<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/tcy1ck7.jpg)</div>Mizuki Cotton, callsign Bunny, sat at one of the round tables of the O-Club by herself.  Mounted up in one corner was a wide screen, where sportscasters silently speculated about the games that would play later in the week, their words captured in closed captioning that raced across the bottom of the screen.  Softly, an instrumental number that vaguely resembled jazz played through the sparsely populated room, a simple AI progressively generating each note...it was more convenient than having real musicians on staff, though the virtual band couldn't really respond to the audience.  Wearing her green uniform (https://i.imgur.com/jLur8Ei.png), her soft cover tucked under an epaulet and her pleated skirt riding up her thighs as she casually kicked her feet, Mizuki tapped at the tablet in her hand.  She looked up as Abrams's heavy step announced that he was walking by her, her short pink hair bobbing along with the motion of her head, her swinging feet comming to a stop over the floor boards.<br/><br/><strong>"Yes sir!"</strong>she said, her voice upbeat and chipper, as if she weren't talking to a man known as the Butcher of Los Angeles.<strong>"Please, feel free to rest up, I'm still here."</strong>she said.  The old timer's eye didn't even sway her way as she looked up at him, looking at the long years that had been etched deeply onto his face.  As he moved away, she sighed a little bit at his silence.  She knew Abrams had seen far too many new recruits come and go to pay her any particular mind, but for someone who was still struggling for recognition his casual dismissal of her existance hurt.<br/><br/><strong>"Well...I'll just have to do something he can't ignore."</strong>she said with a bit of a sigh, turning back to her tablet and the letter she was drafting for her mother.  Of course, for her to get his attention, there'd have to be something for her to<em>do</em>at all.  Almost all of the walkers were out securing their supply lines against the rats who were brave enough to try and steal from Aleph Base, which meant they conveniently had an excuse to leave her behind on base defense.  Idly drawing a circle along the margins of her letter with the stylus, she stumbled over what she was going to tell her mother ... she wasn't exactly living the life she'd hoped for when she'd decided to become a mecha pilot.<br/><br/>Maybe she should go visit the ground crew?  They'd probably appreciate some coffee and snacks, and it would give her something to do.  She added two loops to the circle she was doodling, turning it into a simple bunny head as she propped up her chin, trying to figure out what she could lay her hands on and what they'd like.<br/><br/>When the call came through on the view screen, she didn't need the probing, annoyed glares of her superiors to chase her out of her chair.  She bounced out of her seat, clasping her hands behind her back and squaring her shoulders as she looked up into the viewscreen that was projecting Lieutenant Fox's stern face.<br/><br/><strong>"Warrior Cotton reporting!"</strong>she said, saluting crisply with a smile that was far too bright for someone being drafted into some drudge work,<strong>"I can head out and meet them.  Where did you want the supllies delivered?"</strong>