Albino Pusses || Pacifica, Tyler

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

"Gerákiaskiá gia ti̱ zo̱í̱,"
Shadowhawks For Life
September 30th
1930

Tonight marked the first time Fox had ever ventured to meet someone in collaboration for a prank. She was waiting for Griffin, but she was pacing. She... couldn't stop moving. The more she paced, the more she fumed about the way her night had gone. She'd taken time to wash her hands of Captain Striker's blood, but he'd have a good split lip for the effort.

She kept replaying the scene in her head, his pointless tirade about her piloting ability, and then pressing her in the simulation just to load the single worst moment of her life. She'd buried the simulated Viper into the ocean and ditched the simulation. He should have had more respect, as a man who knew what piloting was like... and inevitably what loss was like. Beneath it all, he was trying to get across the point that she was holding herself back, that she wasn't joining his little family as she should have been. And they'd walked away at a sort of stalemate. She just couldn't shake what he'd done, the shock and anger of it.

Her mind re-enacted the scene so vividly that her lips moved as she spoke her responses underbreath.. then, the responses she should have given, a string of obscenities, all the while clenching her fingers into fists and releasing. She almost wished she could go back in time and redo the whole Hit me scenario, give him a couple of shiners to match.

She calmed herself gradually, but she still had flustered red skin and a burn to her piercing cerulean eyes. Her sweat from the helmet had her normally neatly-kept hair disheveled, even plagued with a few fly-aways. She was exhibiting an emotion while she waited, and one she didn't often display... she was absolutely pissed off.

She was trying to relax, to calm herself down, but no one could get to her like Captain Striker. As a pilot, as a soldier... he should have known better. He should have known not to touch that part of her. If she couldn't work it out enough to do her job, he should have called her on it, but her job was getting done. She was doing her best, pushing past her hang-ups every time she strapped herself into her seat, and she flew well. There was nothing wrong with the way she maneuvered a Viper.

She was trying her best to resist the urge to keep pacing, to resist growling about the nerve of Striker. She was supposed to be meeting Griffin here, and she knew it. She wanted to look calm when he arrived, even though the burn of the captain was fresh in her mind. The last thing she needed was for Griff to pick up on such pure, unadulterated anger from her... especially since Striker and Striker's fat lip would be making an appearance when they met up with the rest of the squadron. She wondered what story he'd give for that...

[Tyler Tremaine]

Tyler walked down to the deck, passing officers and enlisted alike. Some were friends he hadn't seen in the last month, others were simply faces that he'd seen a few times in the years aboard the ship. Five thousand people you understand, thats a lot of faces to remember. And Ty was a Viper jock, he certainly didn't know every single operation of the Battlestar, nor did he want to.

Well, that last part is incorrect. Tyler did one day want to know it all. To see everything together. He'd been told that the basic layout was about the same as any other Battlestar, in the same way that a five story building is the same basic idea as a skyscraper. And while that is true on the basic format of the vessel, that analogy is like comparing a dinghy to a destroyer. Their not the same classes, and they certainly don't carry the same systems. The Triton could have take a nuke, maybe two. Gods only knew how many the Hyperion could take. And there were many more guns, along with a host of other nasty surprises.

But thats all simple warfare and personnel. And while the ship itself could complete most missions, those on the ground still had to be carried out the old fashioned way. So boots still made the business of business. And Ty had an op. It was time to get to it. He found Viktorya waiting for him by the main deck and snuck up beside her. He had on his only set of BDU's and the boots were almost as old as his military career. Years ago, Sidney had them doing enough missions to rub the squeak out of the soles, so Ty decided to go with them instead of his flight suit shoes. Vik was pacing back and forth waiting for him.

When she turned away from him to begin her short circuit back, Ty stepped out behind her, and tapped her on the shoulder quietly, holding up his forefinger to his lips. He nodded out towards the deck, where Chief Alexander was working, and lowered his finger to the narrow opening behind her to the supply cage, where their package was.

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

A hand abruptly touched her back, and Fox jumped. Her first thought was, given her lucky, she'd be caught waiting on Griffin... or Captain Striker would have sent someone to catch her. But no, it was Griffin, and she was relieved when she turned to lay eyes on him. She was quiet according to his gesture, simply exhaling to vent her nervousness and following his gesture to the supply cage.

Viktoriya was a stereotypical good girl in this moment simply because she had the expectation that her first excursion in 3 years would end badly. It was new, and because it was new, it wasn't something she really trusted herself to do. She would pilot a Viper and engage a lethal enemy without a second thought, but sneaking around on deck? She was trying to rationalize that expectation away, to tell herself If I do that well, why can't I do this well?

If Griffin had been a telepath, he would have confirmed her as lame most likely. Fortunately, he wasn't, and she wasn't about to tell him that she was afraid of getting caught. As soon as they had the paint cans in hand and were back with the rest of their squadron for the family-building shenanigans (of which she'd never taken part before), the sooner Fox's nerves would be calmed. Maybe she'd even draw a smilie face in an optimistic and friendly addition to the phallii her squadmates would no-doubt be decorating the door with. It was a thought.

[Pacifica Alexander]

Pacifica had been running through the specs on the new squadrons vipers. There were many personal adjustments that brought them out of line with the regs. She understood the reason the pilots did it and she didn't want to have to change them but with the wargames coming up it was needed. They had to be inspection ready and every Viper, Raptor, and piece of equipment would be there by the time she was done even it it meant continuing the sixteen hour days till it was all ready.

Pacifica was just about done for the night, ready to close up shop, seeing as the ship was not fully back duty yet she was just about the last person left. She stood up from her work picking up the tools and making her way to the open area and yelling out to those left. "Time to close up shop for the night, Get some sleep and I expect you back in the morning." Her voice boomed across the deck to the few other deck hands and they began to unload their items in the supply cage. As each one came up and handed her their logs she looked them over.

After their departure she began to walk her way through the place heading toward the far end where Hoffman's office was. She would leave the reports for him in the morning. Of course by the time he came in she would be back there waiting for him to go over them and let her know what he wanted next. She spent most of her life here on the deck. Just after dropping them off she noticed something she wasn't expecting. Though her vision was not the best she was observant. Viper jocks may have thought that they were stealthy, and for a herd of elephants they were, but when one relies on keen hearing to help cover up their vision problems it was hard to get past them.

Pacifica slid between the vipers and made her way around to get behind the pair. She would watch them for a moment before she intruded. It only took a moment for her to catch on to where they were heading. Pacifica walked up loudly behind them now. "Is there a reason you are sneaking around my deck or are you just checking to see if I am watching?"

[Tyler Tremaine]

"Is there a reason you are sneaking around my deck or are you just checking to see if I am watching?" Chief Alexander said behind Tyler and Viktoriya. Ty made a face towards Vik that just seemed to say... Busted...

He turned around and raised his hands innocently. "Hey Chief," Ty said with a familiarly pleasant voice, "We were just coming to talk to you actually. And here you are." Tyler walked to the chief, and stood close to her, very close. "I was told that you never got off the ship. You know," He stepped around the Chief and put his arm around her neck, and then led her away while talking, "I wanted to talk to you about Viper Two Six..." Ty started. As he continued, he let his free arm drop to his waist, and waved it slightly at Viktoriya to go ahead.

"As you may have noticed, I made some... Modifications to it. Much needed modifications that I would like to keep. Now, if you were in a giving mood, perhaps we could reach some sort of arrangement?" Ty wasn't overly obvious with his tones, but he did keep his voice at an innocent inflection.

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

It would figure that the first time Viktoriya allowed herself to become part of a Hawk excursion, she'd get caught. There wasn't a lot about Viktoriya that was sneaky. Sneaky was something a person discovered they could do when their life depended on it, when there was a whole group of people waiting to perform bodily harm on whatever motherfrakker was dumb enough to make enough noise to incite the performance of bodily harm. That's what sneaky was for, and that was something Viktoriya had never had to delve into seriously. However, with Pacifica behind them like a mother hen, Mrs. Billy Goat Gruff, who-be-steppin'-on-mah-bridge... Yeah, they were busted. Tyler knew it, and Vik knew it. But, Tyler was smooth. He used his other breaches of the rules to obscure this breach of the rules, which was interesting (and something Vik couldn't do).

”Yeah, I'm here for emotional support.” She shrugged nonchalantly, watching as Tyler turned on as much charm as he could. It was a sight, and a little on the adorable side, but as he bodily began to move the chief away and discuss the pro's and con's of him getting his way (emphasizing, of course, the pro's ---it being Tyler's way, after all), Vik lagged behind. She lagged behind, and then dropped pace, slipping back to the cage.

She hoped Tyler was as boundless a well of words as he generally seemed, and that somewhere Pacifica had a latent desire to frak him like a soulless ginger whore, because the paint was harder to find than Vik would have thought. There were a ton of tools that she recognized and didn't, big stuff, little stuff, all kinds of stuff, but no paint. If Vik was paint... if Vik was paint, where would she be? In her can, at home, where she belonged, minding her painty pigmented business, as the very non-paint Vik should have been right this moment. But, she wasn't. She was playing family, love, hugs, all sorts of bullshit, and hoping against hope that it was at least planting the seeds for something better to grow out of it.

[Pacifica Alexander]

There was part of Pacifica that was a little suspicious about the whole, lets play buddy buddy with the Chief thing that was happening right then and there. His questioning about her leaving was only making her question it more. Everyone knew she had stayed on this leave to make sure things were ready for the war games. "What are you after sir's?" She questioned him as the three of them walked off from their current location.

Her question was quickly answered when he went in to everything about Viper two-six. Senior Chief Hoffman had been dealing with Two-Six. So for now it was not getting taken apart, at least not fully, Hoffman had some plan for it and Pacifica had kept her self out of it. They had three hundred vipers with almost two hundred of them with pilots assigned to them, that added to the raptors and the new squad showing up she had her hands full.

"I do know of your modifications to two-six and I know all of them had been carried out with a deckhand present, which I do appreciate." She had not noticed, do to the lack of vision, that Vik had begun to lag behind them at this point. She was distracted enough now to not being paying as close of attention as she was a moment ago. No her focus was on trying to figure out what Ty was after. "What kind of agreement do you have in mind, I can always talk to Cheif Hoffman about what we can do to protect your modifications during the war games. Just know there are certain things that will need to be within certain specs."

Pacifica had seen all the inner workings of what had been done to Viper Two-Six. It was a beautiful piece of machinery, and just as much as Ty did not want to see changes to her Pacifica didn't want to see happen either. With the war games there were inspections to come, and the Hyperion had pulled the lucky straw of holding the hosting officer, Lieutenant Colonel Bainbridge, on board and that meant the ship would get special attention as well. If there was something that could be done though then it would be.

It was as they turned the corner to star moving toward the exit of the hanger deck it brought the cage in to view and an unexpected sight. Fox was making her way out of the cage and toward them. She glared over at Ty then back to Fox. "Care to explain yourself, Lieutenant?

[Tyler Tremaine]

"What are you after sir's?" The Chief asked as Tyler led her off. He feigned ignorance, and tried to sound innocent.

"After Chief? Just a simple agreement not to do anything hasty with my Viper. And to keep specialist Turner the hell away from it as usual." Ty didn't turn on the charm. Maybe they taught charm in a class he'd missed. Or maybe he'd missed the part of life where his friends worked it out naturally. Too many years in the simulator growing up. As it was, Ty simply tried to keep her walking.

"I do know of your modifications to two-six and I know all of them had been carried out with a deckhand present, which I do appreciate." That was actually a fact. In the first place, you don't frak around with Chief Alexander. This little ruse was almost beyond his willing level. But Chris ran his Shadowhawks how he ran his Shadowhawks, and despite all the trouble he'd gotten them in with idle hands, when they went to work, the team was the thing of legends. Others often mocked this impression. They just couldn't believe how the Shadowhawks were portrayed. Like the hype of the Hyperion's greatest squadron wasn't up to the snuff. Ty stopped doubting Wilson a long, long time ago. He hoped that Vik would soon. But that was another fight, for another day.

As far as the Chief went, Ty thought she may work more than anyone else on the Titan. She was one hundred percent on-the-job, one hundred percent of-the-time. Part of him, wanted her to kick back and relax, but the professional side of him admired her for her sincere belief in her job. "What kind of agreement do you have in mind, I can always talk to Chief Hoffman about what we can do to protect your modifications during the war games. Just know there are certain things that will need to be within certain specs."

And again, she proves that it was all business, all the time. There wasn't a soldier on the deck that didn't know Ty's infamous relationship with his Viper. Hell, once upon a time, Ty'd had two very brilliant specialists assigned to him, to help him work out aerodynamics on the nasal cone of two-six. The chief knew that. She also knew that Ty had done his own thing with his planes since ninety-four.

Saying all that to say this; Alexander was suspicious from word go, for good reason. Ty didn't 'make small talk' with her, and hadn't in all the years they'd worked together, with only three exceptions. Once in '94, when he'd tried to get her to help him install a smoker system in his rebreather, back when she was a rook on the Triton. She'd been higher than Hoffman back then. Another time in '99 on the Uned, back when he'd had an overabundance of time on his hands. She was still a lower level petty officer back then as well, and she'd walked in on them while they were removing the canopies of a rival squadron... it sounds worse than it was.. And another here on Hyperion. When Striker and Ty were learning how to accelerate the grow of ... certain plants. She'd been much higher in rank at that point, well... in name. Now, she was second in command of the deck. Helluva knuckledragger though. Ty wasn't sure if Hoffman knew as much about Viper maintenance as she did, and that, was reallllly saying something.

Vik, was not up to snuff on her end of this bargain. Ty and the Chief walked around a corner and bam, their she was, standing in the cage, plain for all to see. And see her the Chief did. Ty caught a nasty look from her, "Care to explain yourself, Lieutenant?"

He smiled as though a deer in sudden headlights, "I..." He stuttered, and then cracked into a small laugh, "Gods dammit. Um." He said looking down and refusing to drop his arm from her shoulder for a moment as he worked out something to say, but instead just shook his head while stifling a series of laughter. They were caught red handed, and still didn't have paint. It was funny. He hugged her tighter with his one arm and let her go. "No Sir Chief. Sorry Chief."

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

Viktoriya happened to have found the can, and was leaving with it when she heard the footsteps. She moved it behind her back as she emerged from the cage.

Care to explain yourself, Lieutenant?

She thought about it. Her mind went totally blank, and she wasn't in the best of moods already. She wasn't even really concerned about having been caught in the act. She thought about it for a long moment, then moved the can into plain sight, looking dead into Pacifica's eyes. She liked Pacifica. They didn't exactly speak, but it wasn't – at least on Vik's part – any inclination not to, just something she'd never done before.

”Not really. Long story short, this is disappearing from your cage for a bit, and you much prefer me to find it than someone with -” she looked at Griffin and pressed her lips into a thin line. ”- let's go with 'less finesse'. That's a nice way of saying that, I think. Believe me when I say your workspace is a hell of a lot safer tonight if we pretend we didn't see each other and I put this back when it's used.”

It was firm and totally unafraid. The truth was, there was a certain level of pissed-off that feared no reprimand, and – thanks to Captain Chris “Striker” Wilson, the bastard himself – Viktoriya had reached that point. She was looking at Pacifica with a resignation in her eyes that said Can we please just do this and go away?

She gauged Pacifica's expression, watched her reaction, and gave her a polite salute. ”I appreciate your cooperation, sir.” She put the can in the crook of her left arm, then jerked her head toward the hallway while looking at Griffin. ”Let's get out of the nice lady's hair, shall we?”

[OOC: Godmoded a response a little Pacifica, would have asked but you were offline, let me know if I need to change it]