Listening to how big of a nerve she’d struck, Maggie took a single inhale of the cigar just to see how the girl would react. Then the reminder of how much the Ethonians had in fact stolen from the Black Dragon in the past struck a nerve of her own, but the ambassador had enough experience dealing with that sort of stuff not to overreact. The glimmer in her slightly squinted eyes made it look like she was always watching the world burn, the smile that revealed the perfect row of her upper teeth was brighter and more genuine than how she represented herself to the media, and in general, her expression made one suspicious of whether or not she was constantly high on some mild stimulant.<br/><br/>“I don’t give a shit about the little dents your people gnaw to our profits,” Maggie replied in such a calm tone that it almost put her words into an absurd context, and when the girl inquired about the reason for her intrusion, she added without a hint of sarcasm but which was obviously implied, “I thought we could have a little chat, sort out our differences, part as friends and not as enemies,” and the way that her tiny pupils focused on the girl’s eyes gave the impression that after every word, the woman was expecting her to flip. Nothing so far.<br/><br/>While the silence lasted, Maggie paid close attention to where the girl was looking at, and was caught by surprise when it wasn’t just her face that the blue-haired punk was curious about. While the quiet attention lasted, Maggie seized the moment to make a call.<br/><br/>“I want something blown up,” the ambassador spoke to her concealed headset, still staring the girl in the eye, still fishing for a reaction, “Yes, now——Surprise me, dear—” Maggie raised her eyebrows when the girl adjusted the bulge between her legs, “—No, leave them out of this one. Anything else——Thank you.”<br/><br/>The call ended when Maggie took off her minimalistic headset and put it away in a pocket, an act comparable to lowering her weapon. Of course, there were still eyes on her from multiple directions, but at least the conversation was now private. The ambassador’s presence remained as calm as ever, as if nothing of importance had just taken place, and the atmosphere in the bar remained unchanged.<br/><br/>After taking a single sip from the glass she’d been offered, Maggie pushed it aside, and with a momentary lapse in judgment, dropped the lit cigar in the scotch. The sad hiss as the fire died out told of just how wrong that was, and even Maggie cringed at her own recklessness. She waved the bartender for another bottle of the stuff for compensation.<br/><br/>The clicking of sharp heels arrested the ambassador’s attention even before the new girl approached the table.<br/><br/>“Always something interesting in this bar,” Maggie noted as a reply to the Ethonian girl’s question, “Just as you think you’re starting to get bored of one thing, another thing shows up,” she eyed the piece of candy from top down, back up, and then kept switching from one girl to the other for the contrast, “I didn’t<i>come</i>for the scenery, but I might just stay for it.”<br/><br/>Then there was this mention of ‘the rule’ which the ambassador just chose to ignore.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>