Responding to Zeton's suggestion, Ham surreptitiously pulls out his scanner and starts to fiddle with it under the table.
Just as he's about to engage it, there is a loud, booming Yangae, "Oh, really?" from the direction of the three newcomers. The massive Zentryl stands and dusts off his arms dramatically, then turns and approaches the party. There is a wide smile on his face and fire in his eyes as he levels his gaze on Ham and crosses his arms.
"Ybandya!" he says with saccharine sweetness, leaning toward Ham. "Yany thok-mobar tu-roko tcok-jus-thok-ij tu-gar. Tu-margh-jakijny?"
(I'll e-mail El Tigrez the translation of the Biton.)
"That's right, Bozz," says the Atlan-type humanoid in Yangae with a very wimpy-sounding voice as he moves behind his much-larger companion. "He's up to something! What's he got under the table?"
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Ham smiles and replies levelly in Biton. Sliding his scanner back into its pouch, he stands and mimics the Zentryl's stance. His gaze, however, swings toward the smaller, Atlan-type humanoid.
Uskua, who had just arrived at Mon'Fargret's location, turns to confront the two interlopers.
"Uskua!" says Ham quickly but deliberately in Yangae. "I know you don't understand Biton, but..." As he says this, he makes a surreptitious gesture...
...which Uskua misses completely. Glaring, she spits something in Biton at Ham and then starts dressing down the newcomers.
Zeton looks on in stunned silence, but braces himself for any sort of negative reaction from Bozz or the smaller Atlan-type humanoid. In fact, Zeton is watching the smaller person very intently, making sure he doesn't try to take any action that might lead to the situation spiraling more out of control.
Mon'Fargret slowly prepares for the situation to spiral out of control.
After Uskua's bluster, the Zentryl stares at her with surprise for a second or two. Then he smirks, nods, and says something to her and Ham each before turning on his heel and swaggering back to his table.
The little guy is more than a little peeved at his companion's giving in so quickly. Giving the party one last look of pure, type-B supergiant resentment, he follows after, protesting quietly.
"Ham, what the hell just happened?!!? How in the world did they suspect what we were up to?"
Without pausing to let Ham respond, Zeton turns to Nekshi, "Does that little guy look like an Endihec to you? Do you think he's so suspicious of us because of the Zorlan Genocides?"
Zeton sighs and leans back in his chair, "All this business with the Scarlett Revival has made me hyper jumpy and that's not good..."
Uskua huffs and tosses a shaggy, silvery lock of hair over her shoulder. "You're not the only one," she says. Then she throws a puzzled look at Mey'Luskar.
The latter continues to chew her monacta in thoughtful silence.
Uskua dismisses her thoughts with a click of the tongue and turns to Mon'Fargret again.
Bina looks at Zeton and says in Her-Galad, "He was probably just watching us. He's kind of paranoid, and we are attracting attention."
"That's putting it mildly," retorts La'Brissa (in Yangae) as she continues with her sketching.
Ham nods and gives a final response to the large one's smirk in equal posture, and watches them retreat. He gives the paranoid a hard flinty stare before he moves off.
As they return to their seats Ham relaxes and goes back to his.
To Uskua he says with a soft voice "I will talk to you ...later" raising his eyebrows.
He turns to Zeton and quietly says "False alarm - at least for now. Being from typical Ibitonian attitude and space, they are going to be armed on just principle alone. I should have thought of that at the start. If they didnt like us ....they would have been a lot more 'forward' the little drek was just trying to stir up trouble"
Granite, who was busily trying to decide whether there was going to be some jet-assisted tackling in her near future, relaxes a bit.
Mon'Fargret asks Uskua for some more tea and leans forward to her and asks quietly, "You were pretty tense earlier. Was it the two that just left? I realize it is odd to see us assembled like the trees all changed leaves. I hope it isn't us."
Uskua shrugs. "Aw, you know how star jocks can be. That one was pret-ty mouthy, though. Kind of like some of the others that have come through here recently." She glances sidelong at Mey'Luskar. "Look, if you're gonna try and help Adulie, I'll do anything I can, but you know..." She glances around at the party with a quizzical look. Then she continues more quietly, "All those packs and stuff...you guys look like either you've bought out half the Square or you're planning to camp out in the Park. Or you're geared up for war."
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