Open mingle for the First Breath

[treasureling]

Who: Everyone on the First Breath! Including newbs, if any are assigned today
Broadcast: Maybe?!
Action: First Breath
When: 2/7-2/14? About the next week

[ Mingle post for the First Breath (& guests)! ]

Comments

Around the ship, time-flexible

[treasureling]

Beyond just engineering, Malak has been making himself useful around the ship; he cleans up in the bunk room, he does the laundry and leaves fresh sheets and clothes for the others. He cooks, and spends hours experimenting with the protein cubes and gels to make them into decent food options. Expect there to be pre-prepared deserts always in the freezer, and meals that can just be heated up; expect every dinnertime to have something good, if not something new. He’s quiet about it; he doesn’t expressly make food for everyone, but he always makes much more than would be enough for himself, and he always offers. When they spend enough time on the moons to come back with real food, start expecting real meals.

And then he spends a lot of his time in the engine room, familiarizing himself with the systems, working hard on a design he’s been keeping close to the chest, not showing anyone.

After a week or so around the moons, he starts accumulating bits of metal, silver and copper, with little hammers and different sizes of blunt-tip steel tools. He cold-works these metals, holding them steady on something soft and slowly tracing in designs, going over them bit by bit until they fill out into larger images. And then he sells them. But maybe one or two end up as decorations around the ship. He likes making where he lives into a home, after all.

Sometime after first moon wanderings

[proteusmoon]

At first, Cecil thinks little of Malak's offer to share the very large amounts of meals he regularly cooks. She considers it a kind, polite gesture born of a slight miscalculation and she's grateful for it, telling him as much since she herself still hasn't figured out how to make anything halfway decently good-tasting with their overabundance of protein sticks and gel. The next few times it happens, though, when ready-made dishes and desserts begin to show up everywhere, it occurs to her that Malak is used to cooking for many more people than just himself. Does he have a family? Children, relatives, or does he simply live with friends?

She never asks, but she can't help wondering and her curiosity only peaks when he becomes successful at making protein cubes and strange jelly taste almost like real meals. He's a far better cook than she is, obviously, so when she earns enough currency from her odd jobs here and there on the various moons, she decides to quietly contribute to the great cause of battling delicious food deficiency by purchasing fruit and vegetable ingredients on the vegetarian moon as well as meat on Abeo and Adsum, then secretly depositing them in their tiny kitchen for Malak to find and work his magic on.

Shortly after Jordan arrives, Cecil manages to get a day off from working on the moons and she's decided to try getting some quiet rest aboard the ship where it's emptier. During her meanderings, she decides to track down Malak and see if he'll allow her to watch him make something, whether it's food or metalworks. Her implant is still glitching, but it's hard for her to tell when the issue that they've seen happen before with it is currently happening, given that the crackling feedback from it doesn't always seem to necessarily signify a pheromones problem and she always feels rather normal herself whenever there is a problem.

[treasureling]

He can be found in the engine room, crosslegged on the floor, a piece of paper spread out in front of him. This doesn't have a sketch or any kind of art, just what looks like engineering drawings (something he's found, surprisingly, that he knows how to do). He actually went out of his way to acquire loose paper and a notebook down on one of the moons, from the proceeds of one of the sales of the embossed copper.

He's deep in thought. Trying to solve a particular problem of heat conduction.

But he looks up when she steps in, and greets her with a smile.

[proteusmoon]

Once she gets close enough to see them clearly, Cecil recognizes them for what they are. She's no engineer herself, but she grew up in Baron close to the queen's royal engineer and during her training to be the captain of the Red Wings, she spent even more time around Cid. She's seen such drawings before and can vaguely read them if she really sets her mind to it. Part of being an excellent captain was knowing how the airships worked.

"What are you up to?" she asks as she comes around and settles onto her knees on the floor beside him, returning his smile with one of her bright, easy ones. "It looks like you've been extra busy lately."

[treasureling]

He brushes his fingers over some of the lines of the drawing. "It's strange," he says. "My mind is unlocking new things every day. I've never felt anything like it. I understand things when I look at them - the systems, the ship's engines." He looks up to her. "Is it like that for you?" The augment, he means.

[proteusmoon]

"Mm, perhaps less intense, as mine so far does not seem to have too much of a creative facet to it," she explains after a brief moment of contemplation, "But, yes, it does seem like I learn and realize new things every day that I never would have were I at home.

"Then again, I might have cheated a little." She laughs a little at the thought, softly, and leans forward, looking down at the drawings again, trying to figure out what they're for. "I was captain of an airship fleet at home and while they were not so advanced as this, I did have access to one such ship at one point. I learned quite a lot aboard the Lunar Whale. These ships are different, not quite as sleek, but they're decent. I've never used firearms or such complicated explosives before here though. The technology hasn't been invented yet where I'm from."

[treasureling]

"I've barely even seen a gun before," he says. "They're almost unknown on Spinward."

He turns the plans a little bit, so that she can see them better.

"I've been thinking," he says. "About metalworking. And how the heat of the engines is used on the ship. I think I can build something like a forge that will work right here."

He's bursting with pride just on the very idea, but he's sensitive, too, and a little worried that she might disapprove. He thinks highly of her opinion.

shuffle arrival.

[sensationate]

[ This is about what Jordan expects for his arrival on a ship after everything he's heard. It's not so disorienting as very, very predictable for trying to make a show out of it. What Jordan notices is that Alex isn't with him. For all that the music and confetti and fanfare would have notified anyone else, Jordan immediately goes to a console to try and transfer ships once he figures out where Alex is. ]

What? What do you mean, it's maximum capacity? They can't do that.

[ Oh, now it's on. He's going to find a way to make this work. Alex is his, dammit. No one else in this fleet is getting their hands on him. ]

[treasureling]

We're only at four of five.

[ Malak has slipped onto the bridge. He's actually started to get sort of comfortable in crew's coveralls, and he's working on designs that he slips into one of the pockets. ]

And welcome, by the way.

[sensationate]

I was talking about his ship, not this one.

[ Jordan's looking for his communicator idly, ready to tell Alex to come to this one instead. It rankles incredibly that he can't go the other way and go straight to him, but some systems can't be broken fast enough for his liking. ]

Right, thank you. Welcome indeed. And who are you?

[treasureling]

My name is Malak. I'm the ship's engineer.

Who are you?

[sensationate]

Jordan. I'm a... personal assistant, however they intend for me to actually fulfill that here.

[ Yeah he's still messing with the communicator. ]

You're about to have company.

[treasureling]

Who is it you miss?

[sensationate]

Alex. He's mine, and they separated us for some insane reason. It's not going to last, so I don't know why they bothered.

[proteusmoon]

[ With their implants malfunctioning the way they have, Cecil can't seem to get many moments of peace anymore. She's tired of hearing the dull buzz of static throughout most of the day or waking up in the middle of the night to loud crackling in her head. Their newest crewmate's arrival comes at the worst time— during a lull in Cecil's glitching implant's noisy fussing. She hears him immediately and winces. As if right on cue, the crackling starts up again. ]

Unfortunately, they can, they have, and they will do whatever else they want too.

[ Cecil steps out onto a bridge, a largely unintimidating woman at first glance with her relatively small stature and her fair complexion. She certainly sounds bitter about her words though, even with her soft voice. ]

I'm sorry you're unhappy with your assignment. Where were you hoping to be sorted onto?

[sensationate]

[ If Jordan notices the discomfort or even cares, it's impossible to tell. He does, however, look over and his stance is clearly unimpressed by anything he sees around him. ]

The same ship as my Alex. Apparently the... Blue Fish. This ship looks like it has enough room for one more, so I'll be telling him to transfer here instead. [ Sigh. It makes him feel like he's lost too much control that he can't go to Alex instead of making Alex come to him. How's that for taking care of his things? ] If they keep giving us the tools to circumvent them, we'll keep using them.

[proteusmoon]

And your Alex is...?

[ Meanwhile, she's trying to remember off the top of her buzzing head who's even on the Blue Fish. Maybe they could arrange a crew exchange if he'd rather that? She's never heard of anybody doing that before, but then the crew was much smaller back then. ]

Having him transfer here would be quickest and easiest, but if that doesn't suit you, we could try something else.

[sensationate]

... my Alex. Alex Daniels. We arrived together. [ Which was a thing some people saw, and nothing he cares to further explain. If she doesn't know who Alex is, that's her definite loss. ]

Such as what? If it would take longer, it's not the most ideal.

[proteusmoon]

[ Cecil doesn't pay much attention to the network. She knows how it works, of course, thanks to the chips put into their brains, but she doesn't like using it. She's not from a world where such things are typical and it feels impersonal to her. The repetition of such insistent possessiveness though makes her very uncomfortable, and she's conflicted between that unsettling her and sympathy for him being separated from someone he's... apparently fixated on. ]

Then it's not worth talking about.

[ And then she remembers that she's not the captain of this vessel and suddenly she is so relieved that this isn't her matter to settle. She did agree to let Tim take the reigns, after all. ]

In any case, welcome to the First Breath. Tim will want to talk to you. You should speak to him if you have further issues as well.

[sensationate]

Tim who? [ It's not like Jordan isn't one to settle his own problems, but the idea of someone else going around claiming to be a problem-solver sounds like the perfect person to prank anyway. ] Why him?

[detectivewonder]

Which ship?

[Tim is slight, 5'5", with a gymnast's build and a critical expression on his face, wandering into the room and brushing confetti out of his hair. The situation is pretty clear, and any 'welcome' seems a little hypocritical.]

[sensationate]

[ For all that Tim is being intimidating or otherwise unwelcoming, Jordan doesn't even notice. He just looks over from where he's fiddling with the frustrating machine. ]

The Blue Fish, apparently.

[detectivewonder]

You know someone over there?

[sensationate]

My boyfriend, Alex. We were on the Marsiva together and now they've split us up for no good reason.

[detectivewonder]

Probably they think it makes for better entertainment. You can borrow a shuttle if you need one.

[Finally, he holds out a hand.]

Tim Drake. Captain, for whatever it's worth. And pilot, so if you need, I can ferry you over.