D9:EA:Richards Quarter - A Date to die for - Expected

[Richard Winter]

Richard was in his room, reflecting on the events of yesterday in his mind. He did not sit as usual on the small sofa, but walked up and down.

He wanted to smoke, but he never did in his own room and he suppressed the urge to do so.

Suddenly he let out a long sigh and fell down on the sofa.

"Was für eine Scheiße" he cursed into a pillow.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

*THUD THUD THUD THUD*

"RICHARD!"

It was normal for Mei to knock like a SWAT team but yelling his name was new, she sounded worried.

"RICHARD LET ME IN!"

*THUD THUD THUD THUD*

[Richard Winter]

He immediately got up and opened the door. He looked at Mei and said nothing for the time being.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

Mei looked him over twice before looking him in the eye and her expression softened.

"So how was your date?" She asked leadingly. "Did you engage in some...how did she put it...cultural exchange?"

[Richard Winter]

Mei would see some minor abrasions that didn't look like much.
He opened the door, smiled and pointed to the sofa.
"Come sit down," he said, walking slowly over himself, "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you know about it.
"It was a nice date, I saw Yori smile and blush, do you believe that?"

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

She plopped down on the sofa, taking up far more space than she needed.

"Did you think I wouldn't find out about your date? Really? I'm pretty sure I knew she was into you before you did silly. I was kind of surprised to find out you filled out the survey though, I thought you had you eye elsewhere. Great new for me though, means I can seduce to my hearts content. So come on, tell me details."

[Richard Winter]

He scratched the back of his head. "I was at least hoping to tell you before." He planted himself next to her.

"To be honest, I didn't think she wanted anything more from me than someone to talk to until she gave me the questionnaire," he said. .... Don't get me wrong, Gianna is cute too, but a little aloof, don't you think?"
He leaned back a little. "Anyway, we went to this inn in Privydok to have breakfast and it was really nice there.
We both talked about our past and just enjoyed our time together. Then we went hand in hand to an observation platform and kissed extensively, which was very nice." He grinned at the memory. "But no, sex hasn't happened yet." he replied to Mei's question from before.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

She snapped her fingers.

"Damn, I REALLY want to know what is like. She's either going to be incredibly vanilla or tie you up in ropes, no in between."

"So what stopped you, was it too early in the day for such things or did SOMETHING ELSE happen while you were in town."

[Richard Winter]

"I'll report when i know more chief" he said with a grin before his expression became more serious.

"I fucked up pretty hard Mei." he said and let out a long sigh.
"You see, the history of the inn had a note that it was once used by smugglers, so I got curious and asked Yori if we should stop by again,...." his voice faltered "I almost got her killed, Mei."

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"KILLED? What? How did you guys fall into an abandoned mine or something, how do you almost get someone killed visiting an inn?"

She was confounded utterly.

"Is Yori OK?"

[Richard Winter]

"She got shot." his voice sounded hollow. "She will survive, but,..."
He put his head in his hand.

There, under the inn, we noticed a strange mech signal by the caves. We took a closer look and there was a door, and of course we went in..." he began to breathe heavily. "We found a Hangar full of treasures and a fucking Exterminator Mech. But there was also someone else there. Yori was the first to find the hangar, I just heard gunshots and immediately ran to her,...... but she was already shot."

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"I don't....Richard." She shook her head and tried to digest what she had been told.

"Who shot her? This was all under the inn? It doesn't really sound like your fault she got shot though if you are trespassing in an underground secret location you two probably should have stuck together."

[Richard Winter]

"We were barely apart,.... everything happened so fast,..." he stammered a bit and took a deep breath. "The person who shot at us... was the owner of the inn.... But,...she was anything but normal,.... we tried to talk to her,... really you have to believe me Mei." his voice wavered again

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

She moved over and put and arm around him.

"Of course I believe you. SO what happened next did you kill the inn owner, did you grab Yori and get out of there? I mean, why did the inn owner have all that stuff anyway are they a retired mech who kept their mech?"

[Richard Winter]

He shook his head "After a long firefight that crazy bitch pulled out a combat knife and wanted to cut Yori to pieces, as she ran towards her i managed to load a salvo into her,.... she's still alive, i had two plastiflesh patches,.. one for Yoi one for her,..." He rested his head aginst Meis shoulder "When we had time to look around, and Yori's bleeding had stopped for the time being, I sent her to call for backup.... but we were too far away and without field relay we couldn't reach HQ. I took a closer look at the mech, but as soon as Yori was out and I was on the mech, the bunker alarm went off.... I grabbed the mech's neuro helmet and ran,..." he let out a long sigh.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"Wait you did what? Wh-why would you take someone's neurohelmet? Did you see a mech and just assume they are an enemy? OK you might have messed up a little bit. I don't think Yori getting shot is your fault and I don't expect that she does either but all the other stuff is a bad look. I don't think it is anything that can't be fixed though."

[Richard Winter]

"I didn't know if she was friend, foe or neutral. I decided in the fire of the battle to play it safe," he said.
"You have to understand, there was military stuff everywhere, weapons, there were double heat sinks lying around and endo steel armour. Then there was silver and gems, it wasn't a normal bunker of someone managing their ancestor's mech Mei."

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"I...I think you found an assassin Richard. An Exterminator? Jewels? Shot on sight? All in a hidden bunker under an inn? Either an assassin or a recently retired drug lord. That's so weird. What did the Major have to say when you told him?"

[Richard Winter]

"I just dropped off the report with him yesterday.... I guess we'll talk about it later, probably tomorrow after the fight." he slowly shook his head.
"I'm such a fool. I thought i could play the hero by conquering a Mech from the enemy with ease."

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"I think it's too early to say if you were foolish or not. If somehow there is a totally good reason why that person has that stuff then yeah you goofed but it's an understandable goof given the current situation. If however they don't have some really really good story behind all that shit you probably saved some lives. Either way we are gonna need to take another look at the areas we have control of, the last thing we need is a resistance popping up behind us as we push north."