driftfleet | (no subject)

[Felix honestly hasn't been spending much time off-ship this planet. As much as wide-open skies appeal to him, the planet itself is kind of...creepy? And the waystations are dangerous.

When he's not in his room, he can be found in the galley a decent amount, with a bunch of notes spread in front of him. They seem to be on a theme of interstellar travel, and he's intently...drawing up some sort of lesson plan or something. It's that, or fiddling with the navigation systems in the cockpit and then taking notes.

He has left the ship a few times, though, and returned with some tech-y looking things to fiddle with, which he also occasionally does in public.

Or! Bother him other places around the ship.]

[There's a weird nostalgia about walking into the Vanquish galley, now that he's settled aboard the Wonderduck. Eugene's a little surprised, himself, when that doesn't fade even with someone in the space who was never on the crew with him. New crewmembers come and go, sure, but that's someone new there, work spread out across the table. It's the same off-balance weird as seeing a stranger leaving your old apartment and locking the door behind themselves.

Well. Not quite a stranger.]

Oh- hey! Felix.

[He pauses in the door, giving a crooked smile and lifting a hand in greeting.]

[Considering that Eugene has been stopping by to help them out when it comes to having...decent food, it's certainly surprising that Felix hasn't actually seen him in person yet. But here they are!

At the sound of his voice, Felix's head pops up, a little surprised. If Eugene feels a little off-kilter by seeing someone sitting in the galley then...well, Felix actually is experiencing something similar. Less having to do with being in a familiar space than...having a familiar experience in a wildly different setting. It's a throwback to all the times he's had conversations (good ones, and some terrible ones) with a different Eugene in a different kitchen. It's...weird. Very weird.]

Eugene. Hi.

[Which isn't to say that he's not glad to see him, echoing that smile.]

Food delivery.

[He lifts the bag he's carrying in illustration before he steps inside, as if he needs credentials to enter, heading right for the counter when he does. It's pretty basic this week, something that could be described as pumpkin spice muffin tops and a baker's dozen assorted empanadas, and he starts setting them out for whoever wants to grab one.]

How's it going?

I should have guessed you were the one supplementing our meals.

[Felix looks curiously at the new offerings, but doesn't get up right away to partake himself. That would seem kind of greedy and he's not all that hungry anyway.

At the question, he just shrugs a little.]

Peacefully, I guess. What about you?

Oh, you know. Ship full of ravenous teenagers. Trying to think of what to dress up as for the party.

[Normal space television stuff? Apparently.]

Are you going?

The one on the Iskaulit?

[Look. There could be another party. It's unlikely, considering Eugene said "the" party. But hey.

Felix looks like he's thinking about it, leaning back in his chair, and then he shrugs.]

Maybe. I don't know.

'Maybe'? Come on. You're the mystery guy. It's a costume party.

[He grabs one of the muffin tops and wanders over to see what Felix is working on, drawn by the lure of notes and writing of some sort.]

[It's lots of notes about plotting trajectories and navigational systems and faster than light travel and probably some way too detailed math about plotting jumps. It looks like he knows a lot about space travel. There are a handful of pieces of paper torn to note-card size in front of him, in the process of being sorted into...some sort of order?

He's still apparently contemplating the concept of this party.]

I'm not sure that I'm much of a costume guy.

...But you make a decent point.

No one said your costume has to be anything fancy. Heck, with the general state of affairs around here I think there's going to be a whole lot of the 'basic and homemade' variety.

[Wordlessly, he splits his snack in two, offering half to Felix with a lift of his eyebrows. Go on. Try it.]

I'll consider it. Very seriously.

[He doesn't even sound sarcastic! He can't sound too eager either but...okay, it's Eugene pushing the point. It makes it a little harder to say no.

He's also not going to say no to the snack, taking it with a nod of thanks. After he takes a bite, the look on his face is appreciative.]

These are really good. So, what are your costume ideas?

Thanks. I found a board and some springs in the cargo bay, and my captain can make bags of chips appear from thin air. So I'm pretty sure I'm going as a vending machine.

[Solid, extremely lazy costume. He has a bite of his own half, chewing and swallowing as he scans Felix's work for anything even vaguely familiar. It's not looking likely, but it is really impressive.]

Just bags of chips? Or as part of a wider skill?

[Because based on the way Eugene worded that, it almost sounds...very specific. Which would be more than a little odd.

If he's a hard sci-fi fan, some of the stuff about faster than light travel might not be completely foreign but...probably a lot of the rest of it is pretty high level.]

Honestly, he literally materialises bags of chips and other junk food out of nothing. It's Dave, I couldn't explain him if I wanted to.

[Grinning, he looks down at a trajectory, as at least there's something that looks sort of like geometry there.]

Hold up, is this all space flight stuff?

That's.......a little bit bizarre.

[Fascinating, but bizarre. It's hard for him not to wonder exactly what that means, why a skill would function that specifically.

And then he's distracted, looking back down at his work as Eugene calls attention to it.]

Oh, yeah. I'm trying to put something together for that lecture series on the Iskaulit. About interstellar travel. Navigation, stuff like that, more advanced than what you get with the pilot augment.

Huh. So that's what you did back home?

[One mystery down, and he gives a sidelong look of satisfaction, before he's back to admiring all the stuff he does not have the slightest understanding of.]

Basically. My title was "Tactical Officer", but that's a little misleading. It mostly consisted of plotting courses and FTL jumps. With some tactical planning and a lot of monitoring some pretty old computer systems thrown in.

[Galactica may have been saved by have non-networked, 50 year old computer systems, but being the one who basically needed to take care of them was a chore.

Also, friend, do not worry, there is so much mystery that you do not know.]

[Felix. Felix. He never, ever knew you were this cool.

Eugene is not even a big sci-fi guy, but come on! Spaceflight? What he can only assume from that abbreviation is faster than light travel?]

That is awesome. And- yeah, really, really impressive. [He's back to looking at the notes with a whole new appreciation, gently reaching out to turn one to read the writing better, laughing under his breath.] Seriously, I feel like a dog looking at a jet engine right about now.

[It's hard not to be deeply flattered by that kind of reaction. He's gotten it from a handful of people, but not nearly enough to be used to it.

It means that he has to fight down a full-on grin, managing just to look a little pleased and amused.]

Thanks. If you're interested in having any of it explained, I could probably give you a preview of the lecture.

...Actually, I could probably use the practice. I haven't given a presentation like this since college.

Whenever you've got your lecture together, I'd love to hear it. [He gives a self-effacing little smirk, looking back at Felix when the full scan of his notes reveals absolutely nothing else he can make heads or tails of.] The world I'm from never managed manned space flight further than our moon, so you can definitely count on me to ask a lot of really dumb novice questions.

"Novice" and "dumb" aren't the same things.

[Give yourself a little credit, Eugene. His tone isn't overly serious, though. He trusts him not to be actually that self-critical. Also, it's not exactly the most damning criticism anyway.]

I'll let you know once I'm done.

[Al knew his promotion didn't mean much in terms of how much power he had over Atroma, but it was still meaningful for him. He felt like he needed to step up his duties as Security officer, as well, so he could be found looking over the ship with a critical eye for security risks.

He'd also go to the Iskaulit to spar every now and then, or scout around for an area to convert into a mini workshop for his alchemy.

Or would you like to run into him elsewhere?]

[Ever since Rogue left, Eugene's done his best to stop by the Vanquish now and then to just . . . make sure they stay fed all right. He knows that his old crew isn't helpless, not by a long shot. He couldn't even say why he does it if you asked him, the whole thing a vague muddle of duty and sentimentality that he probably wouldn't want to admit to anyway.

He isn't sure how welcome he is to linger, but he still might hang around the galley a little while, arranging a bundle of slightly ambiguous baked goods into a more pleasing shape, checking the stocks and putting together some just-add-water soup packets.]

[Natasha hasn't been spending much time on the ship. Even less since they found the ship wreck. Most of her energy is devoted to first tracking down the signal, then trying to make sense of the message once its uncovered.

She can still be caught from time to time, though, in the galley or in her bunk. She's reliable about coming back to sleep if nothing else.]