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"Hmm."
A curious girl, by the name of Aries Spring, looked down at the cards laid on top of the lounge's table. They were arranged in a smiley face. The rest of the cards were stacked neatly and purposefully at the corner of the table.
There was no mistaking that she was curious.
Why are they arranged in that pattern?
However, curious as she may have been, she didn't want to touch the cards.
They seemed to have been placed very carefully.
Whoever put them there might not want anyone disturbing the arrangement, she thought.
Leaving the cards just as they were, she made her way back to the corridor for everyone's rooms.
She decided to ask around for the person that left the cards.
A wide smile made its way to her face.
It would be a chance for her to strike up some conversation and become closer to her new friends.
Before that, I'll ask Kanata if he knows anything about it!
xxx
He blinked, unimpressed, at the cards laid on the table.
Zack Walker had been told to check out the lounge by Charce. According to him, Kanata said it was urgent.
This didn't seem very urgent at all.
He adjusted his glasses as if doing so would make him see what was urgent. Of course, nothing happened.
If Kanata said that it was urgent, though…
Tilting his head slightly, he observed the smiley-face cards.
Maybe this was a roundabout way for Kanata to encourage them.
While Zack may not have known Kanata for very long yet, he had already made it clear how much he suited the role of the captain of their ship. Yes, perhaps he may have seemed unreliable at first, but Zack already found himself trusting Kanata. If anyone could get all of them back to their home planet, it would be Kanata.
I'll pass the information on to the others too…I'm sure that this would also encourage them.
xxx
Yun-Hua Lu shied away when Aries tried to tell her about the cards in the lounge. She didn't know anything about them but Aries insisted that they were 'quite misterical' – by which she meant 'quite mysterious' – and while Yun-Hua was still overwhelmed by how friendly Aries was, she thought it would be rude to not at least have a look after Aries made the effort to tell her about it.
She appreciated how willing Aries was to speak to even someone so quiet like her.
Though, perhaps maybe she just thought it would be impolite not to.
Pessimism getting the best of her, Yun-Hua only managed to see the cards for a few seconds, before returning right away to the quarters, not eager to bump into anyone else.
xxx
Kanata was extremely bad at keeping a poker face.
Due to that, when he told Charce to check it out, so eagerly, it seemed a bit fishy.
Charce Lacroix regarded the smiley-face pattern with a stiff smile.
Yep. Totally fishy.
…This could be fun.
He departed to find someone else to tell about the cards. Maybe Zack.
xxx
The knocking on his door was excessively irritating.
All he wanted to do, was stay in his room. He had no intention to make nice with any of the other kids here. Yeah, alright, they had a few more planets to go until they made it back home but that didn't mean that he had to make friends with them.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
He opened the door by a fraction, trying to convey through his eyes alone for whoever that was there to go the hell away.
It was the short purple-haired kid and he looked completely unperturbed by Ulgar Zweig's not-so-sunny mood.
The guy chattered on about something in the lounge that Ulgar just had to go and see.
Ulgar shut the door on him.
...He did, however, go to take a brief look later on, when no one else seemed to be about.
Needless to say, he turned around and headed straight back, when he realised that it was a waste of his time.
xxx
Quitterie Rafaelli went into the lounge, in search of her headband. She usually kept it secure but she may have taken it off after her last meal, feeling quite stuffy, despite the amount of room they had on the spaceship. She just didn't like it. They were all stuck in such a small area for extended periods of time, with nothing but the cold, gloomy, darkness of space just outside.
Anyway -
Zack was the one that suggested that she look in the lounge.
Spotting the cards, she narrowed her eyes.
She definitely remembered someone saying something about playing cards…something very distasteful…
Urgh, boys!
xxx
Hehehe.
Kanata Hoshijima giggled as he saw his crewmates trickle in one by one to see the cards. Now, if even one of them touched the cards and turned them over, that would be game over but he didn't see any of them reach out for the cards from where the corner he was hiding in.
He was proud of his crew, so far. He still needed to get to know them more to find out about all their different characters but he was confident that at least in this case, he was sure to be right -
"Kanata get your butt over here!"
That sounded like Quitterie.
A very, angry Quitterie.
Not good.
Wait, how did she even see him from his hiding spot?
xxx
"Yeah, alright, I confess, the cards are there because of me…" Kanata said, looking deflated.
Quitterie had called everyone to the lounge and so everyone made their way out. Even Ulgar, as reluctant as he was. They all looked at Kanata, their eyes so…so…
"But it was a bet and Luca was in on it too and they're his cards and he put them down!"
"You traitor!" Luca Esposito exclaimed.
"Hey, I'm the captain, remember? And as captain, if I go down you gotta go down with me!"
Luca gasped. "Wow, that's so petty!"
Quitterie rubbed the temples of her head. "Didn't we agree that we weren't going to use the 'sexy cards' that Luca had?"
"Well," said Luca, "we said that we wouldn't use them for card games. We didn't say anything about pranks!"
What was wrong with his pack of cards anyway? So they were cards with a bunch of girls on them, so what? Okay, okay, maybe they were a bit scantily-dressed but again, he thought he was going to go on a school trip? That was just a typical thing to bring! Everyone knew that!
Not that he said any of that out loud, though, because if Quitterie's looks could kill…
"More importantly…you lost the bet Kanata! Because – " Luca pointed dramatically at the cards. "Someone took a peek!"
That's right! Looking at it now, the cards that made up the right eye were now horizontal! "Oh, I get it! Someone picked the cards up and then didn't put it back in the right place," said Aries. "And the extra pile of cards that were stacked up are gone!"
"Well done, Aries!"
"Ehehehe…" The pink-haired girl grinned. "Thank you."
"Luca don't congratulate her! And Aries you should be mad too!" Quitterie snapped. She crossed her arms. "This is so dumb."
"Okay, but who was the one who peeked?" Kanata pressed. "That's what we've got to know! 'Cause whoever did gets the nickname 'Astra's No.1 Perv.'"
"Urgh, for someone who just lost a bet, you don't seem so down."
That was a good question, though. Who was to be crowned Astra's No.1 Perv? "Kanata did you see who did it?"
"Not at all! Which is weird because I was here the whole time!"
"The whole time?" Quitterie asked, looking doubtful.
"…I mean I had to use the toilet once or twice."
So not the whole time.
"I think I was the first one to find it," said Aries. "I didn't touch the cards."
"Alright, next." Luca gestured to the next person because of course, Aries was not suspect. "So how about one of you – " His voice trailed off as Zack and Ulgar offered him nothing but blank, unamused looks. "Okay, not you then." He passed over Yun-Hua since it certainly was not her. "Charce?"
He shrugged. "Nope, alas, it wasn't me! I vaguely recalled that you said you had 'sexy cards'. Now, if they were cards that showed more muscle tissue or skeletal structure I would most likely have been tempted!"
"Yeah, that's still creepy in a whole other way. But rules you out too." Luca sighed. "It wasn't Quitterie, because she knows that I have the cards and wanted me to get rid of them. And I've already seen all of them so that leaves…"
Everyone's eyes shifted to Kanata.
"O – oi! What? Don't look at me with those dead eyes!"
"Yep. It was him," they said, simultaneously.
"And don't just agree with each other unanimously! Aren't I your captain? Aren't I? Hey, aren't I?"
The rest of the crew started heading back to what they were doing. Nearly time for bed, after all.
"We're not even going to discuss this?"
"Tsk, tsk, I'm not so happy about winning this bet because you lack self-control, captain." Luca shook his head, feeling disappointed. "I guess I'll call it a tie since it doesn't feel like a real win. Looks like peeking at the sexy cards was more important than failure or unpopularity, right?"
"Wow, okay then, this actually hurts a little! They're your cards Luca! Also, don't you think I didn't catch that super forced line, huh? Is that even allowed? Hey guys, I've been used for this punchline, I swear! Hear me out, guys! Guysssss!"
xxx
Funicia brushed her teeth, just as her big sister Quitterie told her to.
The older kids were talking about something but she wasn't allowed to go! Her sister said ten-year-olds had to go to sleep early.
Turning the tap off, she got off the step-stool and trudged along back to her room.
Aw, she didn't really feel like going to sleep yet.
A stroke of brilliance then struck her.
Maybe Quitterie will let me stay up if we play with the cards I found!
Funi giggled as she remembered how she rearranged the smiling face into a winking face. She didn't want to take those too because she thought it looked funny.
She opened the door.
"Yay! You're back! Guess what?"