Seoul - Northern Commercial District

 

     Home to the Seoul Stock Exchange, everything here is related to that one way or the other. The Exchange itself is centralized in the district, housed inside a stratoscraper. Open 20 out of 24 hours a day, this place is almost without commotion. Stockbrokers, lawyers, and various businesspeople all scramble about, making sure they are still financially secure. Scrolling billboards constantly update stock prices, as well as provide advertisement to the many firms also located in the area.

 

Foreshadow Ferret [Purity] [M]         Javelin Whitetail [Standard] [C]

 

South <S> leads to Seoul - Southern Commercial District.

North <N> leads to Seoul - Docks.

West <W> leads to Seoul - United Nations Plaza.

Out <O> leads to Outskirts of Seoul.

 

Javelin Whitetail pauses as Foreshadow turns down the mug offer. Then, she fills it up anyways, and promptly starts working on BOTH beers.

        "Know what y'r sayin'," she grumbles, slouching forwards in the chair - standing as she is, Foreshadow towers well over the tiny Deer. "Sometimes, y'can't help but be attracted to 'im. Even when there's nothing for it but trouble! And you know it. Can't help it."

 

"Look, I'm going to make this real easy for you," Chest's voice says from just outside the bar. "Either you cut the crap with me about the Maverick activities or you can find a new job!" The door to the bar swings open and Chest hovers in, obviously paying more attention to his cell phone than to his surroundings. "Yeah?" he suddenly roars, coming to a halt, "Well your mother!" he shouts back after a pause. Chest slams the phone down on the bar before remembering it's a frigging cell phone. Sighing, he presses the little off-button instead, hanging up. "The nerve of some people!" he shouts. Chest is now up the bar, and with his conversation done, finally starts to take a look around at anyone else in the area.

 

        Foreshadow really blinks this time, her golden eyes flicking off then on again at the deer... yep she's not even following what is being said anymore just falling down the vein laid before her, leaving everyone else along for the ride.

        Such the ferret just does the equivilant of smiling and nodding for her... she looks blankly at Jav and nods. Largely remaining ignorant of the rest of the goings on, like crazy GNN heads, and the like.

 

        Excuse me if I'm wrong, but are you asking for a CHALEEEEEEEEE--

        Oh, wait, it's just Chest.

        Javelin leans back with a bit more energy, Foreshadow forgotten for the moment as she recognizes the GNN head honcho up front of the bar. "Och! Doc--" no, he's not a doctor "Pro--" no, he's not a professor, either. What's the title he goes by, again?

        "Seņor Chest! 'tis yourself!"

        There we go.

 

Chest puts his cell phone away as the bartender comes up to him, "Oh, uh, yeah, lets see now, what do you have on draft? Wait, no," he says, answering his own question by picking up a menu, "That's far too expensive. Lets see now, liquor, liquor, liquor, beer, wine, liquor... ah yes, I'll have a Light beer. That's /Light/ beer. Not lite beer. I swear I'll cut your tip down to zero if you give me lite here." he vows to the bartender. The bartender squints at the journalist, "Hey," he says slowly, pointing at the GNN head, "Aren't you that guy on television? Y'know, the guy th-" "Soory, me no speakee Engrish!" Chest quickly interupts, putting an abrupt end to the bartender's question. Chest picks up his Light beer and smiles, hovering away from the actual bar.

        On his way to a table, he passes by Javelin and Foreshadow, and his eventual table destination is right next to them. The GNN head hums loudly to himself. It's one of the catchy little tunes that Javelin composed for GNN just recently. Chest halts as he hears his name, "Whazzat?" he says, turning and facing a clearly piss drunk Javelin. "Ms. Whitetail?" he says with obvious surprise. Chest hovers over towards the table, peering at Javelin and giving Foreshadow a quick questioning glance.

 

Javelin Whitetail smiles benevolently. "Oh, aye, Mr. Chest, 'tis meself," she says. She catches the sidelong glimpse at Foreshadow, and enacts a whisper sotto voce (which evidently means slightly less than a shout). "Oh, the ferret's been here for a bit, but I don't think she's /real/, Mr. Chest."

        Foreshadow gets a suspicious eye before Javelin takes another drink.

 

        The ferret merely blinks again her golden eyes going dark briefly, and then shakes her head, the melodius voice ringing again, "...maybe I am... perhaps not... either way..." still with a lack of facial articulation, and she doesn't seem to peturb by her exsistense being in question though.

 

Chest arches a worried brow at Javelin's reply. The GNN owner hesitates briefly before helping himself to a seat at Javelin's table, "Looks pretty real from where I'm sitting." he says. Chest gives another glance in Foreshadow's direction, wondering what her part in this whole story is. "So, ah, what brings you two here to Seoul?" he asks the pair. The GNN owner hasn't touched his beer just yet.

 

Javelin Whitetail might touch Chest's beer if he's not careful. At the question, she smiles wryly, favouring one mug over the other and resting her chin on the free hand. "What brings me t'Seoul," she muses, entirely serious. "Usually me own two hooves, Mr. Chest."

        Collective groans from just about anyone else who can hear. The Deer mutters, and throws a few uncharacteristically bland curses over her shoulder. "Who asked youse, anyways!"

        She grumbles into her mug. "More like what won't let me /leave/ Seoul, Mr. Chest. With the Mavericks on me, and Wily's goons runnin' 'round auctioning me off, an'...an'..." She sighs. "I'm terrible glad they invented this stuff, Mr. Chest."

        She peers over at the elusive ferret. "What /are/ youse doin' over here, anyways? - oh, feel free t'have a seat," she says offhandedly, about ten minutes too late. "Name's Javelin. Glad t'meet youse. Have a mug?"

 

Chest's beer is carefully guarded with one hand resting lightly upon it. The GNN owner might have chuckled under different circumstances at the weak joke, but Javelin's starting to worry the old journalist. Her constant questionings concerning the Maverick cause, and the fact that's she's just a tad too chummy with them... well, Chest takes care of his employees, even if he can be a bit trying for them sometimes. They're like family, and Javelin's been doing some freelance work for him. So... The GNN completely ignores her last two questions about what he's doing here and if he wants a beer. Instead Chest sighs and leans back in his chair, "Y'know, Edgar's going to kill me if he finds out I'm suggesting this sort of thing, but have you considered relocating to San Angeles? I mean, with everyone's attention on you, having the world's best beat cops around isn't a bad thing. Now don't tell anyone I said this, but San Angeles is a wonderful shield for us civilians." Chest snorts and adds with a shake of his head, "The last thing you need right now is some of idiot Robot Masters or scheming Maverick messing with your mind right now." As one final note, he asks, "Don't you think you've perhaps had enough? You seem to be sitting slightly tilted..."

 

Javelin Whitetail blinks in bemusement. "I'm not tilted, Mr. Chest, whatever are you talkin' about? It's the rest of the world that's tilted."

        She does take a moment to sit ramrod-straight in her chair. Nothing wrong with THIS Deer, no siree. "Al--alcohol t'fuel converters, s'what I've got. Me battery's charged for...three weeks, I bet." And all it cost was a bit of dignity! And the bar tab. Hooboy, that thing's probably rolling onto the floor right now.

            "As f'r San Angeles..." she muses carefully, taking one finger and stirring around some of that acidic stuff she calls a drink. "S'an idea...but...I've got t'stay with Interpol right now, see...they're doin' as best they can...and 'sides, San Angeles still wouldn't take kindly t'm'friend here..."

        At first it looks like she's gesturing at Foreshadow, but then a monstrous grey head pokes out from under the table. The Maverick-blazoned hound wags her tail, but regards Chest with a somewhat bored expression - probably lethargic from sitting guarding Javelin for the last three days. "'s Eisensturm. You met before?"

 

        Foreshadow continues to watch in silence, letting the two talk although she does take a seat when asked, but once again doesn't take anything to drink seeing as she's too old to have the required bits to deal with the beer. However she doesn't quite answer the questions as that would require interupting the conversation between Chest and Javelin, and frankly she's had her head knocked off for that sort of thing before...

 

Chest straightens up as Javelin straightens up (he had been tilting himself in order to match with the deer before), and looks her right in the optics to see if she's going to keel over and fall face first on the bar floor. "Yeah, that's an efficient way of refueling, alright." He still hasn't touched his beer, perhaps put off by Javelin's current state of drunkenness. "Your friend?" he asks, looking towards Foreshadow. But once it becomes clear that the ferret is not who she's refering to, and when the muzzle of the dog appears - Maverick insignia blazing front and centre - Chest jolts upright from his seat, glaring at the Maverick puppy, "What in th..." he trails off, now standing. He shoots a look at Javelin, "What have you gotten yourself into?" he then glances at Foreshadow, who seems just fine next to this Maverick pooch. "And who in the blazes are you?" he demands.

 

Javelin Whitetail reaches down and pats Eisensturm - who takes it with remarkable tolerance. "S'Dopplers," she says offhandedly. "Doppler lent'r to me, he's tryin' t'keep me from gettin' the virus, bein' attacked...some of them are terrible nice, Mr. Chest," she murmurs.

        She pauses a few more moments - a lot of those tonight, but processing takes more time when you're on your 512th drink...and then Foreshadow gets another glance from Javelin's green-and-brown optics. "Who /are/ youse, anyways? Y'r real. Y'gotta be real. So what's y'r name?"

 

        Foreshadow mrly hrms almost boredly as the attention shifts to her the golden eyes fading further before beaming back to life, as she begins to speak, "Schauspielerin Frettchen... or Thespian Ferret if you prefer... there is little more to it than that..." with that simple answer, she gives a fluid shrug, and doesn't seem to pay Eisenstrum any mind... of course it's hard to tell if she's paying -anything- any mind...

 

"Bull****." he says, "'Some of them are terrible nice...'" he echoes with obvious frustration showing in his tone of voice. Chest shakes his head and jabs a finger in the Maverick pooch's direction. "Javelin, you damn well better just be acting like a fool because of your..." he pauses and glances over at the bartender questioningly. The bartender apparently guesses what the question is and signs back an answer. "Because of you and your 512 drinks." Chest blinks at what he just said. 512?! Surely the bartender is mistaken. Peering at 'Thespian Ferret', Chest asks, "And you're doing what now, exactly?" he demands again.

 

        The ferret gives another fluid shrug at Chest and tilts her head to the side, "I came, I saw, I conquered... ahem... or rather the deer her caught my eye, and curiosity came in kind." she looks at Chest for a few more seconds before adding, "As to specifics... I am currently mentally composing a play, of the history type concerning the war as it were..."

 

Javelin Whitetail scowls fiercely, all of a sudden - a look entirely undeerlike. She slams one hand on the table for emphasis, causing more than one mug to turn over, and one clatters to the floor - thankfully too thick to break. "I'm not a /fool/, Mr. Chest. I'm not a blind bloody eedjit. And you - you don't even know /why/ I can't finish it, do you!" She grinds her teeth, a metallic sound that twinges loudly. "Don't you go pissin' your judgements all over me, Mr. Chest, when you strike deals the same as I do."

 

Chest would give Foreshadow another ~look~, but he's distracted by Javelin slamming her fist on the table. The GNN manager, still standing, folds his arms across his chest with a stern look on his face. His legendary temper is still close to boiling, but he reminds himself that Javelin is drunk. /Really/ drunk, if the bartender is right. Drunk folks aren't responsible for what they say, and she'll probably forget all of this anyway. And so, Chest swallows his pride (not easy, I promise you!) and says in a softer tone, "Alright, fine. My apologies, Ms. Whitetail. But as your friend, I think you've had enough to drink for one... or several nights, as the case may be. Now how about I pay off your bar bill and you sleep this one off at GNN Central?" he asks. Were this anybody else, one might think Chest's puttin' the moves on a drunk Javelin. But Chest is not that sort of guy.

 

        Foreshadow just... well stares... seein as she can't raise her brows or anything, but slinking away at this point just seems the thing to do, and what she may end up doing if the deer leaves with that horn dog Chest.

 

        Long, significant pause.

        "Sounds good t'me," Javelin says finally, falling back in her seat (did she stand up to begin with?). "Leastways Interpol has less of a hard time trailin' me," the Deer mutters halfways to herself. "But as soon as the professor gave me the news, Mr. Chest...I came straight in here. Broke m'heart, it did, and dad used t'say this is the kind of thing that he an' humans did when things felt bad, so I figured why not, and then..." She trails off there, perhaps partially aware of her ramblings now that she has an audience of more than herself (probably thirty-some, if you count the rest of the bar eavesdropping by this time).

        Foreshadow gets another look. "Are you SURE you're real?"

 

        The repeated asking of the question has finally given the ferret unto mischief, and so with a very serious hrm, she reaches up toward her head, and then puts a hand through it the fingers wiggling out behind, as the voice says, "...I guess not..." then the hand is removed, and the ferret continues to sit as if nothing happened... holograms... fun for the whole family.

 

Chest smiles as Javelin sees reason and holds out his hand to help her up should she need it (yes yes, the rumour mill will be on this one, but thankfully Tangerine works for Chest). He'll fricking prop her up the whole way if need be. The GNN manager catches Foreshadow's little act, and although he has no idea how she did it, knows well enough that the ferret is clearly bad news. A limo should be arriving any moment now to whisk the femme to GNN Central where it's safe. But something Javelin said sticks in Chest's mind even as he helps her out, "The news?" He inquires with a sinking feeling.

 

Javelin Whitetail does indeed take the hand, and leans heavily on the larger reploid - 'heavily' meaning about as much as the average human. Javelin's pretty lightweight for a reploid, but only when it comes to building materials.

        "I can't do it, Mr. Chest, I can't," she mutters, leaning against him. "That's why I postponed it. I was so /close/. Unless I c'n learn t'hate humans, I can't do it..."

        As for Foreshadow? Leaning against Chest, the Deer slits open one green eye. "I /thought/ so," she says, and thusly allows Chest to lead her into the awaiting limo.

 

Chest isn't super duper strong, and he's not all that much taller than Javelin, but thankfully she's light. "Hate humans?" he says with a gasp. Should he really be letting this gal into his offices? Well, too late now. He gave his word. Believe me, Gate will be getting a big shiny message mighty soon. Casting a wary glance at Foreshadow as Chest leads Javelin out of the bar and to safety, the GNN owner can't help but wonder what the Reploid deer's fate is going to eventually be.

 

        And as the two leave... a rousing song drifts out, as Foreshadow makes a dramatic exit. The song? In the Navy

            We want you! We want you!

            We want you for a new recruit!

 

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From: Chest                                                    (Conn)

Date: Sat Nov 27 02:49:38 2004    Folder:  0   Message: 23

Status: Unread

Subject: IC Message

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To: Gate

From: Chest

Re: Javelin Whitetail

 

        Professor Gate. Chest here - Global News Network. I currently have one of your patients sleeping off a several night campaign at a bar in Seoul in my offices here at GNN Central. Ms. Whitetail was hanging out with someone who's probably a Maverick... Thespian Ferret she called herself, and Doppler's mutt was with her as well, so I figured it's best she sleep it off somewhere safe rather than in the clutches of the enemy. Chain her up to a wall if you have to, Professor, but don't let the Mavericks claim another soul. Also, please pick up your patient or have one of your Interpol lackeys to so at your earliest convenience. People are starting to ask why there's a hung over deer here.

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================================= IC Rumors ==================================

Message: 32/2                      Posted        Author

Ladies Like A Nice Chest           Sat Nov 27    A Little Bird

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       Mmmmmm, tabloids.

 

       The text of the various articles vary as per preferences, but the basic news is the same - evidently one Chest, provider of GNN news the world over, was seen helping a /very/ inebriated Javelin Whitetail out of a bar, into a limo, and then out of the limo again - and INTO GNN central in San Angeles. Where she proceeded to spend at least one night if not more. Pictures? Plenty of them. Some of them also include a gold-and-white ferret sitting at the bar table with Chest and Javelin - Thespian Ferret, of moderate reknown.

 

       Neither Chest nor Javelin were available for comment.

 

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