'Impressed' wasn't a state that Segway was used to. Often she didn't even entertain the notion of it, let alone allowing it to come over her. But the helm of Wepwawet's ship was stunning. Frankly, it was miraculous to see, to watch the orchestral hand movements over star maps with planets, systems, even individual stations and ships being zoomed in on and out of so quickly was a dazzling show. It was hard to not be impressed by technology like that. Segway sometimes caught glimpses of his face as he turned to something floating around him and she could see his blue augmetic eyes streaming with data so fast it must have been impossible to read. Segway lazed back in one of the few free moving seats on the bridge and gawked as crumbs fell from the strange cookies she was eating. They fell onto her cleavage as she stared mesmerized by the colors and the speed. The sound of a soft voice is what broke her from her moment though.

“Hey. Segway? Are you listening?” Wepwawet's voice offered, unassuming and quiet but a sound she knew well now. The odd accent combined with his gentle tone was soothing, not that she'd ever admit that overtly to his face. He'd been acting strangely since his time on Geld with his new friend 'Roxanne'. Some large hyena woman that saved his ass. Sounded like Segway's type of woman. “You said we can't go to Denheicht?” With a flourish he suspended a hologram of a small station she knew to be Denheicht hovering in front of her.

“Right.” Her thunderous voice was like an artillery barrage after his quiet tones. “Bingo on favors there.” Wepwawet looked over his shoulder and she grinned. “The local crime boss is known for how expensive his tastes are. Once shot his underboss because he got him silver instead of gold for his birthday. Anyways, I broke into his penthouse and stole his gold engraved platinum prosthetic leg. Took six days of plannin'. Last time I was there he had eyes on everyone with pink hair. Well I got caught and I told him its magenta but he wasn't having that. 'Pink is pink'. Colorblind prick. So I broke a few skulls, bashed my way out as you do. To get off station I used the last of my asks.” She said before very noisily taking a cookie from her ample bust and ate it obnoxiously. She made a mess whenever she ate them and Wep wondered if she teased him in some way he didn't get. She knew she was teasing him in a roundabout way, especially with the thin clothes she had on. “Oh, we can't go to Astenheicht either. His brother is there.” Wepwawet stopped what he was doing and after a brief, still second he wiped away the course plot he had up. At least Segway thought that's what it was. She honestly had no idea how any of this ship's systems worked. He began searching through different worlds and stations fast enough that Segway's eyes hurt slightly at the flashing. “What's with this anyways? Wantin' to go to a new system and all.” Wepwawet stiffened as he heard her tone. Segway was subtle in some ways and very overt in others. Her tells were obvious, at least to him, and the slight shift in tone was one of them. She had extrapolated something more from this exchange than he wanted her to. “Ever since Geld you've been a drongo.” Wepwawet looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she looked almost offended. “It's a word. How it sounds doesn't mean you aren't acting like one.”

“It's...complicated.” Wepwawet quickly replied as he zoomed the galactic map out using his augmentations and searching about fringe space for some undiscovered hamlet. His light armor shifted on his body as he moved about to scroll and look.

“Oh yeah. 'Complicated.'” Segway rolled her eyes and took another cookie from her cleavage and ate it with gluttonous smacks of her lips and clacks of her teeth. “You left me on a station a sector over while you were down on Geld for a month. You know how many times a girl can go to bars on a space station before she gets recognized?”

“It's complicated.” Wepwawet snapped at her. He immediately regretted it as he heard the seat behind him creak as she leaned forward. He could feel that look she was giving him, the den mother glare that keeps pups from acting up without bites and barks. It must be a canine thing that it works on him.

“Have a care.” She growled low. “Explain it to me.” Wepwawet's movements slowed and stopped, leaving the map on some obscure place Segway had never heard of. It framed him beautifully.

“Down on Geld...I lost. Bad. To a Carrion class machine.” Segway's face softened but only just, and into an expression of dumb confusion. “It's a catch all term, 'Carrion class'. It means a cobbled together piece of junk. A scrap walker.” Segway yet again softened her look, the matronly scowl almost completely replaced with a look that screamed 'ok, and?'. Wepwawet sighed. “I am piloting a personally made, neurally linked, brain wave synced machine made by the finest engineers in the whole of Cairopia, the Pharaoh's personal guard has worse equipment I lost to a Carrion Pilot on a backwater world known on it's solar maps for how out of the damn way it is. Ontop of all of that I had to beg for help to get my machine repaired enough to guarantee I made it to the shuttle. I was beaten, badly.” Wepwawet didn't mean to start shouting as his venting went on but he couldn't help it. “What kind of prodigal son of Cairopia loses to a damn junker?!” He growled out in the first example of real anger that Segway had seen from him. “I'm trying to find a system where I can get some...upgrades.” He began to calm himself, soldier training kicking in and making him funnel his anger with sense.

“Upgrades?” Segway actually looked upset. “You're not going to change are you? You best not get any taller.” She put very real threat into her sentence, but it was mild and light hearted. But still threat. Then her face went back to its confusion. “Wait, why are we looking for a fringe system for upgrades...to...” Segway's face hardened again. She wasn't confused anymore. “No, no, no. You're off your bloody rocker. You are actually more willing to go a station that I know well to find a surgeon to upgrade you because you're too ashamed to go back home after a loss like that?” Segway made a swiping motion with her hand. “To hell with that. You go home and get it done.”

“It's not that sim-” A growl interrupted Wepwawet and made him jump.

“Shut your mouth. You're not going to some random surgeon to get upgrades that may not even work. We're going to Cairopia and you're getting your work done there.” Her glare wouldn't relent but Wepwawet had doubts and doubts can eat away the soul.

“It's...not right.” Segway leaned back in her seat.

“What's not right?” Segway asked with a drop of her face, almost as if she could read his mind.

“Crawling back. Going home with proof of failure.” He said softly as if the moment was hard to articulate and to put it into the universe with words was gut wrenching. “I have a machine in there worth more than some cities on other worlds. It's in such disrepair it's insulting. What will it do to return home with a machine in a state like that?”

“Wolves head back home to lick their wounds all the time. It's natural. You had a bad fight, get home and get R&R. What's the point of carrying around a bad time until you HAVE to go back instead of willingly walking back.” Segway said with a soft growl, getting a little frustrated at the defeatism.

“It won't be so simple. Mark my words.” Wepwawet said, still pushing back against her reason. Wepwawet didn't seem new to this but it was clear actual operative experience was something semi-new to him. Book smart. Not totally action smart, Segway believed.

“Fine. How are you going to explain to your surgeons back home how some moron cut you up and broke things?” Wepwawet blinked as she asked that. She began to mock his accent and talking to her hand. “'Oh, sorry Pharaoh. I ruined perfectly good kit because I was having a big sook after after a little mission where some pilot beat me with a junk heap.'” Wepwawet's fist balled beside himself as he stared. He knew she was right. He had to go home and he knew that from the start. Segway however, wasn't looking at him to see the realization on her face as she bantered with her hand. “'Yeah I know I was raised and built for this but after one loss I decided to run off and-'”

“Fine!” Wepwawet said angrily, enough to make Segway and her hand turn slowly to regard him. She'd have flashed him her glare if she didn't see he wasn't meeting her gaze as if the thought and acceptance of going home was too much to bare staring at anything. “Fine. We'll go to Cairopia.” She grinned at him and leaned back in her chair and pointed at him.

“Fuckin' oath we are, You owe me drinks and a nice hotel planet side for talking you out of a stupid decision, Wep.”

“It won't be easy to tell them any of this.” Wepwawet said forlornly. Segway laughed and took her second to last cookie from her cleavage. Wepwawet started moving the holomap again and began plotting a course.

“It won't be any easier if you wait. Get upgrades from home, they'll probably cost you less. Nothin' doin' is easy, Wepwawet. Sometimes you gotta lick your wounds in your den surrounded by your pack. Even if it's embarrassing.” She smacked loudly at the cookie and watched him some more as he worked, awestruck by the colors and movements he made.Another amazing piece done by  Kimru a while back I just never got around to posting, but here it is!
Featuring the illustrious  SegwayRulz and my jackal!