[Log] Larry the Rat

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Crew Commons, Grace O'Malley [Haven]
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Saienne is, not unusually, perched cross-legged on one of the benches around the dining table working from her battered silver PDA. Although Ronnie and Ymir - and everyone else - have been working double time to restore heat and light to the Grace, she obviously feels something of a chill still as she is wrapped up in her heavy coat and woolen scarf. The gloves she wears are fingerless, allowing her to both tap away at the PDA and also write in a little leatherbound book also open on the table. She hums to herself as she works, and occasionally one of her long-fingered hands comes up to scritch absently at the back of her head.


Stumbling engaged. Bishop slips into the common area looking completely wiped out from the afore mentioned double shifts that folks have been on trying to patch up the numerous wiring jobs that got blown out. The stumble however is different as when Bishop arrives, one foot catches on the other and it's a true stumble which results in a loud and heavy thud. The end of it all is Bishop, laying face first on the floor after having skidded a few feet and managing to mumble out nearly incoherently: "Ow...."

Walking in from the aft, Aradia's either adjusted to the cooler climes inside the ship since she's got no more or less on than normal. Glancing back to Lucinda behind her with a faint smile, she turns back as she steps into the commons just in time to see Bishop's spectacular faceplant. Crossing over to the coffee urn, she says wryly, "I do discourage excessive drinking first thing in the morning, Bishop." Nodding toward Saienne with a smile, she says, "Morning, Sai."

Lucinda shifts to look past Aradia, whom she's following into the Commons. "Please don't break anything, Bishop. Like..your face." She pauses in her pursuit of coffee to look to the co-pilot in concern. Not so much concern, however, that would drive her to, ya know, help the man up.

Saienne's attention cannot help but be diverted from the concentrated tapping and scribbling she was engaged in. She looks up from the work, and at first - her gaze resting at waist-height - she sees nothing untoward. The unmistakable 'Ow' sound, however, causes her to frown, crowsfeet wrinkling. She pushes herself up from her seat a little so that she can peer over the bulk of the table to the floor of the commons beyond. And there is Bishop, sprawled on the floor and mumbling. Saienne stares for a moment, and then says, dryly: "Well, ain't you the master of entrances, an' all?" A pause, and she sets her pen down on the table. "If it ain't appearin' trouserless it's fallin' over your own gorram feet." She shakes her head and steps out from behind the table. Taking the couple of paces over towards the fallen form - just as the Captain and the Doctor enter - she bends down and asks the pilot: "You all right? Ain't broken nothin'?" Her tone is slightly more sympathetic than before. To Aradia's greeting, she cranes her neck to look sideways towards the galley. "Mornin' Captain, mornin' Doctor," comes the even reply.

"Naw, I alright." Bishop says with a grumble as he rolls over to his back. "And I ain' been drinkin' cap'n. Just ain' been gettin' no shut eye." But instead of getting up off the cold deck, Bishop just lays there facing the ceiling.

Kael Bowen starts his way in from the aft as well, a bit behind them all. He's wearing gloves which he's pulling off. Some residue of snow starting to melt upon the brim of his hat. It looks like he might've been buried in the stuff by the look of it. His Jacket has little water droplets slowly running off of it, not many, just a drop here and there behind him. His boots are in much the same condition. His scarf is about his face currently, it's wrapped about his head over his forehead ending right below his eyebrows. It picks up again right under his eyes and continues down to his neck, creating a sort of mask look. His boots don't fall as heavily as they normally do as his eyes slip over the group starting to develop in the Commons.

Filling one mug, she passes it off to the doctor before she fills another one and takes a sip from it, walking back out into the commons as she says to Bishop, "I'd offer you a hand but I've only got one working and it's currently performing a very important duty. Lifting her mug aloft, she smirks a little and takes a seat at the dining room table across from Saienne. Relieving the mug of its duty momentarily, she takes her PDA out and places it in front of her, typing something up on it. One of those kids who grew up in the text messaging era perhaps, she does it one handed and in short order before she hits one last button and closes it down again, returning to her coffee.

Lucinda wraps both her hands around the mug, its the little things that anchor you to the here and now. "Thanks, Captain." Though the words hold more weight than a simple cup of coffee could surely warrant. Her PDA makes a little chime from her pocket, but she doesn't need to retrieve it to know what its in reference to.

Saienne straightens up, satisfied Bishop hasn't done himself - or the deck, for that matter - too much damage. She turns to Aradia. "Don't reckon he's been drinkin'. Breath smells interestin' an all, but it surely ain't got the whiff of tonic." she says, "Just workin' too hard an' too late." She looks back down at Bishop's prone form. "Although I reckon I can understand why folk might make that assessment an' all." She shakes her head again, a little wearily, and lopes back over to the dining table and her assembled bits and pieces. Kael's entrance causes her to look over her shoulder, and she grins crookedly at the man. "An' here's another one makin' an entrance." She looks him up and down. "Must be plumb fong luh to have ventured outside, Kael, duty or no." Her own PDA makes its characteristic burbling noise, echoing Lucinda's, but she doesn't rush to check it.

Josephine seems to be morphing into a dark-skinned, short-haired Buddhist version of Aradia, what with her borrowing all of the Captain's clothing and now even wielding her old PDA. She combs her fingers through her hair as she steps into the commons, doing a quick glance around to make sure that nobody is lying on the floor starving to death.

Bishop well, apparently isn't carrying a PDA because nothing beeps on him. Instead he narrows his eyes at Saienne for a moment before just letting them slide closed, apparently deciding the floor is good as place as any to take him a nap.

"It's not too bad. It's all 'bout settin' up a the right spot." responds Kael, a tad muffled through the scarf. He shoves the gloves into the pocket of his jacket as he continues. "If you dig it too deep, you loose too much viability. Too shallow, you don't keep in any heat." His right hand then reaches up and pulls off his hat, smacking it against the side of his leg to knock off the rest of the snow. His left hand, meanwhile, reaches up and pulls down the scarf off his head to encircle his neck loosely. His mouth is pulls into a bit of a smirk as he starts his way towards the galley. His feet thump across rugs splayed out upon the floor.

"Morning Jo, Kael," Aradia says to the new arrivals with a smile. Bringing her mug up for a long sip from it, she leans forward in her seat on the bench to look across the table at the papers scattered there. "Whatcha working on there?" she asks Saienne as her gaze lifts up to the woman, her head tilting a little.

Lucinda is standing near the coffee urn, looking a might out of place and down right fidgety. Good thing she has more caffeine. She offers a bit of a smile to Josephine, a slightly brighter one to Kael, but other than that, she's not doing anything worth mentioning.

"Good morning, Captain, everyone," Josephine replies with a warm smile, not missing a beat before she is tucking a blanket around Bishop and she'll even try to impose a pillow beneath his head if he doesn't protest too much. "Sweet dreams," she wishes the randomly napping pilot.

Bishop manages a smile up at Josie as she gets him a blanket and a pillow. "Only if you're there." Whoa, what? That's definately a line from the nearly completely passed out pilot.

"Well Kael," begins Saienne, "As long as it keeps you happy, an' all, I ain't goin' to complain." She then tilts her PDA towards the captain. Displayed on the screen is a long list of names, contact details and associated notes. "Just as I was tellin' Josephine the other day - almost gettin' this thing fried -" she taps at the PDA delicately "- made me realise how fragile my whole operation is." She flips a few pages in the little book over. "Been copyin' everythin' out on paper just in case." She grins. "My aunt Loretta always said paper was best, an ain't it true that folk are still readin' books centuries an' centuries after they were first printed an' bound?" There is a pause, and she adds: "Also lookin' to see what my next job might be - when we get the opportunity, of course. I know we got other things to worry about first, an' all, an' I got that article to get to Xiao-Chen." A shrug, a lop-sided smile that is at once apologetic and slightly resigned. "Habit, I expect." She breaks off then and peers down at the terrible handwriting in the little book. "Of course, it helps if you're actually able to read what you've written..." She looks up at Josephine's greeting: "Mornin' Josephine."

"Mornin' Ara." Kael says, nodding in her direction. He shifts his shoulders a little, the rifle sling over his right shoulder slipping a bit closer to his neck. His eyes settle upon Lucinda then and the smile softens substantially. His hands don't remain motionless though, they start working on his jacket, unbuttoning the five of them, starting with his neck and working his way down. He passes around behind Lu and reaches out to snag a tin coffee cup, whispering something gently to Lu, the smile still playing across his lips. Kael's eyes flick over to Josephine then and he calls out to her, "Mornin', Jose."

"Ain't that the truth of it," Aradia says to Saienne with a chuckle, asking, "Couldn't you print it out from what you got there? Would save you a lot of writing by hand." Taking another sip from her coffee, she turns and swings her legs over the bench to rise to her feet, heading back toward the galley. Refilling her mug on the way, she says to Jo, "The doc has some news for you about yer new friend," before she continues on in and pulls a cupboard open to grab down a box of multi-colored, sugar filled cereal. Tucking it under her arm, she scoops out a handful and tips her head back to pour at least half of that into her mouth, munching on the crunchy sugary sweet goodness.

Josephine ruffles Bishop's hair on her way to get the mop to clean up all of the snowpuddles left about by Kael. "Hey Kael, Hi Sai," she says, already busily at work making sure nobody slips and that the floor is nice and clean. Especially if people are going to be sleeping upon it on occasion. She looks up when the captain address her. "Oh? The unnamed rat?" She turns an inquiring, curious gaze to the doctor.

Lucinda smiles faintly, her head turned back towards Kael as she murmurs something, but her attention aims back at Josephine. "Sneakers. Of course, that's just the name I put on his file. I ran a sample of his blood, and other than being dehydrated and a bit malnurished, he's clean."

"Ain't got a printer," says Saienne, simply. "An' the nice thing about havin' it in a little book is that I can add to it an' it's all bound up an' neat. Ain't goin' to have bits of paper flyin' all over the shop..." She begins to gather up the bits and pieces now, though, turning off the PDA - and saving the new mail for later - and slipping it and book into one of her many pockets. She sits herself back down on the bench by the dining table and turns to face the assembled crowd, listening.

Kael Bowen reaches back with his left hand as his right sets the tin cup down on the counter. He pushes the jacket back around his hip as he reaches for and pulls forth his PDA. It hadn't made a beeping noise, but it seemed to have alerted him some how. He taps the screen with his thumb, eyes looking towards the screen as his right hand gropes about a little before finding the handle of the coffee urn. He starts to pull it towards him, taking a quick glance to measure the aim and pours the coffee into his cup. He turns the screen of his PDA towards Lu so she can read it next. A gentle murmur towards Lu as he pulls the urn away, setting it back down. His eyes pull up then, towards Jose, the corner of his mouth pulling up a bit. "Thanks, Jose.. I would've gotten to it though, promise." He tells her.

Finishing off the handful of cereal, Aradia grabs a bowl and pours more out into it. Looking from her mug to the bowl and back again, she considers a moment before she takes up the container of powdered creamer and dumps a ridiculous amount into her mug. The Captain putting cream in her coffee? How horribly...wrong. Humming quietly to herself as she fetches a spoon from a drawer, she stirs the powdery stuff into her coffee and then promptly dumps the contents of the mug over her cereal. Bowl in hand with the spoon now sticking out of it, she retreats from the galley before Josephine can admonish her for her creative culinary practices and resumes her seat at the table across from Saienne. "So what are you going to call him?" calls back to Josephine before shovelling a heaped spoonful of cereal into her mouth.

Josephine's face lights up happily. "Oh! Thank you, Lu!" she exclaims, looking truly pleased at this news. She even stops tidying for a moment. "Where is he? And I'm afraid that 'Sneakers' is a ridiculous name. I was thinking of calling him Singularity.. Larry, for short," she explains to Aradia with a grin, even being so kind as to ignore whatever disgusting mess the Captain is making of her breakfast. "Guaranteed to make you smirk, I realise. Do you have any other suggestions maybe?" She goes back to cleaning up Kael's mess with renewed vigor, anxious to go visit Larry now that he's got a clean bill of health. "No worries, Kael. I don't mind at all." Of course, she doesn't really look at him when she speaks. But that could be because she's mopping the floor.

Lucinda eyes scan the screen, but she doesn't have to read too indepth to know what it says. Her hand lifts for a moment, briefly resting on Kael's cheek. Muttering something along the lines of, 'Its a family affair,' before her hand drops back to join the other in craddling her mug. "Sneakers on account of the fact that's what it sounds like when he squeaks. A wet pair of sneakers. But this is why I don't have pets or children. I'd name them something ridiculous." She takes her coffee, then heading towards a couch.

"Well.. I got something warm to drink. Already had something to eat earlier, why don't we go visit him, Jose?" Kael smiles a little, it looks a bit on the hopeful side, but it's a tad muted. His gaze shifts towards Lucinda then, and his smile slips into more of a caring one, leaning his head slightly into her hand. His left hand thumbs a switch on the PDA and then moves back behind him. He pushes the coat up and behind his hip again, seeming to secure it in place before pulling his hand free. The right hand picks up the coffee then and his gaze returns to Jose, looking to her curiously.

Wrinkling her nose up, Aradia goes from chewing with gusto to chewing much more slowly as she gets a very thoughtful look on her face. Swallowing with some effort, she gets up and heads back into the galley, retrieving the box of cereal, the creamer and some sugar. She sits back down and sprinkles a liberal serving of the latter two over the contents of the bowl before grabbing another handful of cereal out of the box to add to the bowl. Stirring it all up, she scoops another spoonful into her mouth, looking much more satisfied this time as she digs into her well balanced and nutrititious breakfast.

"Alright Kael," Josephine says then, perhaps surprisingly. "If the Captain doesn't need either of us for anything else." She casts a deferential gaze of inquiry to the woman eating an alarmingly irresponsible breakfast.

Lucinda curls her legs up on the couch next to her, mindful however to keep her boots off the upholstery. "He's still down in Med bay. There's a bit of cheese in a foil pack at the bottom of the plasma cooler, if you're so inclined..."

With usual foot steps accompanying him, Kael makes his way around behind Lucinda. He gives Lu another sort of gentle smile and leans close, whispering something in her ear. His hands switch, taking the coffee in the left as his right came up and gently rubs her shoulder between neck and blade. His eyes then look over towards Aradia, seeming intent on her answer, saying to the Aradia, "Well, Captain, anything in particular you need of us?"

"Mromph" Aradia says around a mouthful of cereal as she looks toward Josephine and Kael, waving them off with the spoon in hand. Hopefully Josephine is far enough off not to see the droplets of coffee flavored milk that go flying from the spoon when she does so.

Josephine touches her hand to her heart. "Oh, how I admire your eloquence, my noble Captain," she poetically proclaims before putting her mop aside and heading down to the medbay, presumably with Kael not so very far behind.

Lucinda nods to Kael's words, just a slight bob of her head that repeats twice. Her attention returns to her coffee mug as if the ripples in the dark brown liquid provide ample entertainent.

Kael is indeed not far behind. He stands back up straight shifting the rifle about again and then starts off towards the aft after Jose. His head turns to the side, looking a bit over his shoulder at Ara, his mouth pulling into a grin, "I think I gotta agree with her on that on, Cap.. That's some poetry in motion there.." The sound of his feet thunking on the decking recedes as he makes his way out.

Aradia swallows the mouthful of food and then gets poetic in ways that would make a hardened spacer 'n the naughtiest of space pirates blush to hear such eloquence. Smirking, as she turns from the retreating backs of the duo, she looks over to Lucinda and asks, "You going to eat anything?" before returning to the consumption of her caffeinated sugar feast.

Lucinda regards Aradia over the rim of her mug. "'fraid I'm not hungry, Captain." She perches the cup on the arm of the couch. "And is now a good time to lecture you on the high sugar content of your breakfast or should I wait until your teeth rot out?" She chides, an attempt at good natured banter.

"My husband will get me new ones," Aradia says confidentally, grinning as she adds, "He wouldn't want a toothless ol' hag for a wife now, would he?"

Lucinda can't help but smirk at that. "Well there are -some- advantages to having a toothless wife, no?"

"I only use my teeth when he asks me nicely," Aradia quips in return before shovelling in another mouthful of her tooth-rotting delicious breakfast.

Lucinda laughs, actually full out laughs. Put it in the ship's logs that on this day, September 19, 2520 Dr. Lucinda Delray laughed. Okay, maybe its not that monumentous. "I.." She wipes at her eyes, moisture gathering on her bottom lashes. "..I have nothing to add to that."

Glancing sidelong in Lucinda's direction, Aradia grins, her attention turning back to her cereal as the grin softens into a faint smile at the sound of the doctor's laughter. When she comments on her lack of a response, the grin returns to Aradia's lips as she says evenly, "That's what he says too."

Lucinda leans forward a bit to set the coffee mug down on the table aptly named for just that purpose. "Now that's just wrong, Aradia." She gives a few more errant chuckles before stretching out on the couch. The laughter dies off as she eyes drift up to the ceiling panels. "Gods, I'm so tired."

"Oh, never wrong," Aradia says as the grin turns back into a smile. "The things we do for love," she adds before nodding in the doctor's direction. "Grab that blanket on the back of the couch there and have yourself a nap. I'll make sure no one draws a moustache on you or anything while you're out."

Lucinda stiffles a yawn with the back of her hand. "Think we could pull it off before Josephine comes back up here and spanks us both like a red-headed step child?"

"Pfft," Aradia says, "She'd have to catch us first." With a sly smile, shesays, "In the act, of course." Getting up off the bench, she carries her bowlover to the sink to wash it. Someone really should prevent the captain fromconsuming mass quantities of caffeine and sugar and then leaving her to herown devices.

Especially when she's being spurred on by a doctor looking for distraction."Playing with feral rodents could be very time consuming. Besides, we won't need more than ten minutes tops to give Bishop a proper make-over." Lu smiles,even as her eyes drift partway shut.

"I do believe there's probably a marker in one of these drawers here," Aradiasays after rinsing her bowl out and heading for that all purpose drawer ofjunk and miscellaneous drawers that every living habitat in every far flungcorner of the 'Verse has at least one of. Poking around for a few moments, shecomes up triumphant with a marker in hand. "Ah hah! Here we go," she exclaims.

Lucinda curls a hand in the blanket, drawing it up to her chin. "So what do you think is in order? One of those nice pencil thin mustaches? One that curls at the end comically. Oooh. Or just a little 'soul patch' with eyebrow enhancements to match?"

Leaning back against the counter, and in the process shutting the drawer with her backside, Aradia taps the marker against her lips in thought as she studies the canvas lying prone on the floor. "Or a big bushy one, with a beard 'n eyebrows to match?"

Saienne has been working quietly all the while Lucinda and Aradia's conversation has been winding from pillar to post, her pen scritching on paper dryly. Like insects. She looks up from her jotting, and says: "Pencil moustache'd do it, I reckon." She glances across to the slumbering pilot. "Suit him."

Lucinda wiggles slightly, using the toe of one boot to leverage against the heel of the other, popping it off as it falls to the floor with a muted thunk. "We could go so far as to add some embarrasing word scratched backwards on his forehead so he'll see it when he looks in the mirror."

Looking toward Saienne with a small grin, Aradia says, "He might like it enough that he either never washes his face or actually grows a real one." Pushing off from the counter to wander back out into the commons with the marker in hand, she arches a brow at Lucinda's suggestion and asks, "What word do ye reckon he'd like enough that he'd never wash it off or alternately get it tattooed into his forehead?"

"Oh good gorram don't you joke about it," Saienne says, wagging her pen towards Aradia. "Sublimial suggestions an' all that." She swivels around on the bench. "Never know what he might decide on if we say the wrong things." She grins crookedly. "An' that might end up a sight more alarmin' than those boxer shorts..."

Lucinda ponders this, "Stud? Ooh. Fly boy!" She lets her head lull to the side, one eye cracking open to see if Aradia has pounced upon the poor sleeping Bishop.

"My, I never took you to have such delicate sensibilities Sai," Aradia says to the woman, her lips curving into an impish grin. "At least he was wearing boxers," she says as her gaze turns from Sai back to the poor, unsuspecting victim that she's yet to pounce upon. "Besides, you'd only have to worry about the moustache if you were getting all kissy kissy with him. They tickle."

"Delicate I ain't," replies Saienne. "Merely fearful." She leans back against the table, the pen held losely between her fingers and nods. "Oh, indeed, Captain, an' thank the heavens for small mercies." She grimaces slightly at the images Ara has implanted in her mind. "Kissy kissy with Bishop?" She glances down at the floor - at the intended victim. "I think I'd rather kiss the beagle."

Lucinda smirks slightly, reaching to grab at her mug of coffee that has most likely gone cold. "That can be arranged. Or we have a lovely new rat onboard.."

"Ewww," Aradia says as her nose wrinkles up. "They get all drooly 'n...err yeah, maybe you would be better off kissing one of the beagles." Shrugging, she puts one hand on her hip, weight shifting as she considers her canvas and the nature of the work of art to be sharpied onto it.

"Don't you go rushin' on my account," says Saienne to Lucinda. "An'... a rat." A pause, as she considers. "May I ask why? An' where from? An'... why again?"

Lucinda sips her coffee, her nose wrinkling up at the cold liquid but she downs it anyways. "Josephine's new pet that they found on the latest expedition. As long as its only one rat. One rat can't breed."

"What she said," Aradia says after the doctor in response to Saienne's question. "So you're sure on the pencil moustache?" she asks, looking between both of them and then adding, "'n Fly Boy is the best you can come up with?"

"I swear they spawn," says Saienne, darkly. "But I expect I am somewhat biased against them. I reckon that's only natural when your major experience of rats is findin' they've been muchin' their way through the winter grain store for three months an' no one's noticed." She peers down at Bishop. "Pencil moustache is ridiculous - which is perfect." And then glances up at Aradia. "An' I'm sure we could come up with worse than fly boy, but I ain't inclined to dirty the air in such a manner." A pause, and a crooked grin. "I'm sure you two won't have such a problem." She gathers up her book again, and the other bits and pieces, and stands up. "Y'all enjoy yourselves..." she says, stepping towards her quarters.