driftfleet | One fish, two fish...

Entry tags:

One fish, two fish...

Who: Crew of the ~~S.S. Bad At Feelings~~ S.S. Red Fish and visitors!
Broadcast: Optional!
Action: All sorts!
When: Around the Drifting Week.

---

[if the worlds really are watching, they must just be chomping at the bit to find out what's going on aboard this ship full of misfits and sad-sacks! with one crewmate reportedly dead, another recently missing, and now this thing about a hacking device planted in the communications system--what could possibly happen next?

stay tuned, audience!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A - Hallways

[Laura did not like being stuck on the ship again. The smog moon had been awful, but the hand holding planet, in spite of it's...shortcomings...had honestly been wonderful, and being trapped in the ship again felt too much like a cage. A small, restrictive cage.]

[So she was prowling around a lot. Not quite pacing really, but close, moving from room to room to room to room, unable to really sit still for more than a few minutes, especially in the mornings.]

[Man she missed climbing trees.]

B - Cargo Hold

[One of the few times she did sit still, or at least stay in one place, was down in the hold. There was enough room to go through her martial arts training, so often times she was doing that, just simple exercises.]

[Other times, and the only time she'd really be sitting down, she would be in the corner of the hold where her 'wish' had resulted in two large aquariums full of the little fuzz slugs from the planet. (One for aquatic ones, one for not). She usually had one out, sitting on her arm or her shoulder as she sat cross-legged on the floor and tried not to dwell on feeling so enclosed.]

[unfortunately, Zhas is also in a less-than-ideal mood. the confinement never bothers him, but other problems have left him restless and irritable.

sleep is something that doesn't come to him easily. trying is kind of an ordeal. so when his attempted resting is interrupted over and over again by someone wandering through the hallway from room to room, he finally gets up, climbs the ladder out of his hatch, and slams the door open a little louder than entirely necessary.

so, hello. a menacing-looking guy with a skull painted on his face is glaring out into the hall, looking for the owner of the offending footsteps.]

[Laura sensed him coming a moment before his door opened, but she made no attempt to stop, not until he was leaning out into the hallway enough to be in her way.]

[She stopped a foot or so away, and probably didn't look all that intimidating being a tiny teenage girl, if not for the way she held herself. And her green eyes meeting his as if to say 'well, move.']

[She didn't really know how to be intimidated.]

[and Zhas, in turn, finds himself face to face with a small person who doesn't look the slightest bit concerned, surprised, or unsettled by his presence.

which is... kind of astounding, to him. since he doesn't know how to back down from anything, he just tilts his head and looks at her, replying with his own wordless sort of, 'what do you mean, move?']

[The benefit of being ridiculously hard to kill and intensely well trained meant you just weren't surprised or intimidated by much of anyone. Also one of her closest friends was a girl made of mercury. So weirdness didn't bother her either.]

[Still, after a minute or so of him not moving, she tilted her head to the side.]

Why are you standing there?

[yeah, that would make her pretty immune... and while Zhas is scary in his element or to "normal" people, standing here in the well-lit hallway, he's more of a resident Halloween decoration than anything.

he sighs first, shoulders hunching up as he starts to lean against the doorway. talking... is not his favorite, and it's already obvious that being menacing just won't cut it.]

Too loud.

[by the way, his voice holds all the warmth of a gravel driveway. everything's a creepy monotone, with this guy.]

[Well, he was backing down, at least. And as he moved, there was almost enough space for him to slip past. But then he spoke, and she hesitated.]

[Laura was used to hearing everything on the ship, really, so it takes her a moment to figure out what he means. Oh. She was pacing.]

I did not realize anyone else could hear. I am sorry.

[She was, too!]

[the funny thing is that Zhas is very good at conflict, and very bad at... peacefully resolved situations. he's used to fights, arguments... even an exchange of growls would have been more his style. but an honest apology?

he tilts his head, narrowing his eyes... until something suddenly occurs to him.]

...Who are you, again...?

Laura.

[A beat, just staring at him.]

You are Zhas.

[Well she did tend to stalk people on the ship oops...]

[he continues to stare at her too, for a beat, seemingly not surprised that she knows exactly who he is. he paints his face like a skull; he's used to kind of sticking out.

...eventually he nods once, grumbles in acknowledgement, and that's it. for several seconds. before he sighs, audibly, and takes a step backwards onto the top rung of his bunk's ladder.]

Thanks for apologizing.

[even though he sounds so flatly unexcited about it.]

[She nodded at that, but wasn't entirely certain what to do. Pacing had been killing time, honestly.]

I will try to be quieter.

[Which probably meant she'd take off her boots and start crawling through the vents. Which was...better...maybe?]

[now that Coil is healed enough to move around and exert himself again (and is now carrying a brand-new chip on his shoulder), he has quite a bit of frustration to work out on the Red Fish's battered punching bag. he's got his heart set on a good, liberating round of localized violence, opening up in the only way he ever really feels comfortable.

...which is why finding someone else already taking up space in the cargo hold is a bit vexing.

pausing a few steps into descending the staircase, the line of his mouth flattens in silent disapproval. and he just stands there, debating on what to do about it.]

[Laura heard him coming a few seconds before he stepped into the room, but she didn't look over until he had stopped to watch her. She was just going through some stretches, really, and she finished the last one before she straightened up and peered over at him.]

Yes?

[He was interrupting, after all.]

[Coil doesn't say anything--just looks at her with one vaguely-disguntled eye from his place on the stairs. out of all of his crewmates, she's the one that he knows almost nothing about... and he doesn't seem overly eager to make a new friend. his mood isn't exactly inspiring him to be very friendly, at the moment.

so, he continues his way down the stairs without a word, obviously seeming dissatisfied with her presence in some way, but not really offering much else beyond that.]

[It doesn't take long for her to figure out that something is clearly wrong, even after she moves to the side so there's space enough for both of them. But after a few minutes, her senses had quite enough of his irritation.]

[So she stopped from a stretch, straightening up and fixing her gaze on him.]

What is it?

[he definitely looks over at her, meets her eyes, and his body language still subtly prickling at her mere presence... but he looks away again as he moves over toward where a quarter staff is propped up in one corner of the bay.

pointedly ignoring her seems to be his answer, here. his stellar communication skills are on display.]

[Laura was perfectly content to have her own area of the room and ignore him, really. If her presence bothered him (and it clearly did), then allowing him to be bothered was just a side-benefit of doing her own thing.]

[So she did. Moving through her stretches, seemingly oblivious to his presence.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

One fish, two fish...

Laura Kinney - Open

A.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

B.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject