[Redd]

“EDI, I will. I just… need some time to process this. This is what makes me feel better.” she calmly replied, turning the white, black and orange N7 helmet over in her hands to stare into the visor; unfeeling, cold red eyes stared back, the small amount of light being emitted bouncing off the visor. Maybe she shouldn’t have opted for setting those colours into her armour. Seemed like a good idea for morale at the time, but as she turned the heavy piece of equipment, fingers trailing over the smooth carbon fibre shell, she had to wonder if it just made her look bad.  “Set a course for Illium and inform the crew that we will be making a brief stop there and then the Citadel. And turn off comms for this room for a little, okay?”

“As you wish.”

[Redd]

The display flickered and died, leaving the room in a cold monochromatic grey darkness.  Aside from her reflection on the window, that’s all there was. Alex knew she couldn’t afford to be torn up over losing a friend, it’s not like the Collectors had actually got him, or he’d died or something. He was alive, he was out there. That should have been enough.

That had to be enough.

But he’d been the only one to outright distrust her. Tali, her trusted Quarian engineer, should, by all rights have been in the same boat. But, like everyone else from the old squad, even she knew that there was a long game, that despite appearances, things were not as they seemed. And she knew to trust her.

[Redd]

She pulled her eyes back to the scars. Fingers delicately rose to touch the tears in her skin, where that ominous glow was coming from. She couldn’t deny that her eyes were getting worse. At first, it had been merely small red pin-pricks, in the shape of a triangle in both eyes, barely noticeable but now… they were wider, the edge of her iris was starting to turn an ugly inflamed red and her entire pupil was starting to degrade.  Maybe… maybe it had been these damn ugly things.

It wasn’t like she couldn’t get this repaired. The in-house doctor had proposed cosmetic surgery to fix it. But in the same breath, she’d said the problem was purely cosmetic and wouldn’t affect performance on the field. It hadn’t seemed right to divert funds for a suicide mission she intended to survive to a vanity project. Just right now, it seemed like a damn fine idea.

[Redd]

No, no this… self-pity. It wouldn’t do. Couldn’t do. She needed to get her shit together, if not for herself, than for the team. It was just a few hours of a bad taste in her mouth, that’s all she could let it be. Maybe finally, now he’d stop being a distraction.

“So she is capable of feeling emotions beyond ‘just get the job done’.”

She didn’t need to turn around, she could practically hear the smirk through the teasing comment.

“Kasumi, do I need to take away your cloaking privileges away on the ship?” Alex swung around, narrowing her eyes at the grinning thief. She knew being unseen and unheard was her thing but it was still a bit hard not to chide herself for not paying attention. “I’m not above breaking your damn omni-tool.”

[Redd]

“Come now, how am I supposed to spy on everyone and keep you informed of all the little bits of gossip?” She grinned right back, and Alex could only just guess how lit up her eyes were under that dark, obscuring cowl.

“Don’t act coy, I know you only ever use that thing to stalk Jacob.” Alex snorted back and rolled her eyes, returning to the window.

“Oh?” Kasumi moved forward, placing herself in Alex’s field of view. “I mean, have you seen him work out? It’s mesmerising. Did he say something? Mention me?”

“God, you’re terrible!” Alex couldn’t help the outburst. “No he doesn’t know it’s you, but I’m sure he’s got a damn strong suspicion. There’s no one else on the ship with that sort of tech.”

[Redd]

“Hah, I know. Makes it fun though.” She shrugged, before moving to sit down on the floor, just next to the window and gestured for Alex to do the same. “Speaking of. Maybe we should have sent you down to Horizon in that little get up I bought for you for Hock’s party.”

Alex had been in the process of lowering herself down into a cross-legged position when the comment caught her off guard. She couldn’t help but immediately snap her eyes to the thief in an offended glare, but in the process, she lost balance and unceremoniously fell on her ass. “I- no. What?”

That prompted something of a chuckle from Kasumi, her hand delicately moving to cover her mouth. “That would be a sight, wouldn’t it? I’m sure your little friend down there might have appreciated it.” She shrugged dismissively but Alex knew she was maintaining a steady eye-contact to gauge her response. “Or at least he would have been too taken aback to launch a decent campaign against what we’re doing. He… is your guy, right?”

[Redd]

“I…” Alex hesitated, getting caught up between laughing along with the fighting in a dress joke and being irate over Kasumi’s grasp on a situation that she really had barely any information on. “You couldn’t pay me enough to fight in a dress. But… he was. Can’t say that’s something I’m too hopeful about any more though. Why are you so invested?” She settled for the middle ground and honesty. It hadn’t been too long ago that they’d gone to get Kasumi’s greybox and even more recently, destroying the last physical memories of her partner. If anyone knew how to move on from something like that, it was her.

“Oh come on, every time we found someone who might have known something, that was your first question. ‘Where is he’, ‘what’s he up to’, ‘is he safe’. You’d have to be pretty thick to miss that one. And that’s not including the little scene on Horizon. Even Grunt could work that one out..” Again, another flippant remark but one designed to needle. “I’m just surprised you’re down here and not hovering over your personal terminal.”

[Redd]

Alex chose to ignore the painfully true observation for the moment. She supposed she had been fairly obvious and it was only more embarrassing now that it had blown up in her face. “What do you mean?” she had to venture asking.

“Well, we worked out the classified part, what he was doing. That guy in the Citadel was the one thing stonewalling communication and he’s got no excuse to do so now. I only know what I saw and what I overheard from Garrus and Joker, but he seems like the type who would feel guilt at that little outburst.” Her entire demeanour resembled someone talking about something as mundane and trivial as the weather.

[23 Posts Recorded for 69 Points]