driftfleet | .04 Scars are just places where I used to bleed

Who: Rogue
Broadcast: Text
Action: A corner table in Varrick’s bar on the Iskaulit
When: January 17th

[Around 10 this morning as time is measured, this text goes live across the network, the numbers set to anonymous:]

**Wanted** Pilot with a pilot augment willing to risk a little trouble. If interested, interviews will be held at the Space Bar from approximately 3-6 today. Compensation for time and trouble to be negotiated.

Action
[Rogue sits with her back to the wall with a decent view of the door. She’d asked the bartender to inform anyone who came in and inquired about interviews to point them in her direction, and Nami had graciously agreed. This had been in her mind to determine for a while, but Loki's disappearance had just given her the proper motivation to try it. There is a determined set to her shoulders even as she tries to relax and nurse her drink. This would be what her friends would call reckless if they were feeling kind about things, which would be why she didn't plan on telling them.

...Ugh, waiting for interviews was not the best. Maybe she should have brought a book. She pages absently through her communicator instead.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

-- Must make for a great deal of spoiled broth.

[Heh.]

Eugene got a job here. [She jabbed her chin toward the kitchen.] Mostly we just take shifts. I thought 'bout switchin' ships right at first when I learned there was a cook on the Vanquish already, but... [Her expression softens.] Clay's a really good captain.

Is he?

[ her voice doesn't harbour doubt. instead, she aims to lead rogue into a description. she barely knows clay. ]

[Rogue shrugs.] Captains don't really have that much ta do here. Paperwork appears out of no where, but for what? There's no real power an' authority but for the ones we let 'em have. But a person who takes on a responsibility like that an' then tries ta just take care of the parts of his crew that he can? I think that's all ya could ask for.

Ours on the Starstruck is a little green but -- but his heart's in the right place. [ on at least one occasion, peggy has provided the young man with a sort of quiet bolster from the background. commands disguised as suggestions in order to protect both of their dignities. that he took them so graciously rather warmed peggy to him. ]

I suppose on some days that's all that matters.

[Starstruck? Oh right, she should know the captains of the other ships, shouldn't she. That would be good general information to have. Oh well, put it on the list.]

Who's your captain?

Yosuke. [ ... ] Hanamura. Young, certainly. But eager to do right by his ship.

I don't know him. [Rogue takes a sip of her drink.] But then, I don't think I've been on your ship either.

[She isn't the most social person.]

I believe it's actually quite nice -- as ships go, at least. Most of the crew are well-behaved. A good smattering of renovations done. Everyone pitches in to make there's a selection non-gel foodstuffs on hand. As billets go, I figure I could have pulled a worse straw.

[ a small smile. ] You could come visit, sometime.

Edited 2016-01-25 11:09 (UTC)

Might take ya up on that. [She lifts her drink in Carter's direction.] Ya know, for a random samplin' of folks, it's kind of amazin' how many people in places like this aren't utter jackasses. I find the percentage's actually much higher on Earth.

[ a sharp bark of laughter. ]

Don't I know it. You would think an organization bent on entertaining the masses might have chosen a few more bad eggs.

[Rogue shrugs.]

Might be they might not have as much control over who comes an' goes as they'd like to make us think.

I wonder -- is that a comfort or cause for further concern?

[Rogue shrugs.]

If it is, then it's another one that we can't control. So... [Maybe another drink? Or maybe junk food. This feels like junk food.]

Control? Likely not. But I confess I have a hard time ignoring an unbroken code. [ a careful look. ] I'm mad for the cryptoquotes they put in the papers back in New York.

Cryptoquotes? [Yes, that's important.] Oh, like crosswords? Not for me.

[An adamant shake of her head.] I don't like puzzles.

[That was far more a Loki thing.]

Not all of us need to. [ like puzzles. if there's one thing the war effort taught her, it's that any 'effort' takes all kinds. ] What do you like? In your spare time, I mean. I know you're partial to a good book and a decent drink. [ she raises hers. ] Anything else?

[What did she LIKE to do? Hmm.]

Well, in Luceti I was a shopkeeper. An' I minded the stables. [Her face softens.] I liked that a lot. I still miss my horse. Hope someone's there ta take care of them now that I'm here...

[Go ahead, Peggy, ask about the horse.

Or pursue this rare avenue of openness.]

It sounds like a lovely place, Rogue. [ and she's sincere in it. whatever other misgivings she possesses about a place she can't remember ever having visited, she can at least read that luceti had been good for rogue. oh, peggy might never have known the young woman outside of its influence -- but she could hear it in the way she spoke of the village. fondly, despite its context. ]

A bit lovelier, perhaps, than here.

[ not exactly a question. ]

Rogue shrugged, "Each place has got its pluses an' minuses. Lotta things 'bout Luceti were a hell of a lot worse than this place."

War. Experiments. Fear of the world ending around them.

"But there was blue sky above us, most of the time, an' there was space to walk around, an' there were things ta do." At that, she raised her glass for an emphatic sip of her drink.

"Blue sky," she echoed -- soft, and reverent. And it was enough to prompt her a raising of her own glass. The two of them quietly toasted to one thing among many things that they were denied aboard the ships. Peggy wasn't an overly poetic soul, but she could appreciate the never-ending freedom of a bright blue sky.

"I miss a reason to wear sunglasses."

"We had ta go into space in Luceti once, believe it or not," Rogue said. "The Malnosso had a base on the moon an' they needed us ta defend it. It was one of the creepiest things I've ever seen."

She turned her head to glance out the window -- in the distance was the brilliant glow of a star, and then another, and another... far better than infinte black, but still... close enough.

"There weren't any stars in the sky. Just the sun an' moon."

.04 Scars are just places where I used to bleed

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before

action » the night before