| A Mess in the Mess |
| Summary: | Angst and drama interrupt a peaceful Breakfast for Dinner |
| Date: | PHD106 (August 02, 2009) |
| Related Logs: | Contagion & Misotheists in Foxholes |
| Players: |
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Mess Hall - Deck 2
IC Time: Post Holocaust Day #106
OOC Time: Sun Aug 02 22:00:52 2009
Next to Hangar Bay One, this is probably the largest room on the ship in terms of available square footage. Its expanse has to feed the entire crew of the Kharon three times a day and still be able to offer snacks to those who need something between meals. The kitchen is almost constantly in operation to produce the next meal while huge coffee urns operate near the end of the room, fresh mugs ready to fulfill the needs of the masses.
The typically gray walls of the ship are broken up in here with a neutral shade of gull white that might be an attempt to shift atmosphere of the ship. Long tables span rows that go back through the room with a few circular tables at the rear which offer a more private setting. The serving counter is near the Fore end of the room, the long counter passing by numerous serving platters.
Matto licks at his fork with a quiet consideration. "Might want to bring more than one. No accounting for inflation, those texts we have are really old. You couldn't get a ferry across the Kardimma for less than thirty c, last time I was on Virgon," he points out, with his own somewhat twisted form of atheism, along with an amused sort of smile.
Meanwhile, Wil's own disinterest with his stale pancakes have gotten the better of him. He gradually, while seated at his table speaking with Matto, starts nudging the tray. Nudging the tray down the line as if magically there will be some sort of spark of divine intervention. In other words, the leftovers will be someone else's problem. "My luck I'll be staring the Ferryman in the face and his bloody boat will have a 'closed for repairs' sign. It'd be pretty high on the list of cosmic jokes, let me tell you."
Wil finishes this statement with a little laugh, but he can't quite sustain it. He apparently thought it was more funny than it actually is, upon having said it.
Single pancake and tea gotten, the latter probably more nutritious than the former, Roubani shuffles out of the line proper and sidesteps a group of people clogging the end of the first table aisle. No shoulder bumping for him; he gives most threats of contact very wide berth as he drifts along, searching for a landing zone.
Matto gives a smile to accompany Willem's laugh, "Well, there's been a lot of traffic, recently," he adds, 'cause the conversation needs to be that much more tasteless, right? He spots the wanderings of the Poet, and lifts his voice, "Hey, guy," by way of invitation.
With an idle trudge, Ferris slides into the Mess, and into the line. Grabbing a tray, and working along the food line, he just grabs himself something small - not exactly worth-while, but it works. After grabbing a drink, he moves toward the tables, scanning about for somewhere to sit and his head tilting slightly…
Ariadne enters, reading as she walks, only half and eye on avoiding those who come and go. As a result, people give the wandering priestess a bit of a wide berth. She pauses to mark her place with a worn ribbon, looking up to determine her next course. Nadiv and Jaimson are offered soft, warm smiles… Willem a slightly more tentative one. And Kisseus—
The priestess blanks. Blinks. Her book falls from numb fingers; her expression becomes a confusion of shock and pity. "My gods," she whispers. "You."
"Hey." Roubani's voice has a brief touch of warmth as he responds to Matto's greeting. He sets his tray down at an empty seat, wherever that happens to be, and extends a polite, "Evening, Price," to Willem before starting to sit. Which literally gets interrupted mid kneebend as Ariadne addresses Matto, which stops him. His eyes flicker back and forth between them.
Wil shoots Matto a flat 'you went there' look. Yeah. He went there. He attempts a smirk as, for this one moment, the Raptor pilot and the Libran Viper pilot were of one mind, sharing an inappropriate thought. Completely inappopriate. It doesn't take though. "Yeah. Yeah there has." He fingers the soon-to-be-discarded tray and looks down at his papers for a moment. Back up at the parade of latecomers. Apparently he came -right down here- to hit up the pancake dinner before anyone else could. Selfish. He flashes a slight, querying look at the newest addition to the Kharon's Chapel. Curious. Dead curious. Finally, he shakes it off as he acknowledges Roubani. "Poet. It was nice rooming with you all but for now we're out of your hair on a full-time basis."
Wil's last is punctuated by another attempt at a smile.
Moving along the tables idly, Ferris happens to spot Will and gives his hand a wave. Deciding he may as well, the tall pilot turns that way to join him, and whomever else he's with. it takes him a moment to spot Ariadne, but when he does, the smile's returned in kind. He doesn't immediately notice what happens, either… as a matter of fact, he doesn't realize anything's going on until he's right there at Wil's table. "Evenin', Rebou-" The sentence is kinda cut short as he glances around to see the little interaction, and he pauses, watching it.
Matto shoots Willem a kind of apologetic look in return. Yeah, it was bad. And— he got called out for it? He hadn't actually been assuming that the exclamation had been pointed in his direction until he looks to Roubani and follows his gaze back to the strange woman, giving her a quirk of a smile, "Hey. Sorry," he tells her, "Mouth running two steps in front of brain." He actually does look a little abashed.
There's a moment that Ariadne looks helplessly at Nadiv, then her gaze is practically dragged back to Matto. One hand strays to her prayer beads; she's apparently forgotten about the book. "You poor man," she sounds shaken. "You have no idea what you've done, do you? No idea what you're /doing/."
Roubani softly clears his throat. Talk about your awkward teatimes. His knees are protesting, so he lets himself sit on the very edge of his chair as he processes what's going on. Willem gets an absent nod, a crooked half-smile, then it's back to Ariadne and Matto. "Miss Adelphi…" He says her name quietly, as if to try to distract her focused attention just for a moment. "Kissy, do you know Miss Adelphi?"
Oh -hey-. Someone else is riding the Awkward Train. Hell, someone may be -driving- it straight over a cliff. For once it's not Wil, he's just an onlooker. Granted, given the proximity, he may be sitting in the car stalled on the tracks about to be its first victim but it's still a slight change of pace. "Um. I have written several disserations on that subject, Bear." he begins to Matto, his mouth open a little bit, his curiousity more than idle now. He gives a slight upward glance to Ferris in an attempt to give himself a conversational exit strategy in case the Heat's beatin' down the door. "Ensign. I don't think I ever officially complimented you on getting your space-legs last night but consider yourself complimented. You handled that well." Somewhere in there Roubani got a return grin but for now it's a social salad. His eyes flicker between Ariadne and Ferris pointedly.
Blinking slightly, Ferris tilts his head a little bit. Watching on at the awkward social situation, he doesn't say anything - well, at least, not anything -pointedly.- "Uh… Ariadne?" He calls out the name, sort of familiarly. He has a sliiiiiiightly concerned look on his face at this point. Wil's compliment gets him a glance, and a bit of an awkard smile and eyebrow raise… but otherwise, attention's center stage.
Matto turns his head faintly back toward Willem, keeping his eyes on the crazy priest lady, but sort of askance, now, wary. "I'm having breakfast… for -dinner,-" he explains, "I know, it's an abomination, right?" he grins at her, though the grin is guarded, and maybe just a little bit hostile. Metaphorical hackles beginning to rise.
Ariadne shakes her head. "No. We haven't met," she tells Nadiv, stooping to get her book. She's shaking. "But now that we have, I see this is going to be more… involved than I'd anticipated." She looks up at Kissy, still stooped, book in her hands. "I don't know /what/ you've done. But you do. And you're putting all of us in danger."
Roubani gently scratches the tip of his nose with his pinky, starting to stand as he addresses Ariadne quietly. "Miss, could I speak to you a minute?" His tone communicates clearly: 'outside'.
How to stuff your own boot in your mouth and choke on it, (C) PHD#106 by Willem Price, Lysandium, Libran. Chapter 1. Page 1. "You know, I remember in eleventh grade when Sister Jacquenetta caught me and Ramon's sister smoking out behind the bleachers. We were skipping gym class again and she gave me this…" Oh, wait. Wil trails off, not even attempting to pull a bit of awkwardness-reducing levity out of this situation. "Like the Sisters of Athena cared anything about gym class anyway." No, no, it's just really not working for him. He shrugs his shoulders, glumly. "I should probably clean up this mess. Shouldn't I?" He finally gives Matto something of a 'look.' It's all 'bro'-like. He gives Ariadne one glance just to see if he's incurred her wrath yet, probably, given the sort of skittishness of his stare.
And Kissy's up and out of his seat. Probably the fastest anyone's ever seen him stand without his actively being on fire. "I am -not- looking for religious counsel, I -don't- go bother you at your chapel, and I'd appreciate it if you'd stop…. jibbering… at me. Thanks," he tells her, assuming some sort of tacit agreement between the two of them. His head turns and he regards the Poet, next, features softening into something almost mournful, as if he already knows who the Poet will listen to. It dawns on him slowly but visibly that he's seen this play before, and he looks aside from both of them, "Excuse me," he whispers politely to the priest lady, moving carefully past her on his way out. One foot in front of the other. That's the way the walking thing works.
Ariadne stands, still shaking. She pets the book a moment, as though apologizing to it for dropping it, and nods to Nadiv. "This is beyond me," she admits in a small voice. "Father Cygnus will know how to proceed… but not I."
She flinches at Matto's reaction, looking far more mournful than affronted. She keeps her eyes averted, stepping back from him as he passes — almost as though she's shrinking in revulsion.
If Roubani's siding with /anyone/ at the moment it's quite unclear. He lets Matto go without stopping the man - for now - but he doesn't seem willing to drop it with Ariadne. "Outside. Now." Wow, that's quite an Officer Voice he's developed in the last five minutes, there.
Sort of just watching things for the time being, Ferris can't help but quirk an eyebrow at the whole thing. It's not something he's used to, after all. When Roubani decides to ask Ariadne to follow him out so they can speak, his eyebrows shoot up slightly… and he looks between them both. But he says nothing at this point, instead… he moves to sit down, furrowing his eyebrows toward Roubani as he makes that Officer Voice apparent.
Ariadne takes a breath. The look Nadiv receives for his tone is completely flat. "Immediately, sir." She holds her book to her chest, preceding him from the Mess.
Roubani steps out of the mess hall, having abandoned his plate and his tea. He takes a quiet breath and heads for Ariadne, wherever she may have drifted to.
Zoom zoom zoom. Wil's got his pile of notes under his arm and looks like he's on full burn. He's not even -thinking- of stopping. "Scuse me. Make a hole." He's heading straight for the stairwell.
Ariadne leans against the wall only a few paces from the hatch, still hugging her book to her chest. Her lashes are lowered and her shoulders slumped rather wretchedly. She doesn't look up at Roubani's approach.
Roubani has nearly half a foot of height on Ariadne, but he doesn't use it to tower over her. He stops close to her, regarding her lowered eyes for a moment before he talks, quiet and even. "When I was in boot camp, I once made a stupid mistake. Nearly cost someone his life. Very few people knew about it, and I felt awful. The next evening I was at my bunk and a Captain came in, came right up to me and began yelling at me in front of the room, telling me it was all my fault and what an idiot I was, and damned if I'd ever be trusted to fly a Viper. He was within rights to do what he did, but after that I not only nearly quit, but I imagined everyone's eyes were on me, waiting for me to fail." He tips his head, looking at her face. "That was something as silly as boot camp. This is something far more important."
As Ferris exits stage awkward from the mess hall after busing his tray, his head is hanging and his eyes are being rubbed slightly, a small shake coming to it. However, his stride slows slightly as he turns -opposite- the way Ariadne and Roubani are. And he just sort of… stops, leaning up against the bulkhead, his back turned from them. His hands tuck into his pockets, and he just observes.
"It wasn't my intention… to… to do that," Ariadne whispers, turning her face away. "I have nothing but pity for him. Nothing but compassion… Whatever created such a rift between him and the Lords… it must have been awful." She turns her eyes, bright with unshed tears, up to Nadiv. "You can't know what it felt like, being so close to him. I could barely breathe. It… /frightened/ me. Not for myself, but for you. All of you."
Roubani's full attention is on Ariadne rather than the corridor. Whoever's going by, stopping or not, goes unnoticed for now. "No, I can't imagine what that was like. But I can imagine what it was like for him, and that's enough. Do you remember what you said to me in the chapel, about people that are in the middle of these things? If you'd listened to yourself in there, Ariadne…you'd never know you had ever told me something as compassionate as you did that day."
Furrowing his eyebrows as he listens to the conversation, Ferris lets the lieutenant's words mull over in his brain quietly. He doesn't make any sudden moves yet, though… but at the same time, he's curious. If not for Ari's sake, but for Nadiv's. They're both friendly toward him, after all.
Ariadne turns her face away again, tears falling. "You're right," she says simply. "There's no excuse for how I behaved. Not shock, not fear. Nothing." She swallows. "Are we done here, sir?"
"No." Roubani's voice isn't sharp; it never quite has been, except for when he first marched her out. "Listen…we can't undo things have happened. But neither can we ignore them and let someone else clean up our mess." He exhales quietly. "That may not have been handled well, but you're still a step ahead of where you were an hour ago. What can be done from here? Tell me what you need."
Wiping her eyes and taking a breath, Ariadne straightens her posture and lifts her chin — though she still doesn't look at Roubani directly. "I'd speak with him. Privately. But… there are two difficulties with that. One, I'm fairly sure he'd be unwilling; two, I don't know how much time I can spend in his presence without becoming… without being affected." She rubs at a line between her brows. "I can't perform the ritual to cleanse anyone if I'm impure, myself."
At this point… Jaimson turns on his heel, and begins to walk down the hallway toward the pair. As he does, he slows his pace, and eventually, comes to a halt just short of bumping into them, looking between them. "Lieutenant," he greets Roubani quietly, nodding to him, before glancing toward Ariadne. He then glances back to the other. "'Scuse me, but… uhm.." He falls short as Ari speaks.
"Alright." Roubani acknowledges both points with a slight nod. "So what-…" Whatever question he'd been about to ask is cut off by the sound of Ferris' voice, and he turns his head slightly to look at the older man.
Ariadne blinks a few times, looking startled by Ferris's arrival. Apparently she forgot she and Nadiv were talking out in a well-traveled corridor. "Jaimson." It might be a greeting. It's all she says.
"Oh. Jeeze." There's a sort of awkward look on the older pilot's face as he clears his throat. "Uh. Sorry, you two. I probably shouldn't interrupt." He just looks between them for a moment, tilting his head a little and giving them both an awkward sort of smile. "… But… I was curious as to what was going on with her." He nods toward Ariadne, talking to Roubani.
There are lots of ways Roubani could be a total dick right now. Instead he just says, evenly, "If Miss Adelphi wants to discuss it, that's hers to say. If not, I expect you to respect that." His dark eyes go back to Ariadne. "I think a few moments to breathe will help. And I need to be at shift shortly. Be in touch?"
Ariadne raises both eyebrows as Roubani's consulted about her. While she's standing right there. She looks to the Lieutenant, however, as though curious herself.
"Yes. Of course," she replies to him, softly. She's dropped the 'sir,' but obviously hasn't resumed the familiarity of his first name. "I think it's probably best I consult with Father Cygnus on this. I'll let you know what he says."
A slight furrowing of the eyes. "Of course, sir." Jaimson then lets his eyes glance back over to Ariadne briefly. He says nothing to her at the moment, but he does sort of just shrug… and, tucking his hands back into his pockets, proceeds on down the hallway. Not actually toward the stairwell, though. Just down.
"Okay." Roubani murmurs. "I'll see you at chapel tomorrow, then." He probably needs time to think on this himself, and he rocks his weight back gently on his heels before starting off down the corridor, leaving her to talk to Ferris. Or not.
Ariadne, for her part, lets both men go. Her expression heavy-hearted, she takes a few moments to breathe… then heads back to the chapel. To do what small good she can do there. Penance.
~Fin
