5530/In Service of The Quill

In Service of The Quill
Date of Scene:	10 March 2021
Location:	Common Area - Milano
Synopsis:	As a follow up to #5280, Mantis ventures on her mission to discover what Peter Quill wanted her to find out. Next she'll have to report back to him.
Cast of Characters:	Mantis, Gamora

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Mantis has posed:
If anyone paid attention, they may have noticed something very odd today, namely Mantis just idling about the Common Area, walking back and forth through with it real aim, almost as if she was waiting to meet someone. That is, of course, unless that someone is Gamora, because being her target of choice, she beelines to Gamora the first moment she spots her. "Hi Gamora! We're still friends, right?" She asks with a bright smile.

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora was blissfully unaware of this strange atmosphere, for had she known sooner, it would have ended sooner just as suddenly. Gamora is... startled. She doesn't make much noise, but she inhales very sharply through her nose, and puts one hand on the hilt of her dagger. She does, to her credit, process what's happening before anyone gets a blade put to their throat, so that's nice.

    Gamora regards Mantis warily. "We are still..." She glances briefly to the side, "... colleagues, yes. Why do you ask?"

Mantis has posed:
"Oh..." Mantis looks crestfallen as the assumed friendship status from their last meeting is reduced to 'colleagues', "well...I wanted to ask you...if you would mind holding hands?" She asks out of the blue, looking at Gamora with blank look in her eyes, wide open as they are.

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora is not sure how to feel about Mantis' dejection. She's pretty sure she knows what to feel about her request, though, and that's palpable confusion. "I..." She tilts her head, "... You..." Gamora leans back slightly and looks left and right in paranoid fashion. "... Why?"

Mantis has posed:
"I would like to ask you a question, for a friend, and..." Mantis rambles, before realizing she's doing the opposite of what she was asked. Instead of not raising suspicion and questions, she's making it pretty clear she's acting on behalf of another. "Drax once said, to be brave is to be strong, and you are a strong...so would you bravely take my hand?" There, as subtle as Drax, just like she promised! So clever!

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora gives Mantis an uncomfortably long look, before she gently but firmly determines "... My mind is not a book for you to read. If you have questions, I may answer them."

Mantis has posed:
Mantis pouts, as she explains, "I am not a telepath, I do not read minds, I tried to explain that to everyone before. I am an empath, and empaths read...emotions," she puts a rather large emphasize on the word 'emotions'. "Does that put you at ease?"

Gamora has posed:
    The pause this time is just as long, and twice as uncomfortable. "No." Is her simple answer.

Mantis has posed:
Mantis looks a bit hesitant, nodding at Gamora, and sulking a bit, "well...do you, mmm...like anyone of the crew? Maybe...a male someone?"

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora furrows her brow and turns this peculiar question on her head. This may be the first time the concept of liking someone has ever been brought up around her. Trust, certainly, but 'liking'? Hmm.

    "... The males on this ship all have their merits. And their devastating flaws. Drax is a simpleton, but a mighty warrior with a code of honor. Rocket is untrustworthy, yet speaks his mind more than most, and can be relied upon with technology. Groot..." Gamora tilts her head slightly. "... seems nice?" She can't really get a read on Groot.

More pressingly, though. "Quill is..." there's a moment of silence. "Quill is..." Gamora presses her lips together flatly with some frustration, and folds her arms under her chest. "... Confusing."

Mantis has posed:
"Yes, yes, they do have merits! Drax for once is very smart, and subtle..." Mantis offers with a bright smile, which of course clashes immensely with Gamora's judgement that Drax is a simpleton, "or...he is a simpleton, yes. Very mighty though!" Mantis immediately reminds, "he is Groot!" When discussing the merits of the Groot. "Ah! Confusing!" Mantis notes, "and that is a very...likeable quality, isn't it? Things are fun when they're not certain!"

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora, oblivious to Mantis subtleties, continues to turn this matter over in her head. She hadn't stopped and thought about it before. "... He often appears a simpleton, yet he can be clever when needed. He obsesses over frivolous things, yet proved capable of defeating the Destroyer, under... mitigating circumsstances. He acts impulsively, and self-servingly, yet..." Gamora smiles just a little, "... he can be... surprisingly thoughtful. ... Considerate." Gamora's eyes drift downward, distractedly, and she murmurs, "... I think I'd like to understand him better."

Mantis has posed:
"Yes, yes! Exactly...understanding is very important." Mantis notes, "...so...suppose someone, like, say, myself! I am a person, I can ask question, and say I ask...'Dear Gamora, colleague of mine, do you think you fancy Peter Quill?' What would you say to such a question?" Mantis asks, her antanneas glowing a dim glow shifting a bit in her nervousness at her own question. Weird, why should she care?

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora raises one eyebrow very slowly. Fancy him? Does she *fancy* him? She's been oblivious to his attraction right up until the moment that she learned what 'hot' means in human parlance, and... now that she thinks about it, that recontextualises a lot of their past interactions.

    Does *he* fancy *her?* Gamora looks briefly perturbed, but her expression grows stern as she pushes these matters out of her mind. "No man has yet proven worthy to breed aggressively with Gamora Ben Titan." Which is sort of dodging the question. "Such things do not weigh on my mind, and a man would have to be truly remarkable to change that, regardless of how their abdomen is defined."

    Good save, Gamora.

Mantis has posed:
"Ah...I understand...you can't fancy a man like Quill if he doesn't proven worthy of aggressive breeding, that makes sense," Mantis lies, since she has no clue what they're talking about, so it actually makes zero sense to her. But she's polite like that, and therefore will settle for the answer she managed to glean. "How does one prove worthy of aggressive breeding? Is he to punch...Drax?" Mantis muses, as if this was some mathmaking game. All hypothetical of course. Quill wasn't there after all, it's just pretend talk.

"Mmmm...the abdomen must be firm, I imagine...I am sure lucky I do not need to prove myself to be an aggressive breeder, I wouldn't know how to do that!"

Gamora has posed:
    "Well-" Gamora starts to answer authoritatively, then stops. "... Hmm." She dips her head and puts her hand on her chin. She'll throw this on the pile of things she'd never really considered in her short violent life. "I... Hmm. Strength is... strength is surely important, but... were it the only merit, I would no doubt be carrying Drax's spawn at this very moment, and that is..." Gamora wrinkles her nose and shakes her head a little, "... not appealing."

    Gamora sighs softly, and ponders, "I suppose... I suppose he would have to be a man... unlike any other I've known. Who stands out and... inspires me." She ponders. "To breed." She looks off to the side, "Aggressively."

    So, in layman's terms, she has no idea what her type is, and odds are high she has never been romanced ever.

Mantis has posed:
"Yes, yes, strength is important! So useful, for so many aspects!" Mantis is quick to agree. She nods sagely at Gamora's conclusion about Drax, expressing no opinion of her own, "Drax is out of the question then, too much strength, and not enough intangibles!" Whatever Gamora meant to express, Mantis clearly understood it perfectly, which is to say not at all.

"Thank you for having this friendly conversation, colleague, you made me all the wiser for it!" With a quick bow, Mantis more or less flees the scene!