driftfleet | (no subject)

[Castle has been reading a lot lately. Since the Fleet doesn't seem to be moving anywhere any time soon, he figured he might as well try to learn something new.

As he walked around the ship or read, he "smoked" a novelty pipe that blew soap bubbles, sent by a sponsor. This greatly displeased his cleaning bots, who were constantly wiping rings of soap off the Windrose's many windows, but he was glad to give them any work that didn't involve crashing booze bottles.]

Hey Castle! What are you reading?

And what's that... what's that thing in your mouth?

Oh, a sponsor sent me a pipe that blows bubbles. Apparently they didn't think I'd like actual tobacco... either that or it was too expensive. Keeps the cleaning bots busy at any rate. Oh, and I'm reading up on detective manuals.

Wow, I didn't even know that was a thing. But that makes sense because tobacco is super expensive. [At least where she's from.]

Detective manuals? Are you gonna be a detective and solve a case?

Mmhmm- and I like not having the side effects of actual smoking, so I'll take it.

I'm toying with the idea of opening a detective agency- make me a little office on the Iskaulit. Of course, I'm not sure how much use it'll be here, but it's an idea.

Are the side effects bad? [The General smokes all the time, back home, and she seems okay.]

You should do it! [Thousand watt enthusiasm here.] Oh! You could borrow Officer Snuggles if you need someone tracked or something! His training is coming along really well!

Oh, yeah- all the stuff inside cigarettes is bad for your health. At least where I come from. Maybe elsewhere it's different.

[He grinned.]

Oh, my own tracking fox. I'd win over my clients' hearts in no time.

Huh. I guess it's still bad when I'm from? Not many people smoke. But I guess if they get sick, it's easy to fix maybe.

He's very good at looking pretty too! And he's a great morale officer. If anyone gets upset with you, get them to pet the fox.

Yeah... not so much where I come from. Best way to avoid the damage is just avoid starting up the habit in the first place.

Now there's an idea. I could even incorportate the fox into my business logo.

Oh, that makes sense.

Um. So wait, do you not have like cybernetic livers and stuff either?

Oooh. You could make it a pun, like Fox Detectives because you have a fox to work with and you're a fox too! ['cuz your hot, hahaha]

Heck no- but that sounds pretty cool! No, if we damage our organs, we either have to wait for a donor or somehow do without.

[Castle grinned cockily.]

Well, I am rather ruggedly handsome, aren't i?

Wow. That sounds... uh. Kind of gross. [And archaic. Wow.] I'd be in so much trouble if there weren't cybernetic organs. That's like... everything except my brain and like one of my kidneys or something.

[Hey, she's got nothing against being frank about other people being hot.]

You sure are! You're the hottest guy on the ship.

Cybernetic organs do sound useful. Transplanting organs is a dicey prospect at best- we're working on ways to be able to grow new ones, but humanity hasn't gotten that far yet.

[He laughed.]

I'm the obligatory hot dad, I suppose.