Blameless Mingle

[shishkebub]

Who: Those who are without blame
Broadcast: Nope
Action: On the Blameless
When: Whenever we feel like it! Gawd!

[A brand new crew has been assigned to a brand new ship. Can they find it within themselves to get along? Find out next time! Or you know, in this actual log.]

Comments

sniktbubbing | ota

[shishkebub]

Logan wasn't a big believer in this whole maintenance gig the Atroma had decided to sic on him. What it seemed to mean was an annoying cadre of droids following him around while he toured the ship. They were doing enough of the cleaning for him that it hardly seemed necessary for him to do much to help. The first thing that he did was lay claim to the single cot that had been labeled captain. This was not because he particularly cared for being a captain, but out of a stubborn refusal not to have to deal with bunkbeds. Besides, with him smoking and eating in that bed, would anyone want it after him anyway?

Following his skirmish with their so-called captain, Logan was in a fouler mood. Where he might have been halfway good company beforehand, he now looked like a madman ready to snap at anyone. Consequently he was sitting outside the ship in the Starlight hangar with a cigar in one hand and a bottle of booze in the other. Eleven other bottles were in a case next to him and it seemed likely he might just finish off the whole dozen. Getting into a fight with a teenage girl and doing what he did was not going to be counted among his prouder moments. This was how he was going to unwind.

[ladybro]

She got the news a few days ago -- transferred, just as she asked, to a new ship. Blameless. Well, at least that had very little to do with her. Kate picked her way through the Starlight's hangar as she tried to locate this new ship and her new crew. Honestly, she'd been dreading this moment. Already, she found the ships to be a little too close quarters and she much preferred one of the nicer catered inns on the station. But Clint's money would only go so far and it was about time she picked herself up by the bootstraps and made her own way in this fleet.

So, with an inchoate wardrobe (bought with Barton's credits) shoved into a reflective-surface futuristic-looking version of a duffel bag, she showed up right where she was meant to be. And there was Wolverine, sulking on the ship's sorta front step. It was the kind of moodiness that seemed to permeate a whole space. Musky.

Kate bit off a bite of some alien-y sandwich wrap. She chewed, silent and thoughtful. And she swallowed. "Hi, bunky."

It was an educated guess.

[shishkebub]

Even though he saw her coming, he had made no effort to offer her any greeting or acknowledgement up until the moment she was in front of him and interaction became an inevitability. He'd assumed this was merely some social call, as he hadn't bothered checking the ship's manifest. Her greeting shattered that theory.

He grimaced. "You're kidding me."

[ladybro]

"Go on," she countered -- whip-quick, and without an ounce of apparent grievous insult to her own dignity, "try and sound a little less enthused. I dare you."

But Kate wasn't moving onward. Not with any haste, at least. Wolverine was a familiar face to her, even if hers wasn't so familiar to him. She wasn't about to mosey on by.

[shishkebub]

He obliged her by simply lifting the nearly full bottle to his lips and drinking.

And drinking.

And drinking.

And drinking.

He lifted a finger to indicate she should wait.

And drinking.

And drinking.

He set the empty bottle next to him. He said nothing.

[ladybro]

Ouch, Logan. Ouch.

"Is the prospect of sharing a ship with me that awful, hm? I'm a good roomie. I keep things tidy. I don't snore. I never blast annoying pop music."

[shishkebub]

He picked up another bottle, then held it out for her. She was probably going to need it.

"There's one room. Bunks. Beds flatter'n a pancake."

He could live like that. Typically. But usually those kind of arrangements had been in wartime, among a bunch of other men.

[ladybro]

"Why else do you think I've been off-ship all this time, hm? The station has some nice B&Bs. Real cutesy places, despite the general sci-fi ambiance."

She hooked her fingers around the bottle's offered neck and (first) gave it a bit of a sniff. It wasn't cellar-worthy wine. And it sure wasn't Dom. But it wasn't as though she was a stranger to beer, even before she turned twenty-one. So Kate took a swig and suppressed her distaste for the drink's mild temperature. After all, it might have been Wolverine's way of gesturing nice. She wasn't about to spit on that possibility.

[shishkebub]

He popped open another bottle for himself. Her description of her activities on the station had the unsurprising effect of having no effect at all.

"I was sleeping in the back of my cab."

Fortunately his healing factor was decent enough to him to have taken care of all that neckpain he had surely earned with his less than stellar sleeping arrangements.

[ladybro]

"I think Clint was doing that, too. I don't know. I tried not to ask."

She was casual with the name. Clint. Because they were all here, and they weren't on the network, and she figured that if Jessica Drew and Bobbi Morse and Natasha Romanoff and Captain freaking America called him Clint, then Wolverine likely knew his damn name too.

[shishkebub]

He nodded. Logan could respect a man who was frugal enough to sleep in their own cab. Sometimes, Clint was a man after his own heart. "Sounds about right to me."

But he wasn't all that much in the mood for small talk. He gave a bob of his head to indicate the ship behind him. "Good luck with the rest of the crew. Yer probably too late to pick anything on the bottom bunks."

[ladybro]

She shrugged -- as though it didn't bother her, although it did. Just a bit. "Whatever. Hawks like to be up high, right?"

Kate adjusted the bag on her shoulder and considered the ramp ahead. She needed another swig of beer just to contemplate ducking into that tightly-packed sardine can. "And I'm spry. I'll deal."

Another drink. Was she trying to finish it quicker, so she could mosey on inside without the bottle in hand?

[shishkebub]

"Don't go starting with the animal metaphors, kid. Wolverines are s'posed to be messy and territorial."

Which those were actually both accurate in his case, though he was being kind enough to let her in his territory without a few claw marks. It was downright benevolent of him.

sometime after the shuffle

[revivo]

"You look comfortable."

Sara's been beamed aboard the Blameless and even started meeting people, but one of her priorities is to get out of these ships and onto the station ASAP. About a week trapped on the Marsiva was long enough, even if her ability to go outside now is only an illusion of freedom. She'd just padded out into the hangar when she came across Logan's set-up.

[shishkebub]

"An' you look new."

Logan was still sour about the ordeal with Azula, though time enough had passed that he was only spending time drinking and smoking because those were just ordinary sorts of things to him - and because the droids didn't follow him outside the ship. It made him no more welcoming than it had a week ago. He did at least seem to recognize her as he gave her a second glance.

"Got dropped on this junker, eh?"

[revivo]

She gives him a mock-salute, lips curling into a brief smile.

"Aye, aye, captain."

Never mind that she knows he isn't -- she just met him -- nor one of the contenders ("a girl on the ship"). He might not be very welcoming, but he is a more familiar face than most, and that's something.

"I know I said I wanted company, but you didn't have to go out of your way." Lightly.

[shishkebub]

Logan was not the type to smile much, but he did have a way of grimacing in a way that was almost warm. Their conversation on the network had been brief, but she seemed decent enough people.

"Well I ain't nothin' if not accommodating."

[revivo]

"I'm seeing that. Nice to know there's a welcome committee to space after all."

Logan may or may not still have any entire case of beer with him, but she gestures towards any others he has lined up.

"Willing to share?"

[shishkebub]

He gestured to the ramp up to the ship. It wasn't a seat, but it was better than the ground.

"Make yourself comfortable. Just don't make a habit of it."

Booze was expensive and supposedly scarce once they were in open space. He didn't want to risk having to go without it just on account of some pretty face.

[revivo]

The ramp's a decent enough seat, anyway. Sara nods a thanks as she takes a bottle and settles herself down on the ramp.

"Wouldn't dream of it." She takes a swig, then a moment to decide how she feels about the taste. It's surprisingly normal. "Good to know some things don't change, no matter where you are. I don't suppose anyone knows what..." She waves a hand. "Star cluster" or whatever the sci-fi speak is supposed to be, "we're in."

That'd be too easy.

[shishkebub]

He shrugged. "Never was much of a stargazer. Way I hear it, this ain't even the same galaxy."

That was annoying. Logan was a little too used to these kind of situations, but being that far away from home was still unnerving. Especially when it was all so quiet.

[revivo]

"Me neither."

Not even the same galaxy. The scale's too big for her to wrap her mind around. But in some ways, it isn't; the freighter, Lian Yu, and Nanda Parbat all felt worlds away from home, unreachable distances from Starling. Now, it's just...more literal.

"How long have you been out here?"

[shishkebub]

"About two weeks. Not long at all according to some, but still too long to be comfortable."

Any length of time in captivity was too long and while this might be short according to some, people around here had a way of making it seem like it would be lengthy. But people always craved normality, even when they were in a space reality show.

[revivo]

"I'd hate to hear what they consider long."

She can imagine it. From the way people talk about this place, from the things she's heard, she can see how two weeks might not seem long to people. But a cage is a cage, no matter how it may look, and after less than a week she's already had enough.

[shishkebub]

"Long enough to have seniority and a sense of self importance 'cause of it."

It didn't really matter what kind of place you ended up, those with seniority were always eager to establish dominance because they'd spent the longest time failing to escape. It didn't matter if that was a prison, a deserted island, retail, or a space fleet designed to entertain viewers. It was always the same.