It's now that the AI finally opts to speak up, replying with a simple, "Certainly. Anneka Stojespal, do you have a preferred way to receive this information?"

  A dossier? "I can provide one." Anneka dips her head in assent, hair bobbing at the suddenness of the movement. If she makes it an order, the talking quinjet can probably print something, or... something. She twitches at the sound of DARGN's voice, most likely having forgotten all about the AI. She blinks rapidly. "Uh. Can probably send it to Val." That would be the talking quinjet, and a potent AI in and of itself. "She will know what to do with it." There's something muttered under her breath that sounds suspiciously like, bitch.

  "I need to gather information on these bastards before I do anything else. I am going to have to be careful in how I handle this; I will have only one chance, I think." She considers. "I will need someone who can uncover information, too." A hacker, in other words. "They are involved, I think, in a matter I am investigating in Sokovia... and I am fairly sure they are willing to buy silence with lives. They have tried it before. I do not think they expected me to survive." The woman shrugs.

    "Understood. I'll send it now." Privately, however, the AI asks Hyouka, 'Shall I include information on Dragonheart Mode?' The elven woman answers her with an internal, 'Sure. I can't make it happen on purpose, but she might as well be made aware.' Outwardly, she's just taking a pull at her drink, however, and now that the matter is more or less settled, she's more relaxed again, though still perhaps a touch serious. "Sadly, I don't think I can offer that kind of help. I'm rather, ah, physical. Likewise, DARGN isn't much more than a secretary, essentially."

    It's here that the AI speaks up properly. "I beg your pardon, Hyouka Kiyama. There are scarce few secretaries in the world with thought patterns based on a dragon. And let's not forget I'm half the reason your reflexes are so good now."

    Hyouka makes an amused noise. "You're also technically part of my nervous system. Or at least that part of your functionality is. Should I be shaking my own hand, here?"

  "No. That is not what I am hiring you for." The pilot regards the elven woman soberly, blue eye deceptively sleepy. She shakes her head after a moment. "I am hiring you in the event that HYDRA figures out that I am investigating them and affiliates of theirs, so you can beat the shit out of whoever they send this time to kill me. I do not need to be set on fire a second time," she growls. "At least not before I find out why."

  She blinks a little blankly at the conversation between cyborg and AI, though, and the expression she pulls is that of swallowing remarkably underripe citrus.

  It's nothing personal. Anneka barely tolerates her own AI partner. The two are at odds more than they're working together, sometimes to the point of requiring intervention from Agent Coulson. "Part of your nervous system?" It's hard to say whether she sounds more squeamish or more disgusted by that potentiality. "Better you than me..."

    The AI chooses to field that question. "Indeed. DARGN stands for 'Digital Assist Reflex Guardian Node'. Digital-assist reflexes are a concept in cybernetics on our world. Software that interfaces between cybernetic implants and the brain running them, that helps a human mind react to things faster than human reflexes should normally be capable of. 'Guardian Nodes' are AI tailored to manage specific software or hardware processes that require... more complex thinking, let's say, if you want to optimize them. Something a mere algorithm couldn't get the most out of."

    Hyouka sets her drink down, and regards Anneka with some amusement. "The fact that the Guardian Node for my digital-assist reflexes had her thought patterns copied from an actual, living dragon, is pure coincidence. But I still think it's kind of funny. As for your issues with HYDRA, though... do you have an issue with fire?" It's a good question to ask, given that she's apparently been burned. "I have six elements I can bring, so if you'd rather I not bring my fire crystal..."

  Swallowing her reflexive mistrust, Anneka forces herself to be nice and listen to DARGN without any sniping. All of that seems reasonable enough if she's understanding it correctly. Do you have an issue with fire? Gesturinf rapidly to indicate the right side of her face, and the missing eye, Anneka's face remains stony. "I hate fire." The words aren't a croak, but they're close. "Would appreciate it if you did not bring that one."

  She sips at her tea, quirking her brow. "I am thinking about hiring Rebecca. That leaves someone who can run information..." That is to say, hack and steal information, "and someone who can cover our backtrail..." Another good hacker. "It is coming together, but slowly. I will let you know when I am ready for an operation. Or if I think I need protection." Her grin is steely. "They will notice I am investigating, eventually. I would rather be ready for them."

    "Got it. No fire, then. It's honestly not my first choice for anything involving people, but it's still good to know." Hyouka nod-nods, filing all this away mentally, and sits back to continue enjoying her drink. However, DARGN has something to say - and it sounds like approval. "Clever. Expect traps to be laid, and turn the springing of their traps into a trap of your own. It's the sort of ploy a dragon might play at. And realistic, at that. The only question is, whether they will plan for your trap with a nested trap of their own~." Leave it to DARGN to turn praise into a bit of needling.

    "In any case, when you prepare that dossier, you can forward it to Hyouka through me. Unless it's not safe to transmit," DARGN adds. "We can always receive it the old-fashioned way."

  Anneka glares sidelong, not sure where to look to express her annoyance at DARGN. She doesn't appear to appreciate needling. "Am not looking for your approval," she snaps, curtly, to DARGN. "Don't trust Val, don't trust you." This, to DARGN. Her eye flicks to Hyouka directly. "I will deliver it personally when it is ready. Hard copy. I will speak with Agent Coulson, and we will ensure it is as complete as we can make it."

  Draining the rest of her cup, she sets it aside, pushing herself to her feet. "Well, you know how to get ahold of me, if you have any questions or concerns. Do not hesitate to reach out." She manages a half-smile. "The tea is on me." Long fingers tap the edge of the table before Anneka heads for the counter, settling up, and then out. Somewhere there's a quinjet hidden in a warehouse or something ridiculous.