Drifters

Inti's Watcher

Marie walked through the common area as everyone got ready for the report. She searched for her group, and was happy to find them all with their own friends.

Sophie was with Rani and Keiko, describing something while holding up one foot and hopping on the other. Marie had to smile at the very serious looks on the girls' faces.

Razan was with Innoka, Chimeg, and… the leader of Dust; she couldn't remember his name. They were talking formally, but Razan had his arm around Innoka in a very not-formal way.

Peter was joking with Grace and Juan. Grace was obviously trying to be subtle with how she flirted, but she managed to casually or accidentally touch Peter about four times a minute. Marie gave them a week before something happened there.

And then Marie reached Louis and Ebba, who were deep in conversation with one of the Diamonds.

Louis saw her, excused himself, and walked over to take her hand. "Well, my love, you won the contest but may have made an enemy."

"Just because we thought of something no one else did?" Marie asked.

"More or less."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What have you done?"

"Me? Nothing at all!" He smiled, but it quickly faltered and he rolled his eyes. "Ebba and I, mostly Ebba but I fully support her, are in… a righteous war, one could say, against the Diamonds. They stand for safety and healthy living practices and freely shared information. Which is why, you may have noticed, mostly everyone here likes them."

"Aye, and I've also noticed they've never spoken to anyone in my group," Marie said. "Was that your doing?"

He had the decency to look ashamed. "Yes. Now they believe what you did was far too dangerous, and if other groups try it, it will end in disaster. They'd like details of why no one in your group was injured. Ebba is negotiating a price."

Marie turned away from him and went to stand next to Ebba, putting a hand on her shoulder. Ebba had her shark-like smile in place.

"There you are, dear, have you formally met Max?" Ebba asked. "He hates me more than any other living being."

Max huffed, but politely held out his hand to Marie. "Max, leader of the Diamonds."

Marie looked at the hand, then back into his eyes, making no move to accept the handshake. "A pleasure."

"I see," Max said sharply, crossing his arms. "I would like to have a civil conversation about safety, and the dangers of what you did in the contest, but this one has claimed you're aligned with them and won't freely share information which might save lives."

"This one would be correct," Marie told him slowly.

"Why?" he asked, exasperated. "You might not realize what she is-"

"I know exactly what she is," Marie said. "And I think I know what you are. Tell me; why didn't your group enter the tournament?"

Max twitched. "We don't want to ever cause harm to our fellow-"

"Go talk to Peter," Marie told him, motioning with her head. "He doesn't know all, but he knows enough."

Ebba tsked. "I almost had him."

Marie ignored her. "Diamond: I dislike pacifists and idealists. We have nothing to discuss. Razan probably won't entertain you, do not speak to Sophie, but Peter might enjoy your conversation."

"I see," Max repeated, glancing at Ebba.

Ebba shrugged dismissively.

"After the review, I'll ask Peter my questions," he said.

Marie held out her hand. "And we will never speak again."

He looked at the hand, then gave her a tart smile. "Yeah, I'm not letting you win with that." He nodded, and walked away.

"Savvy one," Marie said, dropping her hand to her side.

"He'd be much less annoying if he were an idiot," Ebba grumbled. "And I'd be ten times richer."

Louis slid up next to them, watching Marie. "You'll let Peter tell him everything?"

"I have nothing against people who want to make the world a better place," Marie said. "I'd like the world to be better, too. It's just that my way of doing it involves the murder of all the bad people, and his sort don't like that. Besides, there might come a day when I need to learn something from them. Having one of my group friendly with the other source of information on this ship can only be good."

"You'd go to someone other than me for information?" Ebba asked, pretending to be heartbroken.

"I wouldn't; Peter would," Marie said, then looked at Louis. "What I don't see is why someone like that respects you enough to not go near a group you've claimed."

"Because, while we stand for weapons and drugs and profiting off knowledge, we do help people," Louis said. "If someone wants to test a weapon before buying it, they come to us to borrow one, and we make sure they know how to not accidentally kill themselves. Very respectable."

"And we have strong opinions on only giving drugs to people who know what they're getting into by using them," Ebba added. "And know they're using them. It's the one thing Max and I truly agree on."

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"Also, while Ebba's information isn't free, it is always correct."

"All that, and Max's wife was a bit experimental before they settled into their roles as pure and good icons of morality, which is something neither of them want to be known."

Marie grinned. "There it is."

Louis shrugged. "Blackmail truly isn't my favorite of things, but it does have its uses."

Ebba was about to give her opinion of that when the pictures on the wall flashed, and the announcer called out the beginning of the review was soon. Marie pulled away from them, heading to stand with her group.

Sophie was feeling very proud of herself as the announcer declared her group the winners. Marie patted her on the shoulder, which made her even happier.

The announcer told everyone the plan hadn't gone perfectly, showing Peter and Razan stall at the beginning of their slides, and then showing them crashing into the ice at the end. But the focus quickly went back to how they weren't tired at a point when everyone else was. The announcer wondered how many people would dare copy the Drifters next climb, and then the review was over.

They were immediately surrounded by people wanting to know how certain things had been done. Peter was the first to pull away, followed by Razan. Marie handled the attention well, somehow speaking to everyone while looking at whoever had asked a question.

Sophie did her best to explain what she'd done, how she'd managed the first jump, but it was hard without a rope. The words she tried to use just made things more confusing. People gave up and turned to Marie instead.

Having tried and failed, Sophie shrugged and pushed through the crowd. Rani was waiting for her at the other end of the room.

As soon as she was away from most of the people, Antoni moved up next to her. "I'd like to congratulate you," he said with a smile. It was probably supposed to be charming, but his broken nose and bruised eyes marred the effect.

"Thank you," she replied, doing her best to not look like she found his attempts at charm pathetic and amusing.

"You're very good at climbing," he said. "Better than Rani, even. You must be very strong and athletic."

"Well, I-"

"I do my best with my group, but they don't have half the natural talent you do. You're about to celebrate, of course, but tomorrow afternoon would you mind if I joined you in the climbing room?" Antoni asked.

"Not at all," Sophie said. "Do you want to learn something?"

"Partially, I'd like to know how you slid down the rope so easily," he said.

"Partially?"

He smiled, again failing to do so charmingly. "And partially, I just like watching masters at their work."

She giggled. "I would be happy to show you how to slide down a rope."

"Thank you," he said with a bow, and walked away.

Sophie continued on her way to Rani, who had watched the whole exchange with mild concern.

"What did he want?" she asked.

"He claims he wants to learn how I slid down the rope," Sophie answered. "I'll teach him tomorrow, assuming he doesn't go straight to trying to use me for some kind of revenge against Marie and Razan."

Rani grinned, turning to go to the food stalls. "I'll join you."

"Perfect, because I want to set up a few ropes around the ceiling. Marie was telling me about how to jump from one rope to another, and we have to try it."

"Absolutely!"

"No," Peter said flatly, eyes narrowed at Grace. "I'm not arm wrestling you to see who pays for dinner."

"Why not?" she asked. "Seems perfectly reasonable to me. It's not like I suggested shots or something, first one to pass out buys."

"Well, both of us are hungry, so that couldn't go well, but I'd win regardless," he said. "Just let-"

"Was that a challenge, Poncho?" Grace asked, lightly shoving his arm.

"It might have been, Blondie," he said, smirking. "Let me buy you dinner first, and after we've eaten we can see!"

"All right then!"

"Good!" He rolled his eyes with a smile, heading to the food section.

Grace walked next to him, her hand brushing his. Peter debated what to do.

Before he could decide, a man in cream and sky blue clothes walked up to them.

"Hello, you're… Peter, right? I'm Max, leader of the Diamonds," he said, holding out a hand.

Peter shook it. "Yep, that's me. Nice to meet you, and well done yesterday."

"Likewise," Max said. "I'd like to talk to you about the contest, if you don't mind. Your group did a few dangerous things, and I'm happy to see none of you are hurt, but I'd like to know how."

"The Diamonds make sure everyone's safe in the contests," Grace told Peter. "They care more than anyone else, that's for sure."

Peter smiled slightly. "It's good someone does. But, I'm sorry, I didn't have much to do this time. Captain Marie or Sophie know more about the how and why's. You're better off talking to them."

Max's eye twitched. "I… can't talk to them."

"Why not?"

"It's complicated," the man said, giving an annoyed sigh.

Grace spoke before Peter could. "Because Marie is with Louis?"

"In short, yes," Max answered.

"What does that have to do with wanting to know things about safety?" Peter asked.

"Ebba sells information, but Max gives it away for free," Grace said. "They've had a feud going for ages. Prime drama."

Max chuckled. "I'm glad you're entertained by it. Marie said I'm allowed to talk to you. As long as you know the broad strokes of how none of you got hurt, that's what I'm after. People will try copying you, and I'd like them to not seriously injure themselves doing it."

Peter nodded. "Well, the main thing we got was thick leather gloves. To control speed you have to grab the rope, and the friction could tear away most things. The anchors can hold a lot of weight, but to be sure they didn't come out we went one at a time. Sophie had some kind of special knot on her harness for her first jump, and boots that have their own gravity or something so it wasn't as bad when she hit the wall. Other than that, we just had communication devices so we could time things."

"That's all I needed," Max said, shaking Peter's hand again. "Thanks. Seriously."

"Any time," Peter said.

"And hey, if you need advice on how to do something safely, you can always ask my group," he offered.

"I will, thank you."

Max said good-bye to Grace, then headed off towards his group. Grace nudged Peter's elbow, and they resumed walking towards food.

"So, what kind of prime drama?" he asked.

Grace smirked. "Usually it's along the lines of Ebba gives someone drugs, it goes badly, and Max uses it as an example of how evil the witch is for selling drugs in the first place. Or two people get into an argument, somehow Louis weasels his way in and declares a duel, people get hurt, and Max insists duels are bad. Or Max refuses to tell someone something, they turn around and buy the information off Ebba, it ends in disaster for them, and Max goes off about responsibility."

"So, Max is an overcautious dad and Ebba is a crazy aunt?"

"Exactly, yes," Grace laughed.

Peter smiled. "I wonder what that says about Captain Marie, that she gets along with Ebba so well."

"It's probably best not to think about it."

"True. Let's think about food instead; what would you recommend?"

Grace stopped in front of the menu board. "I don't bloody know any more. Everything I like has wheat in it. How dare you have food restrictions," she said, lightly whacking his arm.

"Very silly of me," Peter agreed, catching her hand in his. "I'll do better next time."

"I'll make sure of it," Grace threatened, her fingers curling around his.

Peter knew he'd brought it up, but he still laughed. "How?"

"Hell if I know, but I'll find a way!"

"Sure," he said, looking at the food options again.