Haze
Haze
Summary: Helios and Sapho meet Red Squadron.
Date: PHD156 (22 Sept 2009)
Related Logs: Related Logs (Say None if there aren't any; don't leave blank)
Players:
Eddie..Helios..Roubani..Sapho..Kai..Jupiter..Samantha..Harrison..

Kharon - Red Squadron Berthings

Eddie's back to doing not much of anything. Being back on light duty means she doesn't have to get up in the morning for things like PT and her shifts are shorter, so she has more time for lazing around in bed. At the moment, she's bouncing a little rubber ball off the top of her bunk/the bottom of Alex's. Thunk, catch. Thunk, catch. Thunk, wince, catch.

All's quiet on both sides of Eddie until some creature stirs. It's coming from Martin's side of the arrangement, but not the bottom bunk. The top, rustling and shifting about coming from within until the curtain's tugged open. That's an arm, let flop over until it's dangling down towards Martin's bunk. Getting up takes patience some days. The wrist's wearing prayer beads though. Day starts right.

At the noise of someone stirring, Eddie reaches out to tug open her curtain a little more and hang her head out the side to peer down the row. She'd know those prayer beads anywhere. "Rise and shine, friend of mine." No shoe to throw, and her bouncy ball too precious, there's no projectiles coming his way.

Roubani had the advantage of cover anyway. Literally. His blanket, if she can see it, is pulled all the way up over his head, covering hair and face. The wormlike shape underneath the blanket wiggles around a bit before the oval of his face appears, blanket still up over his hair and closed at his chin like a gigantic kerchief. "Mmm?"

"I'm bored, and I've just elected you to entertain me. Unfortunately that means you have to wake up." Eddie's still laying on her back, feet propped up on Martin's pillow that he sacrificed for her comfort. "I demand to be amused!"

More worm-wiggling. Roubani's hand snakes out from under his blankets, and a moment later there's something lightweight and white flying down towards Eddie's leg, which bumps off and drops to her mattress. Cigarette. "Fixate orally for a moment," he mumbles, his voice still thickly unattractive with sleep as he starts to sit up. "I am not ready for my close-up."

Eddie screws to her side enough that her fingers can fumble around the cigarette and finally secure it. Straightening back out is just as difficult, after having your tummy peppered. "Sweet nicotine. My fickle friend. How I wish I could quit you." She laments, even as she puts the filter between her lips and lights it.

Roubani makes an unpleasant sniffing noise, as though he had a bit of a cold. Sitting up, he lets the blanket drop off his shoulders and pool around his waist, leaving him in T-shirt and sweatpants. His left arm has a new hand-shaped bruise on it, and there's a new one on his collarbone as well. The black eye he got from Kai is at least fading fast, yellowed out around his nose. He moves stiffly, grabbing a small plastic bag off his shelf and then oozing his way down his ladder.

Eddie watches him through a haze of smoke while she does as he said, and orally occupies herself, even if it doesn't quite qualify as fixate. The bruises? She'd be blind not to see. It's quite possible she's memorized every one of his features, and it's easy to pick out what doesn't belong. "So what are you punishing yourself for now?"

"I'm not." Roubani assures her of this as he steps off the ladder. "Double PT, and Sergeant Elder has been teaching me to fistfight." This is said so primly it's ridiculously at odds with the words. "I feel very cleansed. Just by a steamroller." Keeping the bag tucked under an arm so she can't see the contents, he lights his cigarette before sitting down on the edge of her mattress.

Eddie gives a little hiccup of air that sounds suspiciously like a 'huh' as she considers that. "If you need any help in that department…well. I'm in no position to offer. But maybe when I finally stop this string of shitty luck of mine." Eddie's in her bunk, laid up on her back from her recent injury in the cockpit. Roubani is shimmying down his ladder, and Eddie's eyes are drawn to what he wants to hide from her view of course. "What's that?"

Roubani has settled on the edge of Eddie's mattress. Still in T-shirt and sweats from having very recently woken up if his unkempt curls are any indication. Smoke curls from the end of the cigarette in his mouth and he takes a drag off it before plucking it from his lips. "It was for you in sickbay, but I wasn't able to get down there in time. A shame. I suppose I could give it to charity…"

Harrison has arrived.

Sapho wanders in, a new face in the berthings. Having been kept with the civilians at first due to being able to access her records to prove who she is, it's taking a while for everything to be squared away but has finally been allowed to claim some space within the berthings as her own. A duffle bag is slung over a shoulder and a slightly pensive, almost wary expression can be found upon her face. "Hey, is this where the Viper pilots bunk down?"

Harrison exits the head, towel hanging over his shoulders as he heads for his bunk. He whistles as he wanders along, apparently pleased to be clean — or maybe there was hot water today. Who knows?

Roubani twists slightly in his perched seat on the edge of Eddie's mattress, tucking one foot behind the other's ankle. There's a plastic bag on his leg, protectively covered with one hand. That's a new face. "Yes, sir." When it doubt, play it safe on rank. A thin finger gestures towards the empty bunks left in the room. "I believe there is a free one there and another just over there."

Helios enters into the Red Berthings, looking like hes actually in -need- of the head right now…two big splotches of sweat right underneath his armpits as well as a nice little trail of the stuff from the collar down to his solar plexus. He's completely out of breath, lungs contracting and expanding like a balloon being blown up and excised of air at a super rapid rate. He start stumbling over to his bunk, a VERY anxious eye turned on all the strangers that reside here.

Kai arrives from the Hallway - Deck 1, Fore.
Kai has arrived.

"No, not 'sir'," Sapho says with a smile. "Just a JiG…Sapho Pournelle, pilot off of the Bellerophon." The bunks are looked at curiously and then so are those here, Roubani and Eddie taken in first while those who are newly arrived getting inspected once she's done. "Uhm, I…hello." She bobs a nod to Harrison and Helios. "Bunk?"

Roubani stands up from his perch, enough to toss the plastic bag back up onto his mattress. The sudden onslaught of people into berthings as his dark eyes flickering from face to face, some recognised and some not. He reaches up to tap his cigarette against the ashtray sitting on his bunk, leaning a shoulder lightly against the vertical rail supporting his mattress above Martin's.

"There's a couple left," Harrison notes as he tosses his towel up into his rack. "Under me, over Screamer, and a couple over there. Welcome aboard." He even includes a few vague gestures here and there to indicate where it is that he may be talking about.

Helios looks sideways at Harrison as he moves to his bunk, but not before pausing in space when Sapho asks something about a bunk. Not realizing that she's asking after a free one, he freezes up. "B-bunk? What? Yes? Bunk… Wait." When Harrison answers the question properly, a sigh exits from him (if he can sigh after being so physically exhausted) and he goes to find the duffel bag of clothing he left up on the one he claimed.

It must be shift change, as yet another pilot trudges on through the hatch, after holding it open with his boot for an Ensign to slip out. The CAG's obviously just coming off a patrol, judging by the helmet dangling from his hand by its unbuckled hardseal, and the full flight gear he's sporting. He notes a few faces on the way to his locker, but keeps his head down as he drags the gloved fingers of his free hand through sweaty curls. "Afternoon," serves as a general grunt to the room at large.

Roubani's head turns slightly, attention drawn by Kai's familiar voice in the sea of unfamiliar ones. "Sir." He puts the cigarette back in his mouth and reaches up to his bunk rail, climbing stiffly back up onto his mattress and settling where he can see most of the room like a cat atop a fridge.

Sapho's quest for a bunk is haulted upon hearing Roubani's 'sir', causing her to turn around swiftly as she looks right at Kai. It takes a moment but she finally figures out it is him Roubani was speaking to, prompting her to salute to the proper person once she does, or at least she -hopes- Kai's the right person. "Sir. Lieutenant JG Sapho Pournelle." Her duffle slides off of her shoulder and hits the deck with a hushed *thump*.

"Captain," Harrison replies to Kai as he passes by.

The lone word 'Afternoon' causes a bit of scrambling on Helios' part. What what once spent just casually getting his clothes out of his bag now turned into an effort to look alive and make a good impression. Chris aborts from his bunk and pads back down onto the ground, the sweaty man executing a perfect salute. "Sir!" he pronounces.

It's okay. Kai's not the tallest crayon in the box; it's easy to miss him between the six footers in the squadron. He drops his helmet into a free chair at the table, blue eyes cutting toward Sapho when he hears the unfamiliar voice. That, at least, answers the 'who the frak are you' that was undoubtedly about to be uttered. "What is this, a holdup? At ease, Helios, before you break something." The poor nugget is the recipient of a briefly amused twitch of the Captain's lips, and then he swings his locker door open and starts shimmying out of his flight suit.

Or one just develops Authority Sense, which tingles when anyone above Lieutenant stalks into a room. Roubani settles back on his heels, pulling a notebook of some sort off his impeccably organised shelf. His eyes flick up from it every so often to watch the room here and there through the cigarette smoke still curling up from his left hand.

"Where the frak did I put that stupid shirt?" Harrison grumbles as he turns his attention back to the problem at hand — digging the pieces of his uniform up.

Sapho looks around and then behind her, taking in her duffel as it sits upon the floor, it glared at for a moment before she glances back at Kai. "Sir, perhaps you could…uh, I was told I could get a bunk…" Being painfully unaware of what is SOP here along with just who Kai is, she flounders a moment, out of her element, a fish out of water. Roubai and the others are looked at for a moment, given a silent plea for help, her expression bordering on panicked.

Sapho out of her element? HAH! There exists no place where Helios resides within an element. Unless of course that particular element is oxygen and nitrogen of which there is plenty of that around here. The nugget tries to relax, a shaky hand from his forehead slowly being pushed down to his midsection, eyes dwelling on Kai's chest instead of his visage. Good things he's not a chick. He immediately turns back and heads to his bunk, where he successfully this time retrieves a couple of fresh threads. As for Harrison? "You can borrow one of m-mine if you like."

Roubani tilts his head slightly at Sapho. Or the top of Sapho's head anywhere, which is what he mainly sees from up here. His lips might've twitched a little bit, and he gives a mild cough. "Captain Marek," he illuminates offhandedly for the woman, as he looks at Kai. "Have you not had the chance to meet Lieutenant Pourelle?"

Eddie shuffles out of the Head, at least she's dressed in sweats this time, instead of the hospital gown she stole from sickbay. That means her butt is actually covered, much to the relief of some. Bare feet scuff the deckplating as she walks, not really lifting her feet much as she moves. Ow ow owowowow. Whoa. People. Musta been shift change. "Make an aisle! Wide load comin' through. Beep beeeeep beeeeeep."

Poor Kitty. Marek isn't helping that whole fish out of water thing, in the slightest. He all but stares her down from under those severe-looking brows, dogtags jingling as he wrestles his shoulders out of the suit. "Did you get lost on the way to the latrines, Pournelle?" He's got an arm out. And another arm. The tshirt he's wearing beneath his flight suit is about as sweaty and stuck to him as one might imagine, after spending four hours yanking a viper around. "Haven't had the pleasure," he notes blandly to Roubani, flicking his eyes the ex-snipe's way for a moment or two. "Isaiah, you don't" Grunt. "want to lose your clothes in here."

Harrison manages to find his uniform blouse before he emerges from his bunk again. "No kidding," he replies as he drops to the deck, then turns to face Helios. "No thanks. I got it." He'd extend a hand and all, but his bunk is way over here, and Helios is way over there. So he settles for a nod, combined with a slight smile, and adds, "Take a deep breath, man. I don't think anyone in here bites without being asked first."

At the sudden flood of people, Roubani had fled Eddie's ground-floor bunk to his higher one. He's perched up there now, long legs folded and cigarette still burning away, a notebook open in his lap. The plastic bag he'd been tempting Eddie with is tucked by his pillow. He leans over his knees as Eddie starts roaming back, looking down.

Helios listens to Harrison for a moment, providing a nod to him in acknowledgment of both his presence and his advice, quickly yanking his shirt off and over his head and replacing it with an identical one. "Thanks." he murmurs to Isaiah, chewing on his lip as he now sits on the edge of his bunk, legs dangling off of it and now taking the time to watch the others. Learn.

Sapho blinks and then uhhhhs, Kai's query doing nothing to help her feel settled. "I guess so, sir. I will go find the head right now." Bending down, she hefts her duffel bag off of the floor and reshoulders the large thing. "If anyone sees the CAG, please let him know I need to speak with him." Request made, it's time for her to shuffle towards the hatch and that is what she does, intending on leaving and going on a quest to find out just where it is she's supposed to frakking be.

Nobody bites? Ha! Cue Eddie. People aren't moving out of her wounded way fast enough, so she starts to actually bark. "Grrrruff! Ruff!" There's two new faces Mooner isn't familiar with. Helios is tucked in the safety in a bunk, but Sapho is within range. Eddie walks behinid her, growling mind you, on her way back to her own rack. "You just walked away from him, Daisy Dufus." Helpful? Always.

Roubani sighs quietly as the 'Captain' hint he gave Sapho doesn't quite seem to ring bells. But Eddie does the dirty work for him and so he just chuckles under his breath, circling something on his notebook page.

Watching all of this go down, Helios can do nothing but watch and try not to open his mouth and utter the words, 'I quit'. Although, it's hard not to find the growling just a little bit amusing, but how is he supposed to function as a member when he has to be worried about canines coming up behind him and biting him in the ass? It happened when he was six, and it could happen again! To avoid drawing attention to himself, he looks busy. Making his bed and stuff.

"Almost everyone," Isaiah amends quietly after spending a few moments watching the ongoing spectacle. He can't help but grin as he turns back to his bunk to finish getting his uniform ship-shape. "There's a few exceptions."

Marek, the bastard, doesn't seem to have any intention of clarifying things for poor Sapho. Talk about first impressions. He continues yanking, unzipping, peeling and shoving his way out of his flight suit, leaving him briefly in his tshirt and skivvies— until he tugs on a pair of sweats. To Roubani, "How're things coming with Valasche? Has she put the fear of the gods into you, yet?" He withdraws a pack of smokes from the top shelf of his locker, tucks one between his lips, and starts shoving his flight suit in.

Sapho is so nervous that Roubani's hint was totally lost on her, making it a good thing that Eddie is sweet enough to help out. "There's no need to be insulting," she snarls back, apparently unflapped by the gruff manner she's treated. Wheeling around, she looks first at the other woman and then to Kai, the latter managing to not be glared at although she's a bit put out with him as well. "Sir, if you'd be as so kind as to tell me where I'm supposed to be I'd appreciate it." There's an air of professionalism to her words despite her having been ruffled.

"She only bared her teeth once last night, sir," Roubani remarks mildly to Kai, still writing. "I think she likes me." He taps the pencil lead against the page and raises his eyes, once his sense of timing determines that Kai's decently dressed again. "I made it away from sea of Raiders only to crash headfirst into an asteroid. If you have anything to say to my dignity, you'll find it under the floorboards."

Eddie winces as she crawls into her lower bunk again. "I wasn't being insulting. If I was being insulting, you would have punched me and been in the brig by now." Eddie says with a slight smirk. "Just testing the new meat, don't get all tender or you'll be eaten alive. Oooow, frak." The last is said as she rolls onto her back and is once more staring at the top of her bunk.

Samantha has arrived.

"Well," Kai mumbles around his cigarette, cupping a hand unnecessarily in order to light it— purely out of habit, it seems. "You're one step ahead of me." In the liking department, one presumes. "I flew with a kid, on the Pegasus" Oh great. It's another 'story'. "who couldn't catch the trap for shit. Every frakking time.." He bangs his locker door closed, shoves his helmet off his chair with a boot, and replaces it with his backside. "But he thought he was really hot shit. Outflew most of us, me included, and got pulled into the aggressor squadron when he hit el-tee." He eases his not-insignificant weight back into the chair. "Dignity's overrated." His eyes go back to Sapho, face largely expressionless. "Just giving you a hard time, Pournelle. Grab a bunk. And be more careful of people willing to give you helpful advice in the future." He winks.

Speaking of advice, Helios tries to get Sapho's attention. "And be sure to l-look out for C-Castor Leda. I hear that guy is trouble." He provides a shrug to signal that he has no idea who he is or where he resides.

Roubani hangs around with Timon, he's used to putting up with stories from superiors. Kai gets a half-smile for his talking trouble, the expression carrying just a flicker of warmth, then his eyes flicker to Sapho, studying the woman while her attention's turned. Then down to the lower bunk next to him. "Would you like some tea or something, Eddie?" He offers. It's a wonder his soft-spoken voice carries that far, but it does.

Harrison finishes buttoning up and hops back up on the bunk to start shining his boots. He starts to whistle once again as he works, but tries to keep it down to a level somewhat less than annoying.

Crutches. Frakking crutches. Sam really hates hobbling around the ship on them, but she's been reassured that she'll get back on her feet -faster- if she stays off her injured foot for a few days at least. So, in hobbles the lamed one, head still half bandaged and foot in that heavy wrapping, in her off duty grays otherwise. Sam lofts a brow at the room…"Damn, crowded. We havin' Poet's welcome back party now and no one told me?"

Sapho eyes Eddie and then smiles, finally thawing out. "If that was't insulting I'd hate to hear what you'd come up with if you were truly wishing to get a rise out of me." Kai is nodded to as she meanders back towards where the bunks are but she doesn't go as far as to claim one yet, still trying to get a feel for what's going on and as to which bunks are avaliable before she does anything else. "Uh…Leda?" Sapho looks at Helios, her brow raising slightly as she takes him, and his advice, in. "Who is he?" Sam's arrival is noticed and watched although it's Chris who gets the majority of her attention.

"Shift change," Harrison replies to Case as she hobbles by, allowing his feet to swing free as he shines up his boots.

"No." Roubani mutters the word at Sam, pointedly. And that's all his answer to that.

Helios lifts his shoulders in a shrug at Sapho's inquiry again, shaking his head left and right. "I don't know. Everybody is warning me about him. I think h-he might be some…some sort of asshole or something. I am just waiting for him t-to pull some s-sort of prank on me because I'm new." At this prospect, he seems genuinely scared.

Kai's attention is pulled from Sapho, to Samantha, as the pilot hobbles in. He doesn't get up to help her, since she looks to be doing just fine on her own, and that's just not how he rolls. But he does flicker her a small smile. "I see they ejected your sorry ass. How're you feeling?"

Eddie snorts in the direction of Sapho. "Yah. You don't want to get on my bad side. I hear it smells like a marine's socks." At Roubani's offer, she starts clapping her hands like an overenthusiastic wind-up toy monkey with shiny new cymbols. "No tea. PRESENT! Frak that charity shit, you know I'll hunt you down and zerbert you in your sleep if you don't bribe me with goodies." Helios. Don't think that Eddie's not eyeing you up there too. You can almost hear the Jaws theme. Buuuudum. Buuuuuuudum. Budumpumpump ump ump budump.

Samantha is indeed doing perfectly fine, dammit! Ignore the crutches. She smirks at Roubani…"No? Sad. And to think I had plans…" She lets that possibly terrifying topic tidbit dangle in the air a few moments as she limps over to her locker and leans her crutches there, moving to open it. "Mooner, how ya feeling today?" And then over to Kai with a reassuring smile. "Fine. Annoyed as all hell… that's about it. Annoyance and frustration does a lot to cover pain." She admits, almost bitterly. She's -angry- with herself that she got hurt again. It's driving her up a wall. "…And who are these new faces? I know Field Trip over there."

"You can't reach where I sleep, Doughnut," Roubani replies to Eddie, snobbily. Holes in her middle. Doughnut. Get it? Nevertheless, he's a pushover when Eddie wants something, and he reaches behind him to grab the plastic bag again. "I do not in /any/ way, shape, or form condone these, which is precisely how I knew you would adore them. Here, enjoy." His face is already a bit red as he tosses the bag and its small contents down to her mattress. It lands within easy reach.

Oh, hell no. The cheerful boot-shining that goes on over in the corner slows to a crawl as Harrison looks up from his boot and shakes his head. "Thrice-damned Raptor pilots and their frakking big mouths," he grumbles, mostly to himself before he clears his throat. "She just didn't like getting her ass handed to her on the mat, that's all. Field Trip indeed."

"You'll be up there again in no time," the CAG murmurs to Samantha around a hit of his smoke, before dragging the tin cup closer that serves as ashtray, and thumbing the filter into it. "Even if I have to send you and Morales up there in body armour." Harrison gets a glance, and a bemused look. "Field Trip?" Uh oh.

Eddie picks up the package that was just delivered airmail, her eyes growing just a hint. She slips a stack of triad cards, nudie triad cards mind you, out of the plastic sleeve. "Condone these? Rubix…isn't this you on the Prince of Red?" Teasing. Or is she? "I'm fine. I just have a new naval piercing, that's all. Don't threaten body armor." She responds to Kai and Sam as she's shifting through the pictures, turning them this way and that. "It totally gives me panty lines in my flight suit."

Sapho finds a bunk which is unoccupied along with the one above it, the bottom one being the one she claims for herself. Duffel back deposited, she now approaches where Helios is, her eyes lifting up if she has to to be to look him in the eye. "So maybe we will have to look out for each other, huh?" She offers him a hand, a long with a smile. "Sapho Pournelle. And you'd be…"

Samantha flashes a smile to Harrison. "Don't worry, you don't even want to HEAR what they call me." and no, she's not going to bring it up. "Field trip ain't nearly so bad, and Legs does it all out of love." She reassures the new one, before looking back to Kai with a half sigh, "Frak, I hope. This is getting frustrating…" And then back towards Eddie and Roubani, brows lofted…"Ain't those fancy. Roubani… purveyor of dirty magazines AND dirty cards. I think he's hiding something from us, girls."

Well, it's a good thing Helios is oblivious to the impending noobie wrath of Eddie. Of course, it's an even better thing she's distracted by the flying package. The unassuming Helios continues his conversation with Sapho. "That would be g-great. Hey! Maybe we can be bunkmates or something." A grin, before it falters. "B-bunkmates meaning I'll be on top and you on the bottom." Now he's frowning. "Wai-…" He decides to skip to introductions. "Christopher Helios! I'm new. Off the Elpis."

"Black Cat thought that I was a loud-mouthed bastard and wanted to take a dance with me," Harrison explains over the soft scrubbing of his boots, a note of irritation managing to linger throughout story time. Scrub scrub scrub. "She started calling me Field Trip before I cleaned her clock, and damned if I can't get anyone to stop now that she's been spreading it over in the Black berths."

Roubani sucks his teeth gently at the mere thought of his face being associated with cards like THAT. Samantha gets an arched brow and he sniffs. "Given they are all meant for women, I should say it speaks more to your general lack of innocence than mine."

"If it gets better than skin mags and naked triad cards, I don't want to know," opines Kai on the exhale of a lungful of smoke from his nose. He tries to catch Roubani's gaze, and cracks him a rare — and brief — grin. Dimples and slightly wonky incisors and all. Then Helios talks, and he has to clear his throat to keep from laughing. Poor guy. "I don't know," he tells Harrison a moment later, once he's back to his usual inscrutable self again, "It has a decent ring to it. Are you a loud-mouthed bastard?"

Eddie shuffles the cards in her hands, "Hey, who wants a game?" Because it would give her something to occupy herself with. "We can play for smokes or somethin'. Make it interesting." Slowly, she tries to peel herself back out of the bunk, or at least into a sitting position within it..

"Sure. Move bunks if you'd like. And it's nice to meet you, Chris. Feel free to call me Sapho." Stepping back towards the bed she claimed, Sapho waits to see what Helios will do, something about his demeanor causing her to become curious.

Harrison looks back up from his boots, brows furrowing now. He doesn't like where this is headed, no siree, and so he stops shining for the moment. Hell, even his legs stop swinging. "Not for a few years. Last time I opened my mouth too wide, I said the wrong thing in front of the wrong admiral and ended up being assigned to the ass end of nowhere for four years. It was a learning experience that I've not cared to repeat." He shrugs before he drops to the deck.

Roubani makes a loud 'hmpf' at Kai. He puts out his cigarette and shuffles a bit onto his side, letting his head rest against the propped up pillow at the head of his bed.

Helios reluctantly reaches out to take Sapho's hand, but he moves away towards her bunk and Christopher ends up leaning a little bit too far, the man tipping forward right off the edge of his bunk. He plummets the distance and ends up a crumpled heap on the floor before he picks himself right back up and stands up straight. "Yes sir! I mean S-sapho."

Samantha pulls out a crumpled pack of cigarettes from her locker, apparently what she was looking for, and she slams it shut with her hip. Now…to get -up- into her bunk. This is… not a fun job, trying to keep weight off her foot. She basically jury rigs her crutch onto the ladder and vaults herself up and inside. "…Made it."

"Frak me, we're all going to die." Eddie says gruffly, which may just be coincidental to Helios taking a header out of his bunk. With a grunt, she's back on her feet and heading towards the center table with her nudie cards. Mooner tosses them on the table, face up, spreading smiling faces with naked…and rather proud…bodies. "Nothing wrong with being a loud mouth bastard. Long as you know when to zip it."

"Shit happens," is Kai's summation of Harrison's story. He keeps his eyes on the pilot as he stops shining his boots, and stops swinging his legs. His cigarette's tapped again, lashes lowering only briefly for it. "You're here now. We don't have any admirals to piss off, and I only bite pilots' heads off on monday." He checks his watch briefly, as if to ensure it isn't actually monday. "Love to play, Morales, but I've got to bail here in a minute."

"Yeah, pretty much," Isaiah admits as he slips his feet into his boots.

Jupiter arrives from the Hallway - Deck 1, Fore.
Jupiter has arrived.

Sapho manages to catch the last part of Helios' fall, that getting her to chuckle breathlessly. "Careful there, cowboy. Don't want you to break something before you can get yourself in a Viper." Her duffel's opened and she starts to go through what she had managed to get assigned to her, mostly uniforms and sweats which are folded neatly and put away proper like.

The hatch opens and in comes on Jupiter Black. Her hair is damp, but she's dressed in clean sweats. Smart money is on a recent shower post workout. She has that heavy lidded sort of look she gets after she's just done something bad, or had a long run on the treadmill. She makes it almost all the way to her bunk before she notices someone's crap in Yuuri's bunk. "…"

Eddie slumps into a chair, starting to gather up the cards as Kai turns down the offer of a game. "Fine. No…" She picks up a random card. "John the Cowboy for you, Sir. He has a mighty fine lasso, too. Just saying." Mooner is at the center table, messing with a stack of nudie triad cards that Roubani just gifted her. "These are aces, Rubes. Thanks man."

Helios brushes off his shoulders, running a hand through his hair. Good - two pairs of eyes caught his fateful descent. Any more and he might just turn sixteen different shades of red. Anywho, he buries his hands in his pockets and walks up to Sapho, seeing if he can help her unpack. "I don't think that's gonna happen. Not breaking anything, I mean. Already I've tossed a cig, poured coffee on myself, knocked over a mess hall chair, dropped my bag off my bed, and just took a dive off it."

"While John and his lasso are tempting, Morales, I've got shit to do," murmurs the Captain, lips twitching again a little as he finishes off his cigarette and smooshes it out in the tin cup. "Pournelle, come find me later. We need to chat. You so much as set foot on the hangar bay before then, and I'll nail your ass to the wall and let Fingers take potshots at you." He swings his legs around and climbs to his feet before shoving them into a pair of combat boots. "Breakdance? Fumbles?" He slides Helios a thoughtful look while he mulls this over.

Eddie mutters, "Failsauce." As her contribution to Helios' new callsign.

"You're that clumsy and you're a pilot? Wow. Better never get you assigned to me as a wingman, huh?" Sapho is teasing Helios, trying to lighten the mood, the playful jab hopefully enough to put him at ease. He's allowed to help as much as he wants while she addresses the Captain now, her head craned to the left so she can look at him from over her shoulder. "Yes, sir. I'll look for you later." His threat's taken to heart but is left uncommented upon, it only getting a slight nod of acknowledgement from her.

Samantha giggles quietly.."Catnip." Noo, she's not trying to set anyone up. Not Sam Passi. She shifts in her bunk, getting comfortable and resting on her side to look over the room.

"Did someone say Porn?" Jupiter scowls around, and then glances around some more. "Someone say pot shots?" She seems to have some gift for entering conversations mid-stream, because she suddenly exclaims, "Dropsy!"

At this point, Chris closes his eyes tightly and exclaims, "Just you wait!" Addressing the whole room was hard. "J-j-j-just you wait until you pp-pp-pass judgement. You guys hav…haven't seen my flying. A-a-anyone fly a luxury l-liner before? T-t-try parking it." Of course, that takes a different kind of finesse. "I'll make it. I l-learn."

"Dropsy? Lame. Veto." As if Mooner has that power. In the end, it'll be down to the CAG or popular vote, if anything. "Hey Jupes. Check out the luxury liner on this one!" No, she's not referring to poor Helios, but rather the card she's holding up for Finger's inspection. "I'll show him where to park it."

Kai's expression softens a touch, when Helios starts to sputter like that. He watches the younger man for a few seconds, then glances away again, expression hidden beneath a swoop of his lashes. He finishes lacing his boots, grabs his fatigue jacket out of his locker, along with his towel and a few items of clothing, and bangs the door shut again. "You kids take it easy," he murmurs on his way to the hatch. Name That Nugget is probably on hold, for the time being.

"Oh for fraks sake. Who let in the repeater?" Jupiter (aka Fingers) is a sensitive and caring people person. That much is obvious as she pulls open her locker, and kicks off her gym shoes into the base of it with a heavy thunkTHUNK. She runs a hand through her jaw length curls, then shoves a hand into her locker to retrieve her tanks. "That shit ain't gonna fly over coms, Stutter. I can beat it out of you if you need some help." The sweatshirt and sweats come off, and she stands there in watermelon pink thong for a moment, then she peers over as Eddie intones a prime piece of eye candy. "Shit, I can see that from here. Talk about payload." She tugs on her tanks and goes back into the locker for some fatigues. "Later Spider."

The stuttering causes her to wince and she's quick to put a hand on his arm to try and calm him, Sapho feeling bad that her joke would get such a reaction from him. "Easy there, Helios. No need to get so worked up. Look, maybe a change of venue might help you feel better, huh? There's got to be a quieter place to talk somewhere around here." Jupiter gets her to groan inwardly and she drops her gaze, having to bite her tongue to keep from retorting.

Helios swallows once, barely noticing that the CAG is departing. The reference to the nudie card does lighten the mood a bit, the man can't having helped but crack up just a little bit even in his serious explosion of personal insecurity. He looks over to Jupiter. "I can talk to ATC just f-fine. It's just a disembodied voice o-over the radio. You p-people on the other hand scare the living shit out of me." A room full of harmless bunnies might do that to him too. Christopher looks to Sapho. "Sorry. I'll relax."

Eddie flicks Mr. Luxury Liner on the table and peels off a new card, "See ya, Captain. Promise if we get any blood on the deckplating, we'll clean it up before you get back." The threat is mostly empty, seeming how Kai is gone before she even finishes the sentence. "Go easy on him, Fingers. It can't be easy being in the presence of greatness such as ourselves. Overwhelming even. He'll nut up or he'll get bussed off. If we wanted to be mean, we could call him Popcorn. It'd take him an hour to say that over the coms…" Welcome to hazing, boys and girls.

Harrison frowns for a few moments after he gets his boots on, lacing them tight before straightening up again. "Don't worry about it, nugget. Everyone takes a load of shit when they first start."

"Fear's a healthy response, Meat." Jupiter replies after a moment of grooming in her locker mirror. "Sometimes it keeps you alive." She glances over at Eddie, and a wide grin answers the other jock. "Yeah, no shit. Popcorn." She pulls on some fatigues, saving the berthing the joy of staring at her butt. She glances over at Harrison. "Everybody takes a lot of shit all the time if they don't fly right. Cheer up, you'll probably end up dead before we get a chance to progress to the practical jokes stage."

Samantha is watching everything, slightly more worried about the studdering Nugget. "Hey, handsome, don't be scared. Really… we only bite if you beg really, really nicely… and Jupiter might be a bitch, but we all are around that time of the month. It's Eddie's turn next week." She winks teasingly, trying to break the ice… in, as usual for Sam, the most crude way possible.

Sapho reaches up and pats Helios' shoulder, trying to reassure him. "Yeah, what they said, huh….well, except the time of the month thing. I would't know about that..uh, new here." Sam is looked at oddly and then she rolls her eyes good naturedly, unable to keep from chuckling. "Seriously, though. Calm down, take a few deep breaths. You'll do just fine."

Eddie holds up a picture of a firefighter, with nothing but a helmet and boots. Of course he has a hose, too, but it's not really great for putting out fires. "Found your man, Sam. That way, when it burns while you pee? He can extinguish it." Flipping it over for show and tell. "Ooh. Too late on the practical joke stage, I'm afraid. I've already replaced their shampoo with hair removal cream so they can look as smooth as me." Says the woman with the buzz cut. Did she actually do it? Maybe, maybe not. But no doubt all the newbs should be smelling their bottles before they use it.

"I'm the bitch, Morales is the jerk, Case is the whore, Poet's the prude, Boner's the frak up, Tinman's the lone bomber, Spider's the Daddy, Rebound's the piner, Screamer's the quiet one, Mud's the hall monitor, Icarus is the arrogant prick, Rainbow's the grouser, and Jester's the spazzed out whiny insomniac." Fingers runs down the prime suspects in the Air Wing without so much as a pause taken for breath. Yeah, Jupes has some lungs. "You forget, it's posted in the back of your flight manual."

Helios is needless to say, overwhelmed by everyone. It's like being in a garbage compactor where the big metal plates is the ire of his colleagues. That's about the time when utter despair sets in. The half-comforts offered by them are like finding tossed ice cream cones in the same compactor…they still taste like shit. Sam is watched for a moment or two with a wide-eyed glance. And then when Jupiter goes over the whole flight line succinctly, Chris mutters, "Thanks for the primer…" Finally, Sapho's hand is gently and carefully taken off of his shoulder. "Yes, sir."

"Quiz tomorrow," Harrison notes as he heads for the doors, keeping his tone as bland as possible. He's got his uniform just so, so it's time to go do whatever it is that he's going to do.

Sapho raises a brow and then she leans closer, whispering something into Chris' ear while nodding. It takes a moment but she leans away after a while, returning to stowing her belongings. "It's like wading into cold water. The first steps in are jarring. Painful, even. But the further you go in, the more you'll get used to it."

Jupes kicks her locker closed, and shoves her feet into her boots. She bends to lace them, kicking one foot, then the other, up onto the edge of Yuuri's bunk. She eyes the stuff in it as she does so. Someone's moved in. Jupiter is not amused by this. From the look of the set of her shoulders, she'll shortly be leaving the berthings, which is a small favor for the new guys.

At the whisper, the eyebrows come down lower in a furrow. "That's impossible. They're all against me." Helios shakes his head, very subtly looking to everyone in turn before he takes his bag and throws it over his arm. He looks like he's going somewhere, which is only reinforced when the man start treading towards the door. No, he doesn't tell anyone where he's going.

Eddie starts gathering up her cards, the amusement of breaking in the rooks is growing old, especially when the participants are dispersing. "Doooomed." Mooner says, a slight shake of her head as she tries to pull herself out of the chair again. It's starting to hurt again, from sitting upright, so it seems she's done trying to stress it for now. Back to her bunk she goes, carrying her Triad porn with her. A moment later, the curtain closes, and she shuts herself off in the shadows.

Jupiter is shortly headed for the hatch as well. Boot secured, she's likely off to terrorize the Mess, some marines, or to go royally screw with the day of some people in the Game Room or some other off duty area. Someone, somewhere, is about to get surprise.

Jupiter heads through the exit labeled <H> Hallway.
Jupiter has left.

Sapho grits her teeth and then shouts out, "I'm not against you," not looking away from her bag when she does so. There's nothing left to say so she just continues to make sure her stuff's in order, folded and put away as per regs.

Samantha settles back in her bunk, staring at the ceiling, quiet again. She's done a lot of contemplating of overhead bulkheads…still hasn't made things any easier.

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