Cassandra: Where responses were due

<ooc>Bit of a back post frenzy I'm afraid - had a very busy week last week, but normal service has now been resumed :)</ooc>

Who: Cass, Jay, Phil
When: Just after Phil materialised (in “Are you sitting comfortably?”)
Where: Starbug en route back to the 'Dwarf

<snip>
Cassandra got up - "Be right back, just checking Seymour not been hog roasted..be right back"

Phil pulled Jay to one side "Jay, keep this under your hat, but as i made the jump i could feel the degradaditon of the TF affecting me..It freid a few of my synapes..nothing serious but I have no idea whats been going on in the last few months..so If i make a mistake or something..just let me know ok?"
</snip>

Cass strolled back into the room a few minutes later
"Nope - No hog roasting going on out there ...whatever the smeg it is!"
She glanced between Jay and Phil, narrowing her eyes
"You boys manage to catch up on everything you felt you needed to?"
"Yeah" Phil chuckled "We're good thanks"
"Excellent" Cass smiled back, intending to watch whatever it was they had said was via the security feeds later on
"So, I guess it's looking like your story could hold water, Jay" she continued "But then again: Isn’t it a bit of a coincidence, another allegedly rogue STCP operative turning up, when I started questioning things again?"
Phil winced and glanced over at Jay
"Is she...?"
"Yeah" Jay sighed "She's usually this suspicious - It's part of her charm..."
"Aw, come on" Cass soothed "I'm messing... Mostly"
"The only thing I am struggling with is: Why the STCP would willingly employ someone they consider to be an Omega level threat, instead of just killing them?"
"Well, yeah..." Phil shrugged"I have to admit that I did wonder about that myself"
"I just assumed that they were smegging stupid" Jay grinned, winking at Phil
"And these clowns are responsible for keeping reality ticking over!?" Cass sneered incredulously "Do me a favour!"
"Then again" Phil smirked immodestly "Perhaps it was my unparalleled knowledge of temporal physics that got them all hot and excited for me?"
"I shudder to think" Cass wrinkled her nose at the thought "Although speaking of which: You'll have to talk me through the theory behind your time fridge sometime - I assume it's something along the lines of stasis field manipulation with phase modulated gravity waves?"
"At its most basic..." Phil shrugged, before frowning quizzically at her "I... know you from somewhere don't I? Did you used to work in the science department?"
Cassandra's expression hardened
"No..." she replied, guardedly
"So where do I know you from...?"
"Oookay Phil" Jay quickly interrupted, clapping his friend around the shoulders and pulling him away "How about we go let the rest of the crew know you're back!?"
Phil raised an eyebrow
"Sure" he shrugged "Whatever..."

...

When: Moments later (in “To (what's left of) the medi-bay!”)
<snip>
"Then it's settled" Jay said "Everyone grab a gun, or three" he eyed Davie for a second, spotting the weapons he was already carrying "Or twenty-three, whatever, and lets move out. Stay close together, we can't afford to lose anyone...."
</snip>

...

As the group trekked on down towards the Medibay, Cass moved past several of the other crew members to fall in step alongside Jay, stealing a sideways glance at him as they walked together in silence
"Thanks" she offered after a moment
Jay looked at her, raising his eyebrows in silent query
"For earlier on I mean - Back at the trading post? I'm not entirely sure if I'd have survived that fire-fight without you"
"I'm only glad I was there to help" Jay's face creased with an easy smile
"Well..." she shrugged shyly "Means a lot; I'll have to think of some way to thank you properly..."
"Oh?" Jay asked, all mock innocence, whilst at the same time allowing himself the faintest trace of a wolfish grin "That sounds like something to look forward to!"
"You'd better believe it Sparky..."

Cass took a breath and glance over her shoulder to make sure that nobody else was listening before before she continued, but spotted Seymour trailing further and further behind the rest of the party
"What the smeg is that lunatic doing now?" she sighed "Gimmie a moment..."

...

When: After Phil had told Seymour about the "cucumber prophecy" (in "Captain Cucumber?" and “Happy reunions”)

<snip>
Phil looked at Jay,looked as Cass and grinned again.

*inside Phil's Mind * {Troll Mode activated}

"So..Jay..that Cass..she got a great ass does she not?"
<end snip>

Ahead of them, Cass stiffened
If anyone mentions my time as a stripper, she privately seethed, curling her hands at her sides into fists, I'm going to kick them in the nuts

<snip>
"Shut up Phil." Jay said simply "Don't be a pervert."
"Pervert?" Phil replied loudly "Come on, since when have you been such a prude?"
"Shut up! She's a person, not meat!"
</snip>

As grateful as she was to Jay for sticking up for her, Cass tried putting a bit of distance between herself and this cringe-worthy conversation by quickening her pace, spurred on by the ugly twitch of neuroses that she had previously thought long dead after her efforts at butchering her personality to eradicate them
She couldn't believe she was even being discussed like this while she was still in the same location!

<snip>
"What are you.....oooooooooooooooooh, I getcha!"
"Get what?" Jay said, losing patience with his friend.
"You only get like this when you fancy someone...you were the same with Alota, and with Katrina...all defensive and 'gentlemanly'..."
"Look, I just....it's not the time alright!"
"I'm right aren't I?" Phil shouted "You want a piece of Cass' ass! Shoulda known, wait....is SHE the one you used to talk about....?"
"SSssh!" hissed Jay, even though if Cass was going to overhear, she already would have.
</snip>

Having resolved to turn around and smack Phil's mouth shut, Cass' breath hitched in her throat when she heard this, her heart skipping a beat as the world span dizzily around her
He liked her!
He really did!
He had done for ages!
Unnerved and now shyly unwilling to turn around and face anyone, let alone Jay, Cass took a couple of unsteady gulps of air
"Smeg's sake" she breathed, trying to concentrate on simply putting one foot in front of another and taking the next step
What the smeg was it she so afraid of!?

It was Seymour, in the end, who saved her any further embarrassment by squealing in shock and surprise at encountering the larger of Justin's heads, poking out through the wall

...

When: Just after Justin had pestered Phil, and Jay had thrown the Fecalatior (in “I present..The Fecalatior”)
<snip>
"Moving would be a good idea now", said Phil, starting a countdown in his head as everyone moved to a safe distance, the squid going a funny purple colour.

When he got to 8... "Oh Seymour? Look at that it's a got a mark on it's back shaped like the Queen!"

Seymour, excited about this possible royal connection,his mouth open and eyes wide, looked round just as the Fecalitor grenade went off and caused the Hamza squid to soil itself, explosively in Seymours direction, then pass out.

"Now i suggest we get the heck out of here before that things wakes up!"
</snip>

Amidst Seymour's anguished wails of disgust and the fishy stench and filth of the contents of the squid's guts besmirching the floor, the group hurried into the med facility to strip it of whatever supplies it contained; Justin eagerly rushing forward to help and pushing obtrusively closely past Cass, his upper arm 'inadvertently' lingering as it brushed one of her breasts, a ragged sigh escaping his lips
"You little shit!" Cass snarled angrily "Holly? Suspend this smeggers processes this instant!"
To Justin's immense surprise his body ceased responding to his mental control and simply froze, remaining paralysed as his own momentum carried him forward, overbalancing him and sending him splashing down into the murky effulgent awash on the floor
"Don't touch me. Don't talk to me. Don't even look at me" Cass hissed through gritted teeth "Or I swear: The billions of times you've died will be as nothing to what I'll engineer for you!"
Justin, face down in the filth on the floor, could only stare out of the corner of an eye at her in mute astonishment, mentally drinking in the way her chest rose and fell with each angry breath - she was just how he'd dreamed she'd be!
"Everyone else can squabble over who gets to wear the smegging captains hat as much as they like" Cass continued venomously "But since I created Holly: It's me with the system overrides, and me with final control over each and every single one of this smegging ship's functions - and that includes you, you little shit! Do you understand!?"
She kicked him hard in the side of the head, before recovering herself sufficiently to realise that he was unable to speak
"Let him talk Holly" she snapped, aiming another kick at his head "I said: Do you understand?"
"Yes ma'am" Justin bubbled meekly through the filth, feeling deeply aroused by both the pain and the humiliation she was inflicting on him
Cass kicked him again for good measure and turned to leave, giving Justin a view of her arse he hadn't had since he had frequented the club she used to work in
"He can get up now, Holly"
As Justin hauled himself, dripping, up out of the mire on the floor, Phil nudged Jay
"I can see what you like about this one" he murmured as White Wolf rounded the corner waving what looked like a data pad "That was magnificent..."

<tag>
I know I'm going to regret this, but ...tag Justin ;)
</tag>