| Grey |
| Summary: | Quiet moment in Black berthings as several gloomy Raptor pilots ruminate on recent events, while a drunken Viper pilot sleeps it off, on Momma Cat's bunk, no less. |
| Date: | PHD124 |
| Related Logs: | Occurs immediately after Sauced. |
| Players: |
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Thea comes through the hatch with Castor. Without help, she gets him tucked into her bunk and pulls the curtain shut. Well, there were some quiet words, some laughter, but it's clear that Momma Cat's tucking the lost Viper in in a purely platonic way. She's in Momma Cat mode. Once the curtain's drawn, though, she moves back to the table and settles in. "He'll sleep it off."
"I just have bad memories of the last time I woke up with him in our berthings," Sparro said with a smile, then took a seet opposite Cat. Gesturing to the bottle, he smiles. "So, what do we drink to?"
For a moment, Komnenos was alone in berthings, but that doesn't last long. His locker is open, and he's tossing a couple folders in with a shelf full of other disorganized paperwork before he slams the thing shut. Thorn is busy enough clanking around with his locker not to hear the sound of the hatch, and as he turns, he starts in surprise at seeing the sudden influx of people. There's another odd look in Leda's direction as Thea tucks him in, but there's only a minute shrug as Thorn walks to his bunk.
The Captain settles down in the seat, getting comfortable, and shakes her head. "You can go ahead and drink, Birdman,' she says quietly. "And I know, I was just…hoping to get him asleep without Marek spotting him. Thorn? You want to join us?"
"I wondered why you were avoiding his eyes." The part of Birdman that would always see Thea as the fifteen year old commandants daughter was more than a little present in his tone of voice. But that went away quickly… the poor woman didn't need an uncle. Grabbing the bottle without looking, Sparro takes a swig. "To a short war…" he says with a smile.
Thorn looks over to Thea as she addresses him; he pauses just long enough to exhale before answering. "Sure," he says quietly. His face a mask, he walks slowly over to the table. He tears off his uniform jacket, revealing twin tanks and the tattoos on his upper arms. The jacket is carefully draped over the back of one of the chairs as he takes a seat.
Thea studies Thorn for a moment, a hint of worry in her eyes. Yep, just one more thing on the Captain's shoulders tonight - but she clearly knows better than to push. As for Sparro, she doesn't correct him as to the reason she was avoiding the CAG's eyes, she simply smiles a bit and dips her head. "To a very short war, and one that doesn't end with our eradication," she murmurs.
Putting the bottle back down, Sparro grins a little, but still doesn't seem quite full throttle. On inspiration, he grabs it again, then holds it up. "To Merlin… may we honor his memory by taking down as many of those frakkers as we can."
"Death t' the enemy" Thorn mutters, obviously in full agreement. The first chance he has to do so without seeming grabby, he takes the bottle and downs a long swig of it. "So say we all," he rasps when he pulls the bottle away. Out comes that pack of cigarettes, and a fresh one is lit almost immediately after the bottle is down.
Thea dips her head at the toast. She's not lifting a glass, not lifting the bottle tonight. Odd. The Captain's been seen quite a bit of late with a drink in her hand when she's off duty. Perhaps because she's on Momma Cat duty tonight? "I'm taking tomorrow night's CAP," she tells the pair of them. "To allow the Riders to attend." Her eyes slide away from the pair, though.
THAT causes Birdman to look up in surprise. "But you're a captain… you should be there. Let me take it, Thea." There was something else, there. After eyeing Thorn's cigarettes, he pulls out one of his own.
"Attend?" Thorn directs a bleary-eyed, questioning glance over at Thea, shifting over to Sparro as he speaks. "What am I missing?" he asks.
"The memorial Thorn," Thea says with a little smile, but it's a sad one. "For the recent dead. There are way the hells too many of them. And I'll…think about it, Birdman."
"I'll sit backseat for whoever does end up going, then," Thorn says immediately as he reaches for the bottle again. "I'm not going." His lips are drawn tightly as he speaks. "Might as well do something productive with th' time, then."
"Of course you will," Sparro says with a swig of the drink. "My ideas are also good. Honor the dead, grandpa always used to say, though his way of doing that was done within seconds. 'Kill the one as killed them, boy, and then move on and let the Gods handle the rest.' Gods, he was a miserable old frak."
Thea's quiet for a time, looking between the two men. "I don't know that I can handle it," she tells both of them quietly. "On one hand, I want to do this so you all can attend. On the other, I'm not sure, honestly, if I can take it. Not right now. Not in the chapel." Her throat works a moment. "Not for Danika. I'll celebrate her life out there." One hand waves toward the outside, vaguely.
"Either way, I'm not going." Thorn repeats himself curtly. "Y' might as well have me instead of another Bear that wants t' be in the chapel, eh?" Komnenos is doing his best to help Sparro kill that bottle, as he takes it and takes another long pull in between puffs of his cigarette.
Sparro nods. "In any case, might as well get busy with the livin'." He hits the bottle again, still giving odd looks to Thea. "You sure it's just that, Cat? You seem… a bit out of it."
Thea looks over to Thorn and cocks her head to the side a bit. "I'm…alright," she says quietly. "Just a little tired and worn down. What about you, Thorn?" Yep, bearding the lion in his den.
Thorn blinks at Thea, not saying anything for a moment. "Fine," he replies, quite unhelpfully, using another swig from the bottle as an excuse not to clarify any further. There's a slight tinge of red in his usually pale cheeks, but that could just be the alcohol.
Sparro laughs out loud. "Yes, fine, fine, we're all frakking fine." He points at himself. "I'm frakking a girl half my age because it feels good, damn it." He points to Thea. "You're still orbiting him, though trying to do it from the darkside, and frak if I can figure out why…" he points at Thorn. "And I don't know WHAT your deal is, but yeah, fine seems to be the word." His laughter deepens. "This has got to be a joke on the cosmic scale, don't you think?"
"It's over, Sparro," Thea says quietly, slowly standing up and pushing her chair in. "He has someone else. It's over. Between that and getting dumped, I'm over humiliation for a little while. I've had my share for the week." Her movements are deliberate and careful. "Thorn, I'm not sure what's going on. But if you need to, please feel free to come talk with me." For the moment, she stands with her hands on the back of the chair, clenched slightly.
Thorn's ability to cultivate a total lack of expression is part of what's made him such a good Triad player, and the enigmatic look now on his face would have served him well at any number of high-stakes tournaments. "Fine," he says again with a slight nod to Thea, obviously feeling no compulsion to elucidate. For the moment, at least. The facade does slip a bit, though, as his head slumps. "Sorry," he replies to her, his voice a bit softer and devoid of its earlier edge. "I will. I just… would really like t' have that CAP tomorrow night." He doesn't elaborate any further as to his reasons for either the apology or wanting the CAP, simply falling silent with a meaningful look in Thea's direction.
Sparro is still chuckling. "Fine…" he grins, then looks up at Thea. "It is as over as it ever was, and no humilation for it." He reaches for the bottle again, taking yet another swig. "We're falling apart at the seams. Sure, we still fly one hell of a good mission, but look at us. All dark and gloomy. No relief, no R and R, nothing but the next CAP and the next funeral." He looks up at them both again, the smile gone. "We're still flying, aren't we? We still get to take the fight to the Cylons. No point in dying before they get the chance to kill us, right?"
Thea just looks at Sparro for a long moment, simply studying him, then nods once. She looks older, tired, rather like she'd cry if there were anything left. "One day at a time," she says softly. Then, with what little bit of a smile she can muster, she makes her way to a chair at the far end of the bunks and settles herself in down there, feet braced against the far wall of bunks. Someone's not sleeping in her own bed tonight.
That blank, stony expression is back on Thorn's face as Sparro speaks. There's a slight twitch of his lips, as though he's about to say something but changed his mind just in time. He nods slowly, though, seeming to agree with something Sparro said, at any rate, as he takes another drink from the bottle.
Sparro shakes his head, then turns to his own bunk, kicking his boots off as he sits down on it. "Everything will be fine…" he mutters, "so long as we don't pretend that things are fine the way they are." Another long look at the pilot and the ECO, and then he prepares for bed.
Thorn rises unsteadily to his feet, taking a moment to gather his legs beneath him. He grabs his jacket, casting a concerned glance over at Thea. "Captain. You can use my bunk. I won't be needing it for a few hours." He tosses the jacket over his shoulders. "It doesn't smell as bad as it looks," he states drolly before he heads for the hatch.
She looks up at the ECO and hesitates for a moment. "Thorn, are you sure," she asks quietly. For once, she's not martyring herself - but there's definitely that hesitation.
Sparro stares up at the top of his bunk, deep in thought.
"I wouldn't have offered otherwise," Komnenos replies, his eyebrows furrowing as bleary blue eyes focus in on the Raptor captain. "Take it. Please." What's left of his cigarette is stamped out in a nearby ashtray as he looks at her.
It's a long moment later that she's nodding. "Thank you," she says quietly. "Wake me when you get back. I have an early call anyway." But she looks relieved to have a place to curl up.
"Right," Thorn replies dully. A couple loose articles of clothing are yanked from on top of his sheets and shoved into his locker. He looks over at Legacy one last time. "Rest well, Thea," he says softly as he turns to go.
The Captain slides into the bunk, tiredly. It's clear she's tired. Whether she sleeps or not, well.
Seeing the captain wordlessly crawl into his bunk, Thorn finally goes for the door, closing it softly behind him. Where he's going and what he plans to do when he gets there is anyone's guess.
