#marikei

Marina Oki can make grown men wither and crumble at her feet with a single cold stare. It's more than a little intimidating. Kei still wants to climb her like a tree. She knows Marina has fought tooth and nail to be where she is, because being a woman in the military is hard enough as it is, but commanding status and respect? That's even more difficult. And yet no one questions her orders. In their predominantly male-dominated unit, sexist quips are likely to crop up, even if spoken out of ignorance or meant in jest; Marina shuts them down in the most savagely elegant of ways. They all grow sheepish around her, and yet when Kei attempts to do the same, it doesn't quite work. Oh, she's tried every trick in the book. Harsh words. Kind ones, but spoken with knives on her tongue. The intense take-no-shit glare she's been perfecting since she ran on the streets of Tokyo. Adding more spikes and chains to her clothes so that even her silhouette is threatening. None of it has the same effect as Marina simply entering a room. There is nothing that compares with her diplomatic grace and brutal truths. It doesn't help that she's gorgeous, and that Kei figured out a long time ago that the taste of men does nothing for her. But, alas, that's a lofty goal she's not pursuing at the moment. "You have got to teach me how to do that." Kei mentions offhandedly one day, after Marina has just finished chewing out the special ops team joining them on their mission. Marina gives her a confused look. "What on earth are you talking about?" She asks as she hikes a rifle over he shoulder, "Let's get moving." Harlock later likens her to a puppy trailing after their favorite person. Kei punches him until he shuts up. Like he has any room to talk, with the way common sense goes out the window when a certain someone is in the picture. But they all have her vices, and her's just happens to be really tall, really hot women who know their way around a Beretta M9. Maybe it's her age. She is that much younger than the rest of them, twenty and a half and always having to sneak her booze before someone with their laces tied too tight tries to take it from her. (Kei has been drinking since she was seventeen, they can all kindly fuck off) Maybe though, it's sheer lack of experience that's causing a lack of impact when she tries to put the fear of god into anyone. Maybe Harlock is right and she keeps getting too distracted by Marina to practice properly. "You have one hell of a murder walk," Is what Marina offers to her weeks later, "I've never seen a crowd part so fast." Kei is a little taken aback; she might be one of the few among them who hasn't taken a life, for whatever reason. All she had known was that she wasn't about to let a busy marketplace come between her and the target. She hadn't really been conscious of the way she carried herself, or the way other people had reacted-- but then again, they must have scrambled out of her way because she doesn't remember bowling anyone over. Belatedly, the fact that she's been complemented catches up with her. She needs to say something cool, something meaningful. "Thanks?" Is all that comes out instead. Kei really hopes she isn't turning red. Judging from a snicker or two in the background, she probably is, which means she's got a new list of people to beat up at her earliest convenience. Marina's sincerity still leaves her tongue-tied. It's still a little victory.