Take Your Tradition and Shove It

[mikangirl]

Who: Nami and you
Broadcast: Yep
Action: Bloodsport / Space Bar, Iskaulit
When: Now-ish

[Nami sleeps in an hour past the start of her shift at the Space Bar because the Atroma have always had such excellent timing.  When she finally blinks awake, all icy sweat and teary-eyed, she spends a good few minutes slowly convincing herself it was just a bad dream, not actual, y'know, memories, which is a pretense that lasts all the way until she sits up and catches sight of herself in the mirror.

Welp.

There's no definites, on either side.  That's something to think about.  She checks the time and date on her comm, realises she's only lost an extra half day, and pings the bar staff on duty to let them know she's running late.  She can have her depressing existential crisis later.  Runs through the shower and skids out into the cargo bay with her hair still damp and her backpack over her shoulder and--

And--????

There's a giant thing staggering around in here with yellow feathers sticking out awkwardly from the most godawful wrapping paper she's ever seen--]

[Indignant Video]

Hey!  [This here's a redhead with a lot more hair this morning, looking pissed.]  Who the hell left the giant bird in our cargo bay?  You can't just wrap a living creature in that much--

KWAAA!?

[She breaks off, startled, to glance over her shoulder at the crackling sound and sudden rumbling of something heading this way.  It's a wildebeest herd  And then has just enough time for a shriek before the comm goes flying , which means maybe all you get after that is a blur of yellow feathers and pink flamingo wrapping paper that's on fire (who giftwrapped the electric bird seriously) and a whole lot of joyful bird sounds who just ran over his favourite navigator sort of accidentally, but that's Biri for you.  JFC, bird.

Muffled and in the distance, after a few moments--]

...never mind.  I'm gonna be later.

[She recognises him now the wrapping paper has kind of burnt to ash, that's for sure.  Ow.]

-------

[She will eventually get to the Space Bar with all due apologies, so you can catch up with her there.  Or order a drink.  She's in a better mood than when she woke up, at least.  Giant idiot birds will do that to you.  Even if they singe your hair a little at the same time.]

Comments

[mikangirl]

[That's pretty damn sweet, Mon-El. She flashes him a wide smile.]

Many, many other ways to make money. I think getting married is down near the bottom of ways I'd care to try, all things considered.

[But look, she can't deny that if there were a hefty price tag involved she'd definitely consider it. At least for a few seconds.]

[spacebro]

Glad to hear it.

So were the people who were getting married friends of yours?

[mikangirl]

One of them was. The other... well, I'm not real sure what she is. [She's technically the enemy, but Pudding is a work all her own.]

It's not exactly a voluntary marriage. We broke it up.

[spacebro]

Oh.

Marriage is very complicated where you're from.

[mikangirl]

Ah? Nobody marries for political reasons where you're from?

[spacebro]

Well, not no one. I think my mother probably had some plans for me, but generally people aren't so worried about that. It's hard to move up too high in a monarchy.

[mikangirl]

Mmm. I imagine there's a lot of political matchups across the universe in general. Alliances, wealth, guarantees of non-hostility. That kind of thing.

My friend was getting married because his father wanted to create an alliance with one of the warlords. He didn't get a say in it.

[spacebro]

I was thinking of Daxam, but yes, there's a history of it on other worlds.

[He looks sympathetic.] Your friend's father didn't care how his son felt? [He knows that feeling.]

[mikangirl]

No. I mean, the feeling was mutual. [Sanji had never talked about having living family, until his family pretty much smacked them in the face with their continued existence.]

I guess the most important thing is he didn't get what he wanted.

[...they might have died for it. She wonders how Sanji would feel about that, and her gut turns over.]

[spacebro]

Family can be...complicated. [Said with all the knowing even if it's vague.]

So, it worked out?

[mikangirl]

Wedding is officially cancelled. [Grin.] We even blew up the cake.

[It...hasn't worked out yet, though. Work in progress.]

[spacebro]

Hey! There is never a reason to waste perfectly good cake.

[mikangirl]

There is if it's the only way to distract a terrifying mother of the bride. She, uh... really likes her cake.

[...SHE MAY HAVE JUST BEEN KILLED BECAUSE OF CAKE that's kind of absurd but oh god]

[spacebro]

Sounds like she'd go from distracted to angry pretty fast then.

[mikangirl]

Yeah, she kind of did. [...]

Did distract her long enough for us to leave, though.

[spacebro]

Leave and get away clean? And safe? You're good? [Not that he's worried about his boss or anything.]

[mikangirl]

[You just had to ask so specifically, didn't you.

Nami pauses, face drawn. And then realises she's likely given an answer with her silence, so she smiles weakly, giving a carefully casual shrug.]

Guess I'll find out when I go home.

[spacebro]

[Hey, he has to worry about the boss, right?]

I realize the answer is probably no because of lack of control over reality, but...anything I can do to help?

[mikangirl]

[She laughs shortly. She's not terribly amused by the situation, but that's a great way of putting it.]

Distractions are good, I guess. There's nothing I can do either until I'm home, right?

[spacebro]

I am the prince of distractions. [He was kind of literally the prince of distractions most of his life on Daxam.] I could start dropping the glassware? That's distracting. [He's kidding.]

[mikangirl]

I don't think you need to go that far. Distractions that don't cost me money, maybe.

[spacebro]

I've never been as good at free distractions. They usually cost money to start or cost money at the end to smooth everything back over. [He smiles a little. He's joking. Mostly.]

[mikangirl]

Oh, so like every distraction caused by a pirate ever.