Silua Mills covers the mouthpiece with her hand and shakes her head at Portia. While the three of them are sitting there, she glances once more at the rusty, old gun on the table and while waiting for Damian to speak again, comes to some kind of decision. The old gun is picked up and *hurled* across the street and into the debris there with a force and aim that's either damn lucky or the result of a childhood spent playing stickball with four older brothers. One of the two. Jaina Lefevre starts to comment on the necklace when she watches Sil send the gun flying across the street. "Wow...I think she kinda was mad at that." Skyla Moonwall watches Sil wing the gun across the way and takes a casual sip of her drink. But she says nothing of it. There was more behind that story than she knew. Her internal monologue strays back to sex for some reason...dicks.... Portia Kass watched Sil fling the gun and was just a bit confused... but she was getting used to being confused about most of what Sil did or said. Poor gun. Never did nothin to nobody. Her internal monologue crossed with Sky's just then and Portia straightened up and looked at her all kinds of funny. Debra Charron catches the movemens out of the corner of her eye and instinct takes over. She rises swiftly, placing herself between Jania and the movement-source, her hand resting purposefully on the butt of her holstered pistol - here green eyes lasering in on the pistol-tossing lady Deets Carroll grins at Deb and shakes her head. The grumbling was just for show, she'd thought it was hilarious at the time. She continues to toy with the gift, teasing Jaina. "I don't know... if I give you this, you might take all night to unwrap it, and we'd never have time for the last one..." Silua Mills hunches down in her chair. She looks around warily before she lowers her voice to a near whisper and sighs, answering the question on the other end. "The usual, Sir. Some asshole marines threatening me because I was writing in my notebook. You know..-the- notebook with all my financial stuff? Anyway, they tried to take it away and when I balked I had fucking machine gun pointed in my face...which is when the recruit stepped up *between* it and me, just like he was crossing the street. And then the Chief stepped in, as well....anyway...long story short they left ..without the notebook...and it will -stay- upstairs from now on." Jaina Lefevre grows quiet and scared as she watches Deb, thinking she missed something. "Is it Youaysee, Mom?" Her voice quivers and she grabs the chair as if ready to bolt from it. A glance to Deets and the present and she's staring back at the street. Skyla Moonwall tries to catch Deb's eye and gives her a stand-down motion with her hand, although not really knowing the woman, she is not entirely certain how it will be received. But she jerks her head towards Sil in way of explanation, showing clearly that the woman is no active threat and the pistol-throwing tantrum is complete. Possibly. Silua Mills hasn't even noticed there's any commotion or tension behind her. She's so concentrated on the conversation and what she's talking about that she might as well be alone. Portia Kass's eyes jerked up to the movement of Jaina Mommy number 2. Portia had labeled her that because she'd never met the woman, she'd only met Deets. She looked back at Sil and then back at the woman and tried to make an apologetic face, but she was distracted by Sil's conversation. That was a whole lot of information all at once... and explained... kind of a few things. She was now lowering her head to Sil's level and very obviously eavesdropping. I mean you couldn't -keep- Portia's eaves offa Sil... but in a totally not lesbian way. Debra Charron's green eyes sparkle angrily but her face remains immobile. After a moment she pats Jania on the shoulder, "No baby - we're fine for now. please open your present - the food wil be here soon"., Deb glances downward and manages a fairly normal smile, before slipping back into her seat. Deets Carroll glances up at Deb's sudden start, concerned, but says nothing, sipping her wine, instead. Portia Kass finally grew impatient and held her hand out to Sil opening and closing her fist as though she wanted something. She wanted the phone and she was asking for it... kind of like a 5 year old, but she didn't care. "Let me talk to him," she whispered back. As far as Portia could tell, the UAC encounter story seemed about finished. Jaina Lefevre is slow to relax, hands shaking a little as she reaches for the next present. She takes a slow breath and lets it out, then tears the paper this time. "Ooh.." she whispers as she pulls out a pretty charm bracelet. "This is big-girl jewelry!" Silua Mills listens and then frowns at the question, "I don't know. He said as soon as possible. Said it was -urgent-. Do you want me to have Portia set it up right now?

This picture has been generated from a 35mm slide with a cracked glass. ..taken .in 1984. The bike was equipped with first generation Shimano Deore touring equipment and had a triple chainset running on 6 or possibly 7sp freewheel. Hubs were Phil Wood ones. The day after the bike was assembled Mike was to ride it into a TV Studio and into a children's programme. With about three hours to go, we could not get the gears to work smoothly due to the triple chainset and the very short rear chainstays. The problem was solved by throwing away the Shimano chain and replacing it with a good old-fashiond SEDIS one. Six weeks through the Appallacians and not a whisper of problems. Evidently Mike actually cycled with the guitar somehow slung somewhere on the bike..but not all the time.. My real worry..but I did not commit this to the paper table napkin..was that with the rear stays being short and the pannier bags dangerously far forward, Mike might catch the back of his shoes on the bags. I was very relieved to discover that he only wears size 6 shoes. Problem solved.