| The Living |
| Summary: | Talk of Hale and other matters in berthings. |
| Date: | PHD278 |
| Related Logs: | Hale's Ded. Also reference to Wingmen |
| Players: |
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Hestia - Bronze/Gold Berthings
The hatch opens and Thea steps in, looking pretty much the same as she has the last couple times people've seen her. It gets shut behind her before she reaches into her pocket to pull out a vitamin bottle. Yes, it gets a crinkled nose.
Roubani is settled at one of the small tables of Gold berthing. Undoubtedly he heard the noise across the hall - likely the reason he's here and not there. Dressed in offduties, he's scribbling in a small notebook with a chewed-on pencil, his little homemade abacus lying on the table nearby. Usual stack of books, his normal nesting habits. He looks up as someone comes in, then glances past Thea out the hatchway. "Still a jungle over there?"
She just shakes her head and grins wryly. "I left something with Kissy for you," she murmurs, heading toward her locker. "It's wild over there. I had to fight my way out of Kissy's bunk. Doc Odysseon and Mouse decided to clamber up just as Marek and Morales arrived. I think Mooner's planning on terrorizing someone. She was looking for glue."
The corner of Roubani's mouth pulls, though not quite in a 'smile'. "Kids have so much energy these days," he remarks, facetiously. "Something for me? Ah, thank you…you'll forgive me if I wait until the dust settles over there. Would you like some tea?"
The bottle gets put on her shelf after one pill's removed. A bottle of water makes the pill disappear. "I don't blame you for waiting, and tea would be wonderful. Though I can get it. You don't need to get up. Am I interrupting anything?"
Kai arrives from the Pilot Berthings - Deck 12.
Kai has arrived.
"No, no." Roubani sets his notebook down and stands up, setting that down on the table by the abacus. "You have a seat, Thea. I was going to fetch some anyway." His pencil's laid neatly atop the open book, at the correct angle perpendicular to the bottom edge. He steps around his chair, starting for the hot water. There's kind of an extended pause there, before he softly clears his throat. "I, ah. Assume you're still…waiting? On things?" How vague.
Thea considers Poet for a moment, then smiles and nods. "Thanks," she says quietly, sliding into a seat with a low sigh. "Actually, the waiting's over. There will be no rabbit stew in the mess tonight. It was pretty much what I thought. I left the poor doctor lost in Pilot country. Oh, do you have any glue? Mooner's looking for some." She melts back in the seat, trying to relax.
Somewhere in the midst of discussion about tea and glue, Spider ambles on into the pod shared by bronze and gold squadrons. He's recently showered, and sporting navy olive drab fatigues— the trousers of which his hands are shoved into. After a brief glance about, he spots Thea settling at the table and heads on over. "Evening, Nadiv," he greets the other viper stick on his way by.
"Ahh." Roubani keeps any overt positives or negatives out of the sound. It's just that. 'Ah'. "And yes, actually I believe I do. However as much of a boon as it may be to Eddie, I think it would be moreso to everyone else if I kept it out of her reach." He glances over his shoulder at the third voice, chin lifting. "Evening. Tea?"
Thea can't help but laugh. It's quiet, tired, but it's a laugh. She looks over her shoulder at Kai and dips her head, pushing the other chair out for him. "I didn't mean to pull you away, Spider. I hope everything's alright?"
Thea's shoulder gets a gentle squeeze as Kai passes, but the contact doesn't linger. His attention, however, does; blue eyes remain firmly fixed on the woman opposite him, once he eases into the chair she toes out. Tea? "Sure." Roubani gets a brief smile. "Thanks." The CAG looks a bit more threadbare than usual, a tad more worn out, but it could just be he's neglecting sleep as usual. "I'm alive," is his terse answer to the woman's question. "Something wrong?"
Roubani nods to Kai, reaching up to take a third cup down from its place. Going silent himself, he fills each cup with water and then thumbs through the teabags available on the counter. One, after another, after another.
"Probably the same thing that's," she begins, briefly covering Kai's hand with hers and squeezing it. Fortunately, she rethinks the rest of the statement. "I had a little bit of a scare a few days ago. Sickbay ran some tests. They came back negative, which is good, but I've been put on a new vitamin regimen and it was suggested that I request a short reprieve from double CAPs, once our fliers are back on their feet." Nope, she doesn't sugarcoat it. "I just got the news tonight."
Tests. Scare. Negative. Kai's not always the sharpest tool in the box when it comes to book smarts, but it doesn't take much of a leap of logic to figure out what Legacy's referring to. He studies her, sidelong, for a few moments before easing back in his chair with a soft creak of metal. "Uh." It takes him a moment to process all of that. "Sure. Yeah, I'll take you off the flight line for the next week." His heavy brows furrow, then smooth again, and Roubani is left to his quiet task uninterrupted. "You need anything else?" is added gruffly.
Some people have sixth senses. Roubani's is politeness, which he masks in a small show of being unhappy with the tea selection. He turns back around and slips by the chairs, leaving them relatively alone as he heads to fetch something from his bunk.
Thea glances to Roubani for a moment, then back to Kai. "I need a short reprieve from the double CAPs, as does Kitty," she tells Kai in a quiet voice. "The three of us have been on doubles since we came to Hestia." And by three, she's clearly including Kai. "There was the…obvious test, and also one or two others. I don't need to be pulled off completely, just backed down for a little bit. If you pull me, I'm not going to argue it." She won't like it, but clearly Thea will respect what he says. While Roubani's back is turned, the woman studies Kai's face, searching.
"You're off for the next week," Kai repeats, in precisely the same bland monotone as the initial order was given. There's a slight nod when she mentions Kitty. "I'll see what I can do." Which is Marek speak for 'I'll do what you're asking, but I'm not going to say as much'. Silence ensues then, during that span of time while Roubani's 'fetching' something from his bunk. The CAG's face is nigh inscrutable, blue eyes meeting blue pound for pound while she searches him for something not verbalised. Finally, he looks away, starts to reach for the pack of cigarettes in his pocket, and aborts the motion. "I guess a few of the pilots are planning on throwing something for Rabbit. Might see about auctioning off the stuff Eos didn't want." It's a fine air wing tradition.
Roubani reaches up to find his tea tin, which takes him much longer than it should given he knows where the smallest speck of dust is in his critically neat living space. Back does stay turned to the pair, while he opens and picks quite slowly through the hand-bound bags.
There's utterly no argument from Thea. There's not even a flinch or a half-hearted protest. She simply nods her head, once. "Thank you," she replies after a moment. "I heard some rumors, but didn't know anything for sure. I talked with Kissy last night about looking into something for all the squadrons to do together, some nice mixing of old and new members in a safe, competitive sport." Her lips quirk just a little. "He suggested a Pyramid game. And suggested it in Rabbit's honor. I'm also planning another underground triad night, though I may have Cass run with that." Her head twists a little, looking over toward Roubani. "What do you think of those ideas, Poet?"
Marek's lips twitch a little when Thea uses the word 'safe', but he doesn't comment. His hand lifts to scratch at the scar above his lip, and the nearly-smile is smothered by the time it drops again. "Logan seems like a good guy. Bit overeager." That might not be a criticism. It's hard to tell, with Kai's brusque tone of voice. He, too, flicks his eyes the junior officer's way.
Teabags found and collected into Roubani's flight-calloused hand, he quotes in his soft voice. "'Disaster made her bold. In robes of black, with hair unbound, beside their brothers' biers the sisters stood. One of them, as she wrenched an arrow from her vitals, swooned away, her cheek upon her brother. One, who tried to comfort her poor mother, suddenly was silent, doubled by an unseen wound. One, in vain flight, collapsed; another died upon her sister. One concealed herself, one trembled there for all to see.'" He shuts the little tin with his thumbs, the metal making a soft *click* "'So six with one wound or another met their deaths…as she begged, the one she begged for fell. She sat bereft amid her sons, her daughters and her husbnd, all lifeless corpses, rigid in her ruin — and herself was turned to weeping stone.'" He turns halfway around, giving them a small smile that's got a touch of sadness in it. "Have either of you spoken to Captain Eos?"
"I've not," Thea says quietly, head tilted as she listens to the recitation. Eyes move over the Poet and something flashes across her features before she turns to Kai, as if awaiting his answer. The question of Logan is, for now, put aside.
The small smile isn't returned by Kai, though the glance is, for a few long seconds. "The wrath of Artemis," he concludes finally, watching the tin in Roubani's hands — or the hands themselves — before shifting his attention back to Legacy. "Spoke to her briefly, on the night he got shot down." 'down' being a figurative term, of course, the vacuum that space is. This time, cigarettes emerge victorious when pitted against his willpower. One half-squashed one is slid out, turned between his fingers twice, and brought to his lips while he hunts down his lighter.
"Even Zeus himself took pity on Niobe's grief," Roubani says, pensively. The tall JG lets the tin fold between his hands, his shoulders as always drawn back to keep him at full dignified height. "I haven't spoken to her either," he says to Thea, letting a little self-reproach into his voice. His dark eyes shift, looking between them. "Perhaps we could do something…for her. With her." The 'we' is broad.
And it's here that Thea's somewhat…caught. She rolls to her feet, heading over toward the locker she so recently abandoned, and pops the door open. "I'll be happy to help with something," she calls back to the two men. It takes her a moment of rooting, but the door eventually slams as she pads back, tossing a fresh pack of cigarettes to Kai.
The CAG, in contrast, slouches more often than not, especially when not in the presence of a superior officer. His eyes follow Legacy's retreat to the locker, thumb pausing on the catch of his lighter. He reaches up to catch the pack lobbed at him, and there's a soft crackle of cellophane — pristine and untouched — that seems to garner his attention for an undue length of time. He murmurs eventally, Roubani's way, "I think that'd be nice. Got any ideas?"
"Kisseus is better at these ideas than I am," Roubani says, slightly wry. "I'll see what we might come up with. I…simply don't want us all to focus so much on the dead that we forget there are living." Another wan half-smile, again not one of humour. It's slightly bittersweet. "Anyway…not to horribly derail things. A pyramid game would be lovely. He would have liked that, I would think." His smile quirks just a hair more. "Especially if it could be played in the Kharon's cargo hold. He was so determined to carve his court there."
Thea settles back into the chair, bonelessly, nodding. "I'd heard that his heart was in the Pyramid court over there. I'm afraid I didn't know his wife all that well, just in passing." For some reason, her eyes go to Roubani. "The Air Wing isn't exactly the cassarole and cake type. I think what might do well? A rotation of folks dropping by every so often to see her, making sure she knows that Rabbit's remembered."
"I know she put her damned heart into building the court over there," Karim mentions quietly, still watching Thea, who's watching Roubani, who.. might in turn be watching Kai. "Good idea, Nadiv." The casserole and cake comment gets a soft snort out of him in mild amusement. "So much for the frakking tupperware party I had my heart set on."
"Perhaps," Roubani replies to Thea. "I would like the chance to see her myself, if only for a short while." That seems to be a direct request, going Kai's way. And it's about then that he realises he's been standing there while tea water gets cold, and he promptly heads back that way with long stride. "Combine the pyramid game with something for her, maybe. If that was their project together. Have her involved…let her dedicate the game, or have a say in how it's done. Give her something to do in his name, and if it's too much then of cours she wouldn't have to."
Oh, the female Captain is about to make a comment to Kai about plastic, but she manages to bite her lip. The grin's there, however. It fades after a moment and she nods to both of them. "Perhaps have her as the grand marshal of a Pyramid tournament? Have a hand in setting up the teams and awarding the prize?"
Kai waggles his eyebrows slightly at Thea. Maybe he saw the comment coming, even if it was ultimately left unsaid. Smoke's exhaled through his nose, and the 'ashtray' dragged closer with his pinky finger so he can tap, tap his cigarette into it gently. "Mudguts needs an extra body in a cockpit running off patrols for a few days next week," he tells Roubani, slantwise. In other words, permission granted. The raptor Captain's suggestion gets a slight nod of approval from him while he smokes.
"Understood," Roubani tells Kai. "And I think that's a marvelous idea, Thea." Teabags finally meeting water, he picks up two and leans over the table, handing them over to their new owners.
Thea studies the two men for a bit, reaching for the mug. "Thanks Nadiv," she says softly, smiling up at him. "I think, Nadiv, maybe you or Kissy should approach her with the idea, or maybe Spider. It shouldn't be hard to find enough people for four teams or so. She might even have ideas on how to run a tournament."
Sometimes, Kai speaks so little that the trick is figuring out what he's not saying. Legacy gets watched for a long while after she's spoken, and then he reaches for his tea, and murmurs his thanks to the Lieutenant. Sip, smoke. Sip, smoke. Finally, barely audible, "You know, avoiding the widow of your ex-boyfriend doesn't work too well when humanity numbers in the thousands, Thea." He probably doesn't intend it to come off as brusque as it does, courtesy of his nature.
Perhaps Roubani was thinking the same thing. Perhaps he might have said it himself - perhaps not. The line between polite and bluntly realistic can be thin with him. Kai's comment draws not even a bat of eyelash, his own tea gathered as he settles into a seat.
Matto arrives from the Pilot Berthings - Deck 12.
Matto has arrived.
Rocco arrives from the Pilot Berthings - Deck 12.
Rocco has arrived.
Thea takes a sip of tea before answering. "She and I weren't friends before, Kai," she says with a little smile. "We were on briefly professional terms, and that was only when I was arguing for Nadiv's promotion. I plan on offering my condolences, but I think that anything else would be viewed as…ingenuous at best, inappropriate at worst. Don't get me wrong, I feel for the woman. But I'm not going to add to the awkwardness of things. There are people who know her better, who've worked with her, who have a relationship with her. THOSE are the people she needs. If I were avoiding her altogether, would I have suggested the things I have?" She lifts her tea to the men, smiling a bit. "Your point is taken. But I'll do things in my own time."
Kai knows, at least, when to drop a subject. Running an air wing's probably taught him a thing or two about picking his battles, and this.. is clearly not one he's going to fight. There's merely a soft grunt from the CAG, tea tipped back again while his cigarette smokes away between two fingers of the same hand. The subject change is abrupt, but serviceable: "How's that project coming, Nadiv? I mentioned it to the Admiral, and once she's got something on her radar, you never hear the end of it."
Matto slips brisk-footed down the other corridor, peeking into pods and then snikking on in, "Hey, guys," he calls to the others, but doesn't otherwise interrupt, yet, hovering to the side of the conversation, listening amiably.
Cue the hatch opening with the notable chirp and creak that seems to come with all of these frakkin' doors. Stepping further in, clad in his flight-suit, would be on the Hestia's senior pilots. One hand smoothing over his bald head, before dark eyes are settling on a bunk close to the door. "Hey Chum, you sheep frakker, pony up on my smokes." Rocco says while shooting hand out towards the bunk. For insistence sake he clambers up too. "Seriously, quit being clingy like a Saggie woman and pass em over you frakkin' bogart." Finally, rustling and shifting gives way to a hand shoving a rumpled pack to the bald pilot. "Thanks."
Roubani returns Thea's smile, small. He sips his tea, dark eyes shifting back to Kai over the rim. His hand sort of freezes when Kai mentions talking to the Admiral, but the deer-in-headlights is just a flicker. "Very well, actually. We have our final live test planned for Saturday when our off-shifts all coincide. Versus a modified detection suite in a Raptor, as we'd spoken about. If that passes muster?" He quirks both brows. "Then, thus will we have opened a 'can of whoopass'." He literally fingerquotes the last words, his voice treating that term with ridiculous dignity. A soft sniff follows and he lifts a hand at Matto's entrance.
Thea grins at Roubani at the mention of the project, then nearly chokes on her tea as he uses a curse word. There's no spluttering, though, just a delicate dabbing of her lips. Oddly, it's Rocco's entrance that gets her attention.
Matto sneaks closer to Nadiv at the wave, grinning broadly at the description of the project. He doesn't add anything, though, instead waiting the proper beat to separate what he's about to say from what was just said. "Nadiv? A young woman fell asleep in my bunk while I was giving her a scalp massage. is there someplace around I could stow my sorry self so I don't wake her up with my snoring?" Step 1: commit crime. Step 2: establish alibi.
Thea splutters on tea at the 'whopass', and Marek cracks a grin. It's enough to sketch little spidery crow's feet at the corners of his eyes, and a low chuckle resonates from somewhere in his throat. "Looked like you were about to shit your pants for a second there," he points out, oh so delicately. "Sure, just let me know how it goes. She's eager to hear about it." The remainder of his tea is slurped down, and the bandit-ing Rocco gets a brief glance. No chastisement seems forthcoming; it's every pilot for himself, around here. "I see you made it through your physical, intact," he tells Matto by way of greeting, and starts moving back to his feet again.
"We will," Roubani tells Kai, maintaining serious for a few moments longer. Does well to cover up any nervousness. "Likely Stathis will have the report that evening." Poor Thea's choking doesn't faze him; he looks back at Matto. "Ah. We could put a blanket in an empty locker if it's bound to be that bad. If not, I'm sure there's…you know. A bunk." He rubs his eye and starts to stand, picking up his tea for another shift. "By the way, Captain." Kai, that's addressed to. "If you need people to help cover doubles, don't hesitate to assign. It's why I'm here. To fly." That given quite simply, he looks over and gives Rocco a slight nod. Unfamiliar man.
Rocco is looking over towards Matto for a moment as he lets fingers futz around with the packaging in his hand. "Dude." Caveman begins, "If you get a young woman in your bed you gotta frak the shit out of that. Worried about her being woken up by your snoring? Shit if she wakes up because of your snoring, she owes you a sandwich." And there one cigarette is plucked out and placed in his mouth. Despite being a little bent, it'll get the job done. Pack crammed into a pocket, he's letting eyes shoot over to the raptor Captain. "Hey toots, you got a light?"
Said Raptor Captain is about to say something to Karim, Matto and Roubani when she hears Caveman's question. For a moment, Thea simply tilts her head to one side, studying the Lieutenant as if he were an interesting curiosity in the Museum of Natural History. Her lips purse ever so slightly and she glances to Kai, amused, a brow up ever so slightly. Slowly she rolls to her feet, stretching. "Spider?" That's all she says.
"I did!" Kissy replies brightly to the Marek, the last word lilting along a little uptic in pitch to make it sound just horribly chipper. "Sweet," he adds, "Thanks, N," he grins at the Poet, then— slowly— turns his head toward Rocco. "Dude," he retorts. "Haven't you ever heard of saving your purity for your wedding night?" One extreme swung to the other, probably simply for comedic effect. Probably.
Toots. This'll be good. Spider leaves his cup where it is, glances briefly between Rocco and Thea, and starts shambling off for the hatch whilst concealing his amusement. Of course, he wasn't expecting to have Black Cat deflect responsibility to him, so the invocation of his call rather foils any plans he might've had for a quiet escape. He glances back at Caveman, meeting his eyes directly. "Next time I hear you call a superior officer 'toots', Lieutenant, I'll break my boot off in your ass. That goes for 'darling', 'sweet cheeks', 'baby', and 'root chewing hippy' as well." He gives no explanation for the latter, though the two may just have some history.
Roubani raises an eyebrow as Legacy passes that particular buck to Kai. It stays raised at her even as the CAG goes off on his schpiel in another part of the room. "Hm." With that sound in his throat and taking mug with him, he starts for the door as well. "If you'll excuse me, time for CAP. I'll see you later, Kisseus." His chin lifts to the Raptor driver, and then it's hatchwards. Can't be late for work.
"Yeah." said back towards Matto. "It's called being a pussy. And pussies man, always get frakked." There's a look back towards Spider for a moment as a brow raises up towards the Captain who is talking to him. Apparently if Rocco was to be impressed he escaped the memo. "What about hot lips, or candy ass?" Asked around his cigarette. Still he's looking back to Legacy. Apparently he's waiting for Gams there to bring him a light still.
Thea just shakes her head slightly and moves over to her locker. "Good hunting Poet," she calls to Roubani. "Kissy, don't forget what I gave you earlier. Night Karim." For once, the woman doesn't invest, she doesn't buy in. Rocco is left chewing his cigarette in peace.
"Later, N," Kissy gives the guy a warm smile, then, regarding the Caveman, "Truth. But when the time is right," he adds, gently, "And with the right person," he punctuates with a quiet nod. He tosses a glance back toward the Marek, eyes squinting briefly toward closed as if trying to will him not to explode. "Oh, I won't, Ki— err…" suddenly bandying about the Captain's usual nickname seems like a bad idea. "Cap'n."
Impressed or not, Kai's on his way out. He cuts a brief look across to Black Cat, lifts his cigarette in farewell to the room, and by the time Rocco reaches 'candy ass', he's gone. At least he holds the hatch, with his boot, for Roubani. What a gentleman!
