A secret mission (Mao and shintaro SL)

(Ok lets try and get this over with.) Mao whispered under his breath as he walked into the cafeteria. It was that time again, mao had to go to the back and start to bake some food for the people on the ship. Now he loved to bake, it always calmed him down and he was always happy when he saw other people enjoying the food he made. But he couldn't let anyone know about that. After all, who would take him seriously if they found out that he baked for a living? No one! It would ruin his dreams forever! So he had to get their in secret. Luckly there was a back door he could sneak into without being seen. He looked around to check if anybody was near, and he couldn't see anyone. He pulled out his key and unlocked the door before going in. However he forgot to lock the door this time around, he even forgot to close it fully aswell. Normally he wouldn't make this kind of mistake, but today he accidentally knocked down a tower of trays on the floor. The trays made a loud noise as they hit the ground. Goddamnit! Mao got on his knees and started to pick up the trays, hopefully he could do it before someone came to check on the noise.

Not quite feeling in the mood to accidentally engage himself with a lot of loud people in midst of cafeteria chaos, the had been glued to one of the walls of the room, doing his best to stay away from the tables and most crowded parts of the establishment as he munched on a sandwich filled with a lot of mysterious ingredients. Originally, he hadn't even wanted to come around, but he did need to sustain himself on something, and he couldn't get anyone to go and bring food for him, allowing him to not leave his room and the book he had been trying to read. He could have asked the Dees that were milling about, but he saw a bunch of them busy helping some other activity, and decided to not bother them with something as silly as food delivery just because he wanted to be a hermit today...which he frankly decided to be a lot, but that was a topic for another day.

Dragging himself out into the 'society' was proving to be a bit of a nuisance for him, and a large distraction, but at the very least he was more or less successful at not getting people interested in him, as the ones eating right now sat and engaged with their own friend groups instead of approaching a lone figure that stood out of the way.

Everything went well, until his food break got interrupted by quite a loud noise which made him wince slightly, the feathers on his wings fluffing up a bit in momentary irritation. It was just his luck that he had without realizing chosen a spot that was fairly close to the back entrance to the kitchen area, thus making him be the one closest to the noise that probably got drowned out in the chatter otherwise. Thoroughly distracted now, Shintaro would turn his head to glance towards the seemingly partially opened door. Well, that was a good indication that someone was likely there, and they were the one who just caused that terrible crashing noise a few moments earlier.

Meh. He sure wasn't the help police around here, but it would have been impolite of him to ignore that, considering there was a chance that someone got hurt due to whatever happened back there. Stuffing the last of the sandwich in his mouth and quickly swallowing it down, he'd quietly make his way to the door, peeking his head in through it, not even trying to fully walk inside just yet. What he did do however, was launch into a slight ramble, almost going off topic there, but hey, any kind of concern counts, right?

"Hey, you alive in here? That sounded like a bomb explosion happened, hope we don't have explosive food on the menu today. Not that I'd be eating that, but people combusting would cause too much chaos...."

........ What? Mao turned around to face the strange the man. He didn't really know how to react to this, he was to confused to answer right away. Explosive food? Mao gussed that the man was trying to make a joke, but the tone of his voice didn't really sound like he was. Yes i am alive. And yes i do agree, people blowing up would cause alot of unwanted chaos. Mao finshed putting up the tray, as suddenly the fact that somebody saw hit him like a sack of bricks. This was bad. This was really, really, really bad. He had too think of something and fast. So.. Uh why ar- Ho- This was not working. Mao would rush out of the door, and quickly close it before looking at the man. So um. Mao clears his voice. As you know i am the great mao zeth the 7th! What is your name.......... human? How odd he was sure that humans didn't have any wings. Did he undergo surgery to get them? Or maybe he was some alien that just looked like a human, Space was vast so it wasn't too out of the question but it was still a little odd. Never the less if everything went to plan, mao would be able to distracted the bird man long enough for him to forget everythinf he saw here.

Reality was, Shintaro wasn't even trying to make a joke with what he had said. That was simply him going off on a possibility tangent, although it was true it could be seen as an attempt at being funny. He'd wave a hand about somewhat animatedly. "Yeah, kinda like secret grenades or something...would maybe make a good weapon..." When used against enemies of course. He wouldn't continue that train of thought however, as the scaly guy seemed to suddenly panic and rush through the door and past him, which would cause the winged man to hop backwards a little in an attempt to avoid getting accidentally slammed into. "Whoa whoa, what burned your butt all of a sudden? One accident was enough in the last few minutes, wasn't it?" He had come here to check just in case, but he sure hadn't been planning on getting hurt too. Why was this dude losing his mind anyway?

Honestly, this was a little too much shock for such a short amount of time, which Shintaro found a bit upsetting, but he'd push that away for now as he gave a mildly exasperated huff. He noted this guy seemed to think he was a human oddly enough, despite how humans weren't able to genetically possess wings. Not all aliens looked grotesque or like beasts, did they now? Yeah okay, this guy was a scaly reptile, but his stature was still largely humanoid too, right? Wasn't like he was on all fours and unable to do typical human tasks like some real fantasy beast. He opted to let that pass for now though, not correcting the dude's guess just yet. Shoving one hand inside the pocket of his baggy pants, the bird man would scratch the back of his head sheepishly with the other. "Eheh, do I? 's kinda bold of ya to assume I know you. Don't think we've met before, have we, Mr. greatness?" Real talk though, he had heard of the dude before, as he kept his tabs on what was going on. Can't be a proper researcher without even having your information ducks in a row. Still, he couldn't help but question the reptilian man's bold assumptions. "You may call me Shintaro Ryou, nice to make your acquaintance...I guess." Huh...he that sure had a ring to it. He seriously didn't go out to hang with the crew of the ship a lot, eh?

Unfortunately for Mao however, the talk didn't manage to make him completely forget about the situation they were in. "So...you the chef here?"

Mao would think about the man's comment about explosive food for a bit. While he did have a point about it being a good weapon, it was also very dishonorable. So mao would try his best to avoid that little strategy. What? No, no, no. That's not it. Its just, your not allow to look in their. Its a secret area! That was the best mao could come up with at the time. Plus he wasn't really lying either, unless he was one of the cooking staff he shouldn't be in there. He was pretty sure most people wouldn't mind him just standing there, looking inside but, he didn't have to know that. Mao seemed shocked at the fact that he haven't heard of him before. How could he have not heard of him! But then it dawned on him. Ah yes. He must be new here. Mao thought to himself as he reached his hand out to him for a handshake. Likewise. Mao breathing started to increase as shintaro asked him if he was the chef. It seemed like this man was quick on the uptake. But mao realized that he didn't know what he cooked yet! He could still save his public image! Yes! Yes i am! I am the meat cooker, i cook meat and only meat! Yes cooking meat was a manly thing to do. He could make this work, he just had to make the man foucs on talking about himself rather than him talking about cooking meat. Because if he did, mao would fake his way though it. And that would not be fun at all. So what job do you peform shintaro?

"Huh, the kitchen's a secret area now? Are you sure you're really not doing something shady in there?" It was kind of unlikely, as that could easily get traced to the people who frequented the place to make the food. Still, whether the dude was aware of it or not, the way he was acting was obviously suspicious. Loud excuses with an extreme focus on denying things that were mentioned...were there nothing to hide, there would be no need to panic so much. Mr. Great clearly wasn't very calm about this however.

In any case, with the height difference between them Shintaro had to give himself a brief boost with his wings to float above the ground for the handshake. Shady behavior or not, he had no reason to not at least be polite for the time being. Tilting his head to the side, the winged man would give his companion a questioning look for a moment at the sudden outburst about meat cooking. "Ain't you a little too heated about this? I didn't even ask what you specialized in." He'd smile a little, his expression becoming slightly cheeky. "Did you know? People who rush to strongly assert irrelevant facts like this are often liars. You're really making it seem like you're trying to cover for something. Trying too hard's not gonna help it, y'know?" It probably wasn't anything too important, so he was for the most part prodding at the guy just to see what effect it would have, instead of being serious about the accusations. Unless of course, the dude turned out to actually be doing dangerous things, but eh, he'd decide what to do if that came up.

"I do research. You could say I'm the brains in brains and brawn." He seemed to be mildly amused by his own statement there.

No! There is no shades in there! No shades at all! The light in there is quite powerful, quite powerful indeed. Shit, this shintaro man was starting to suspect him! Now the great mao would have to come up with another idea to prove that he wasn't doing anything fishy. Heated? Me? No! You're the heated one my friend, very heated indeed. And besides, just saying chef is very vague. You might think that i am a girly chef like a baker or........ Or a uh. Mao breathing increased yet again as he tired to come up with more "girly types of chefs". Sadly he could not come up with anything else, so all he ended up doing was dig a bigger hole for himself. Yes that is a very cool fact, but i do not see what that has too do with anything we where talking about. As we drakes only speak the truth! Mao waved his hands in the air, almost like he was trying to wave off his questions physically. Cover for something? I would never do that! Look for yourself! Mao walked over to the door and would hold it open for shin to look inside. As you can see, it is a normal kitchen. Full of meat for me to cook, and other food items for the other people to cook and or bake. Shintaro without knowing it had exposed mao's greatest weakness. Being caught off guard. And he sure as hell knew how to make the most of mao's weakness. Because mao has not felt so powerless in a long time, there was nothing he could do to stop the birdman. He could only hope that he came up with a non physical way to stop him, and quickly too. Research is good! It can win many battles! Why don't you tell me, about some of the things you research?

"Huh? Is that supposed to be a joke?" He didn't think it was possible to misinterpret his words that badly for real, so he would take the guess this dude was trying to make a funny out of it to divert the attention from the possible issue at hand. The winged man would offer the other an amused wave of a hand. "Is turning a statement on the person who first said it without any explanation why or proof how you win debates or arguments in your homeland? At least try to be entertaining when you try to counter, y'know?" Half-assed retorts didn't really provide much evidence of your lack of guilt, did they now? "I've no idea what you're on about anyway, why would the kind of food you cook make any difference...? Plenty chefs cook any meal they're asked to...ain't it actually a skill to be proud of if you can do more than just be a one trick pony?" Was baking girly? Eh, weren't there many people who'd claim cooking itself to be a woman's job? It didn't matter at that point. Do whatever ya want, right?

"Whether you speak the truth or not takes time to confirm...that's assuming I had time in my day to focus specifically on you." There was still a sense of carelessness in the tone and way Shintaro spoke with, questioning or not. He wasn't taking this super seriously, outside of being compelled to keep the 'debate' up in response to how much the reptile man was panicking over it all. It probably would have not gone this way, had Mao not been acting so defensive the whole time, causing it to keep going. Honestly, this guy was so easy to play...it wasn't even that funny anymore.

The winged man would shrug a little when he was shown the kitchen before finally putting on a more serious expression and all.


And speaking of strategy... "I don't care that much about the fighting. I'll work on whatever is useful, but honestly big brutes who think they'll win by shouting over everyone or just by being physically stronger ain't up my alley. That big ego gets annoying." Was that supposed to be an implied insult? Hard to say since Mao hadn't exactly claimed to be that way, but at the very least, the dude certainly gave off a certain image so far.

Why yes, yes it is. Mao would put his hand up to his chin when shintaro talked about debates. He tired to remember any debates back on his old planet, but it always ended in someone getting hurt, or worse. We didn't really have debates on my planet. Alot of arguments though. Mao also found it weird that shintaro said that this was a "debate" or "argument" it didn't really feel that way to him. He wondered if other people would think of this as a argument. The type makes alot of difference! And besides i've never liked being a "jack of all trades." Why would i want to be above average at alot of things, when i could be the best at one! Mao would mentally sigh and cross his arms, while glaring at him. But you have enough time to fuck with me? Mao thought to himself as shintaro went off on his little rant. Well i guess you are right. Being caught off guard was always a weakness of mine. Mao didn't comment on the last part of his rant. Mostly because he felt it was passive aggressive, and wasn't worth his time to respond to. However he was curious about shintaro's dislike for fighting. Why is that? Is it the danger? Or have you only fought shadows before? While mao could still enjoy fighting shadows he could see why people would not like fighting them. After all they where fools, they attacked mindless. Never switching things up, they where just too easy. Now demons? That's better.