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Rillitan is sat in the Mess Hall with a bowl of soup, he's staring forward with a blank expression. He hasn't taken a spoonful in some time and the stodgy liquid has gone tepid.
Coming late to the party, so to speak, Tiana comes into the mess hall through the kitchen, cup of tea in one hand, her other working with the holographic screens projected before her. There's a sandwich hanging from her mouth to boot. Working meal, looks like.
Shok sits not far from Rill and is enjoying a sandwich appearing to be made from some lunch meat or another with a few materials for armor next to him.
That empty stare catches sight of Tiana and the Timonae glances up, giving her a half smile as a lazy greeting.
"'Allo." Tia murmurs around her sammich, towards Rillitan, smiling in return as she weaves her way over. Sitting, she sets her tea down, enabling her to remove food from mouth. The holoscreens are dismissed for now, "'Lo to you to, Shok."
Shok nods to Tiana and replies "Hello." while taking another bite from his sandwich. He and Rill are sitting at a lunch table eating and Tiana just walked in and greeted them not yet seated.
Rillitan looks back down at his soup for a moment before, with a disgruntled murmur, drops the spoon back in the bowl. "I ain't sure wot this is." he grumbles, "But this ain't suitable f'r Timmie consumption."
"Uhh..." Tia leans over to have a look, but from her mildly confused expression, she has no idea either. Leaning back into her former position, the Martian offers over her sammich to Rillitan.
The foul grumblings of a stomach long uncared for had Risende wandering the hallways of the ship, his bare feet padding along the metallic surfaces as he had declined to boot up, such was his apparent haste. He needed no directions nor fortuitous intervention to be led to the mess hall, the faded vapors of meals passed and food to come finding his nostrils and guiding his steps. From outside the door he could hear voices exchanging inside but at the behest of another vicious grumble he would bite the bullet, knock and enter, hoping the famished look in his eyes would be enough to secure him some lunch.
"Naw, love, that ain't needed." Rillitan waves his metallic hand back at her and smiles meekly, "I ate 'nough f' this cycle t' last me 'till we eat later, eh?" He looks across to Shok after a moment, "Ow's t' crowds off o' Pyracan been t' y' sales-whut?" He glances back at the door as it knocks, "Bloody 'ell, 'nother tourist forgot 'is translator, righ'? Can't read t' sign says 'open'." He snortles, gruffly.
Shok shrugs to the pair of them and states "I'll try it if you won't eat it. Can't be much worse than military rations can it?" The Pyracani inspects the soup himself and becomes unsure of that statement. Risende is currently going unnoticed.
"A'right." Tia offers pulling her sandwich back, taking a bite and enjoying her food for a moment before the knock is heard. Looking up, Risende comes into her field of vision and the girl shakes her head, setting her sammich down, "'E's a new rifter. Din' ye notice t'alf broken couch in t'crew lounge? Flew in while ah were lookin' fer Kui, 'e did."
The (ex) Pilot sashays inside, weaving in and out of various chairs and tables to reach Tiana, "Yeah, what she said, rifter." his sullen rhetoric posed for the entire table to hear, "Beginning to think this might not be a dream, God damn. Never been this hungry in a dream before, at least." A chance inspection of Shok's food and the passed around soup transpires, "Then again, maybe I might tough this one out."
"We got a kitchen open," Rillitan grunts, leaning forward and cupping his mouth towards the service area, "Oi, EV!" He calls, "This'n's a FRESHER, aye? Sort 'im out sommit t'eat f'me that ain't cold an' sloppy!" He quietens, leans back down and returns to the more moody expression he was wearing to begin with.
"Think 'e's gone t'the loo, love." Tia offers to Rillitan, the girl standing up, "Weren't in 'ere when ah passed through jus' a moment's past. I'll git 'im somm't." Green eyes shift to Risende, wry smile offered to the fellow, "Well, don' worry. We got food good fer 'umans too. Wot ye want?"
Rillitan and Shok are both sat at one of the long tables in the Mess Hall, the former is waiting for his wife to return from the kitchen and the latter is looking at images of armor on his PDA, seemingly unresponsive. The Timonae huffs somewhat, looking at the kitchen.
Filikan waddles into the mess hall and towards the occupied table, finding a seat at it. "Mmmmm... the cats should be a bit more perky with their vitamin shots adminstered."
And return she does! With a plate full of smaller finger foods quite fit for human(and Timonae!) consumption. She sits back down, setting the plate down before she offers Filikan a small, "'"lo Filly."
Shok shrugs and takes the bowl of soup from Rill to try a taste and see if it really is that bad. He takes one bite and cringes before saying to the table at large "Yeah. Yeah. It's almost worse than military rations." A nod is given to the newcomer though.
"Great." Rillitan murmurs, and by his tone it is evident that he does not mean it wholly. "Little shi's give me grief as is." He looks across to Tiana as she returns once again and nods, "Thanks love."
Filikan reaches over and takes up a bit of the finger food and nibbles it.
"Yer welcome, m'love." Tia offers with a smile to Rillitan, her sammich and tea, left at the table when she'd gotten up again, once more attended to. Nomnomnom.
Shok pushes the soup back Rillitans way and goes back to his own sandwich asking "Just what is it anyway?" He grabs himself a bit of the finger food too. "You'd 'ave t' ask Everto f'r that, eh?" Rillitan shrugs, "I meant to ask, 'ow is t' business in t' 'all f'r you, Shok?"
Filikan continues to nibble, listening for the most part.
"Reckon i' were one ah them experiments wit' one ah t'new ingredients ah brought 'im." Tia supposes, giving pause to take a sip of tea, "Call i' a miss 'en."
Shok nods at Tia's suggestion of calling it a miss as he noms his sandwich and replies to Rill "Well I've managed to sell quite a bit on Pyracan actually. You'd be surprised how much demand for armor goes up when war is declared." He points a thumb at the materials beside him and says "This is for some light composite armor I'm gonna start later."
Everto isn't even in the kitchen today! He was off being guardly, left the sous chef in charge. He returns right about now, though. Hungry, it seems, because he makes straight for the food.
"You been makin' 'em f'r Pyracani specifically? Ey?" Rillita nods, "Good t' know."
The navigator and systems operator for the Olympus is rarely seen outside of the command centre, which makes KiKu's hurried appearance all the more odd. She stammers through the outside entrance, holding the hatch open and looking between those sat down. "Te veel moeite," she mutters, "Captain…" she pauses, considers that and adds an "Ss." to pluralize it. "Dere's somedink on de 'olo-net you should see. Actually, I dink dis is for everyone."
Mid-bite Tia pauses, KiKu's hurried approach and words giving her pause. Hastily she chomps and swallows, blinking at the Ungstiri woman, "Uh-oh? Wossis' 'en?"
Shok blinks at the entrance interuppting his reply to Rillitan and hearing what she says decides it can wait and stands. He looks to Rill and Tiana and asks "I assume this doesn't bode well." He hastily finishes his sandwich apparently thinking he won't be getting much of a chance if he waits.
Turning his head to regard KiKu, Everto serves himself some food off the line and half-shrugs. "More trouble, big surprise," he remarks lightly as he makes his way to the table and sinks down, "Gonna show us the holo-net thing or drama about it a bit more?" Omnomnom.
Rillitan just turns, raising a brow, "Eh?" He offers, helpfully, to the African pilot.
"Is to do with de Olympus, from when it wasn't de Olympus." KiKu says with a frown, "Come to de crew area, we can all watch it in dere, don't want t' show it t' de crowd, eh? Take de food, Red. Quickly - eh - quickly!" The African girl leads outwards at a pace, regardless of followers.
Balancing the remains of her sandwich atop her cup of tea, Tia takes the plate of munchies in her now freed hand, "Well, c'mon 'en. This oughtter be... interestin'."
Shok follows KiKu out the door after grabbing his armor materials about as Tiana is saying c'mon. He mutters to himself "This'll be interesting indeed."
With a light sigh, Red rises and follows along with everyone else. He took a tray, so he balances that on one massive hand waiter-style while he sets about eating and walking. "Sho," comes the full-mouthed commentary, "Who wansh do guesh on-" he swallows, "-on what the problem is this time? My vote is that Comorro ripped an SBD on the Olympus once and there's still toxic gasses trapped in remote parts of the ship."
"Ayup." Rillitan follows, the usual droll expression.
Crew Quarters - Olympus
Whichever hatch you are entering from, this room opens up into quite a wide space, decorated with comfortable looking sofas in sociable arrangements.
One wall of the crew area is covered with projected images of the outside environment, whether that be the dark recesses of space or the busy activity of a nearby shipyard, all is displayed for the crew to see. The projector system can also be used to display important information such as presentation materials or films.
On the two adjacent walls are the crew quarters, each sectioned off by glass walls that can serve as either window or screen depending on what the inhabitant prefers. Toilets and washrooms are located in one end of the quarters.
ALERT! There is danger present! Someone has left the RAT CAGE OPEN! Tiny, murderous squeaks emanate from sofa cushions and room corners. You should remain on guard.
On entry, you might notice one of the sofas appears to have been torn in two. Refuse is here and it seems he was in the middle of clearing up the remains before he became strangely rooted to one of the others. There he lays, with a cup of something warm in his paw, humming to himself as he watches the holoplayer.
On the holoplayer is a chat show between a human in a strange jumpsuit and a well composed B'hiri in what seems to be an attempt at smart-casual clothing.
"I just don't like it, Yellow is just a horrible colour." the man in the jumpsuit mutters in reply to something previously said. It elicits a laugh from the audience.
"Kitty, we need de holoplayer." KiKu says in a flat tone as she walks towards him.
"Aye, sorry darlin'." Tia offers to Refuse as she follows Kiku into the room. Carefully she brings her mug up, and takes a bite out of her sammich.
"You know, I'm suddenly painfully aware that the Olympus is full of funky accents," Everto remarks as he eyes the halved sofa, "Monty Python could have used this place for a sequel skit or something. Ministry of Funny Talks - what happened to the couch?" He finds a spot to sit and resume eating. Food is the most important thing in his world today.
Shok sits as well watching the screen waiting to see what the news important enough to come and grab the captains is. He asks to Everto who he sat next to "This kinda thing happen often around here?"
Rillitan follows behind Tiana and puts an arm around her, cradling her into his chest as he watches KiKu bargain with the Demarian.
Refuse grumbles something about unfair working hours but begrudgingly gives up the controller to KiKu.
The chat show continues. "Let's talk honestly for a moment, okay Hal?" the B'hiri chitters. "You talk about this 'lantern' thing as though it was well known but, hey, I haven't heard of y-"
The channel switches over as KiKu fiddles with the controls, navigating the menu onto a news program. Two Opodian reporters in the middle of talking about a financial scandal on Falar.
"Dis is it." KiKu confirms in a slightly agitated manner, "Next one up."
Handing off her plate to Refuse, Ti curls in against Rillitan's chest, sidelong look keeping watch over the program playing on the holoviewer.
"Painfully often," Everto replies to the pyracani lightly, "Shit's always going down around here. Keeps life interesting, at least." He suddenly realizes that he forgot silverware, but just shrugs and dives into his soup by tipping up the bowl to drink it. Doesn't seem to bother him any.
Shok nods to the Hek and replies "I suppose. By the way why did you have to leave during our paintball game? All I heard was something about the kitchen." He turns his attention back to the holovid once KiKu has the right channel.
Refuse, at the handing over of food, purrs delightedly and carefully begins to shovel it into his gaping maw. He manages, by some feat of epic insouciance, to consume food with less regard for everyone else than even Everto.
"Blame 'is one 'ere." Rillitan grunts, aiming a finger into Tiana's face. "She seems t' make more 'nmies than I do."
"Can't 'elp m'so cute folk're naturally jealous." Tia counters as she turn her face to the target of Rillitan's finger her cheek, "Wossat... wossat ol' sayin? 'Ater's goan 'ate?"
"Apparently there's a wild bird native to B'hira whose meat explodes if you try to cook it," Everto replies with half a shrug, "No harm done, though. So who won that, by the way?"
The report on Falar finishes and the Opodians once again address their viewers directly. A 2D image of a ship, and not a clear one, floats above the shoulder of the main news reader.
"Early reports from this morning have been confirmed by the Hekayti government on the crash landing of a spaceship in the Akeyap solar farm on their border planet Kapyit Prime. A press release from the High Moot Mikk earlier today tried to quell concerns over injuries."
The display switches to stock footage of the same press release, a Hekayti male standing behind a podium of press equipment. "We can confirm there has been minimal damage to the solar farm and no injuries or deaths have been reported. Emergency teams are dealing with the crash right now."
Shok turns back to Ev and answers "Raisa. I don't know how she did it. Tiana and I had her two to one after I got her partner. We just couldn't seem to hit her and she couldn't seem to miss us." The Pyracani's attention goes back to the holovid to see where the Olympus comes in.
"Haters wot?" Rillitan queries Tiana with a frown.
"'Goan 'ate." Tia offers to Rillitan before she frowns at the news report, "Uh... huh?"
Switching back to the studio and the Opodian news readers, the report continues.
"The High Moot of Kapyit was criticised for the particularly slow response of their emergency teams, after broadcasts were picked up as long as forty hours before the crash, dismissed as hoaxes. They are as follows;"
A visual sound wave is brought into the display and a message is played out, "This is an emergency message, this is the crew of the Pyakragat-omvrill research facility. We need urgent rescue, we have been forced to abandon the main vessel on boat 1 but our navigation console has... malfunctioned. We haven't got much time left. Some of the crew think they're infected with it, I don't know ho-." The message cuts into static.
Shok keeps his attention on the holovid almost wishing he'd brought a snack along. He yawns a bit and keeps watching.
"Right." Rillitan manages, "KiKu, wot's this got t'do with us?"
Staring a bit blankly at the screen, Tia murmurs thoughtfully to herself, "Maybe 'ey's jus' decided t'blame us fer somm't we din' do like 'em Kamshoans did." She suggests, looking over to KiKu.
"Oh, a space disease. That's one I don't see much," Everto remarks. he offers Shok the other half of his sandwich and moves on to his dessert instead.
"I don't know captain." KiKu replies, looking across, "But I have spoken to de computer girl about de ting dey found when dey found de ship."
Shok accepts the sandwich with a nod and a "Thanks." before taking a bite and keeps on watching the holovid muttering to Ev "So are you as lost as I am on why this matters to us?"
"Wit' Lila? Hnng." Ti offers lowly, the furrow of her brow pulling in deeply, "That thing, eh? Hurr..." With an innocent blink, she inquires to KiKu, "Er... Wot exactly were 'at thing? I uh... ah were busy workin' loads an' na'er got t'ole story, see."
Once again, the report cuts to the Hekayti governor, "The Pyakragat-omvrill has been missing for over seven standard years, this was not an oversight, it is policy to wait at least 32 hours past a response for a broadcast of this nature."
Returning to the studio, the Opodian returns to his auto cue, "He assured those press at the conference that everything was being done to ensure a rapid clean up, but no comment was made on the lack of a response from the emergency teams sent to Akeyap or the four infection control teams dispatched shortly before this report. This is Aley Jak reporting for GS News."
Everto just chuckles and shrugs at Shok. "Who cares? It's good TV. I wonder if it was a disease like the Ebola virus, if they were so worried about it. That's a scary-ass virus." He peers between Tiana and KiKu, then, "Yeah, what thing? We didn't break open a cooler full of unlabeled vials, did we?"
"Wots t 'Pya...r..o...' uh. T'ship?" Rillitan pulls away from Tiana, looking between her and KiKu. "Wot in t' name o 't Lady are you two on 'bout?"
"Err. Well, y'know 'em weird bits ah rust ye can't git out n'matter 'ow much ye wear i' down?" Tia offers to Rillitan, pursing her lips for a moment, "Well, ah ain't rightly sure on alla 'is really, but when Vaddy an' 'em found 'is 'ere ship, i' were all abandoned an' like... scary an' shit. Think 'ere was somm't livin' in i'."
Shok quirks an eyebrow at the red Hekayti and replies "You have one of the strangest senses of humor I've ever seen. I haven't decided if I like it or not yet."
KiKu falters, "Well," she says with a frown, "I didn'd press /doo much/ from de compuder lady, bud I god dat it was dangerous. Like, real dangerous. I dink we should dalk to Vadim."
"I was the Demon of Annoyance at the time of my resurrection, some of the habits from that carried over," Everto remarks with a half-shrug, "I'm just glad I don't feel the dressing like that anymore, it was horrendous." He rubs his chin, "So, wait, what does something living on the Olympus that seems to have left us alone all this time have to do with a disease that apparently wiped out people on a Hekayti research vessel?" Not putitng it together at all, nope.
"Talkin' t'Vaddy'd be best, aye." Tia agrees, giving KiKu a nod, hand offered to Rillitan. A brow raises at Everto, "Uh?"
"Wait, wot? So t' ship dey wos talkin' 'bout..?" Rillitan looks to Tia.
"De Olympus, Rill." KiKu interjects, crossing her arms and giving a slightly bitchy look sidelong at the Timonae's wife, "Even if dis isn't a problem, 'ow long before de Hekayti government starts sniffing around de Olympus? You know what de Grand Moot's policy on illegal salvage, eh?"
"Well 'e ain't gettin' Olympus back n'matter wot 'e says or does." Tia chuffs, crossing her arms over her chest and frowning /severly/ at KiKu, "Shoot 'at horny bitch m'self 'fore ah let 'im take our 'ome an' muss up in our business."
"Ah, fuck," Everto facepalms, "I don't get paid enough to deal with chestbursters. Angry Heks I can deal with, but some alien bitch tries to hug my face and I am going /apeshit/."
Rillitan seems a little lost at this point, falling quiet and placing a hand on Tiana's shoulder.
"Forgive me if I don't share your confidence in daking on de Ledelkrig, Captain." KiKu replies, rolling her eyes, "Is dat de plan? Shoot dem all?"
"Wot in 'ell are ye on 'bout?" Tia snaps /just a little/ at Everto, "If'n 'ere were still somm't 'orrible on board, i' wouldn't be considerate enough t'jus' leave us be, eh? Bloody 'ell." With a huff and a puff, she looks back to Kiku, "No." She replies flatly, "M'plan is t'wait an' watch first. An' talk t'Tryg." Snort.
"I dunno, Tia, Red don't seem to bother us much." Rillitan grins, giving her a bit of a nudge and an expression that suggests he expects more from the smaller Martian.
"You need to watch more horror flicks," Everto replies to Tiana bluntly, "Because everything since I died has played out like a bad movie, and /I'm/ going to try and stay a little genre savvy." He eyeballs Rillitan, smirking, "Just biding my time before I spike everyone's food with hallucinogens and watch the aftermath from afar."
"Watch plenty ah 'orror flicks." Tia mutters briefly before looking up to Rillitan, "Sorry." Mumbled quietly a moment later. She looks towards Kiku, taking a slow breath before she speaks again, "'Ere's a fair few folk ah need t'talk to first, but ah don' reckon we shoul' worry /too/ much yet. She's been seven years gone an' 'ad a ton 'o work put in 'er, but most importantly she's our lively'ood, 'en 'at's somm't i'll /make/ 'em unnerstand, one way or 'nother." The lot of them are gathered in a loose group, with the holoplayer flickering and chattering in the background.
"Sometimes you say thin's like you ain't even in t' room, Red." Rillitan murmurs with a frown, "You, uh, you migh' think t' tone that down a bit."
"Wow, even you're telling me to tone it down," Everto snorts, "Fine, whatever. I'm joking, but if it's bugging you then I'll just shut up."
A form shimmers into view near the entrance to one of the cabins. The small dark haired figure of Lila simply watches for now, listening to the others as they talk.
Tiana Ryoleli mumbles something that gets muffled quickly as she turns in against Rillitan, "Life's allus so complicated, innit?"
"Usin' all weird words like /genre savvy/, eh?" Rillitan waves an arm at Everto, visually batting him away, "Ye' crazy. 'ey?" He comforts Tiana with a soothing stroke and looks across to KiKu, "Go'an make sure t' Command Center is bein' watched, eh? We'll talk."
KiKu nods, pulling a slightly dour face and walking off.