[Log] "It is not the nature of my business to swindle folk."

===============================================
Crew Commons, Grace O'Malley [Persephone?]
===============================================
Saienne enters the commons from her quarters on the vessel's port side, slipping quietly through the door and onto the muffling calico rugs that are strewn around. She strikes a course for the galley, snagging a favoured cup from one of the overhead cupboards, and reaching into the fridge for the orange juice (which isn't that bad) left over from breakfast. She pours out a small glass and then treads quietly over to the couches, scritching the back of her stubbled head with one long-fingered hand.


Still wearing what she was wearing when she first came out this morning, Aradia wanders back out into the commons some time later, looking like she's spent a bit of time in bed. Her hair is still braided but it's messed up at the back with a few tangled snarls and she's huffing a lock out of her eyes. An empty beer bottle is swinging at her side in one hand as she turns into the galley to deposit it into the trash, pulling the cooler door open to get another out. As she cracks the lid off with a hiss, she turns, realizing she's not alone and bumps the cooler door closed with her hip. "Hey Sai," she says before taking a sip from the bottle.


"Mornin'," says Saienne, cheerfully - and then looks up at the bulkhead as if to look out of a non-existent window. "I think, at least. Zippin' around always plays havoc with my sense of night an' day." She smiles lop-sidedly and takes a drink, and then settles back against the bulk of the couch, stretching her legs out long. "But hello anyhow, no matter the time of day."


Chuckling, Aradia heads over for the other couch across from Saienne, sinking down to sit in the middle of it as she puts her booted feet up on the table and scratches at the back of her head, yawning widely and looking back toward the galley. "I generally figure out what time it is by how long the last meal I missed has been sittin' around getting cold waiting for me."


"That ain't a bad way of reckonin' it," nods Saienne, sagely. "Even if I ain't the type to often miss meals." She grins crookedly, and twists her cup round between her fingers. "We plannin' on settlin' on Whitefall for long?" She asks, mildly. "Only it ain't the most friendly of places, ain't it so? Heard plenty of tales about folk gettin' swindled - an' worse."


Shaking her head, Aradia replies, "Not if I got any say in it and I guess being Captain I do get a say in it." Tipping her bottle to study the label a moment, Aradia brings it up for another sip before she says, "Ain't interested in swindling with anyone out here so we ain't going to get involved with nothing more than we got to. Going to find out what I can 'n help Charley with what can be helped with 'n hopefully without getting shot going about it, then we're out of here."


Saienne nods, and takes a drink of juice. "No. Gettin' shot at again would be counter-productive, I reckon." She grins a little as Ara turns her fear of being swindled around. "That surely would be a better outcome - until the folk we'd done one over on found out an' came lookin'. 'Verse is big, but it ain't infinite. Lack of interest in swindlin' or bein' swindled is fine by me." She listens, sobering a little. "You reckon there is anythin' we can help with? I ain't heard none of the details."


Chuckling, Aradia says, "Usually helps if you restrict your swindling to folks what ain't like to want to shoot you for it." Shrugging a shoulder as she considers her bottle again, she says, "Don't really know much more myself, except that there's a bunch o' Browncoats turned wrong out here according to Charley and she thinks they're the ones what killed Bear."


"Somewhat in me suggests folk ain't fair game unless they get riled once they understand the nature of the business." A beat. "But prudence persuades me to agree with your wisdom after all." She smiles lop-sidedly. "Not, you understand, that it is the nature of my business to swindle folk." Another beat. "Unless they deserve it." The second part of Aradia's comments makes her frown outright. "Browncoats gone bad?" She shakes her head. "That ain't no kind of... well. We're all human, ain't it so, an' there's a bad seed in every sack, but murderin' for murdering's sake ain't really in the spirit of freedom."


"I know it ain't a popular opinion but same's true o' the other side, too," Aradia says with a shrug, "Ain't the lot of 'em that's bad, just well...a lot of 'em." She grins a little at that and looks up to Saienne with more than a little amused skepticism. "Your whole line o' business is seeing who's the better swindler, Saienne."


"I never did have a particular problem with the poor sods shootin' at us," Saienne says, evenly. "Just folk - caught on the wrong side of the line, in my opinion - but caught just the same." She shudders abruptly, like a wet dog shaking itself off. "Well." She says. "It don't bear talkin' on, really. The 'Verse ain't no different now than it was then, as far as I can see it, an' there ain't nothin' goin' to change that now." A sour smile. "Ain't nothin' left to." She grins crookedly across at Aradia. "That there's slander, Captain. I'm naught but a businesswoman with an' honest reputation, ain't it so?"


"The corners of Aradia's mouth twitch in a smirk as she quirks a brow, the bottle paused halfway on its journey back to her lips. "You wouldn't be trying to swindle me now, would you Saienne?" she asks dryly, the smirk a little more prevalent upon her lips as the bottle finally reaches them and she takes a swig of beer from it.


"Swindle my Captain?" asks Saienne, honest horror in her very tone - and an expression of wide-eyed innocence to match it. "How could you find it in you to suggest such a thing? I ain't nothin' but the most loyal -" A pause, while she thinks of what she is to the ship "- doer of odd jobs an' cleaner up of chicken shit you've ever known." She grins again. "No," she says, shaking her head. "No swindlin' here."


"Keep that up 'n I'll get some cows for you to clean up after," Aradia says with uncontained amusement at the woman's protestations. Taking another swig of her beer, she says, "Besides, you've got Tyr to do the cleaning up after, now."


Saienne make a face. "Don't threaten me with such things. Cows!" She frowns. "You want me cleanin' up after Tyr? Whatever for? Surely he ain't that messy." A pause. "An' surely he can clean up after himself!" A pause, as she considers. "Or you mean he can do the cleanin' up an' I can... what? Sit on my behind in the Commons an' drink orange juice while other folk do the hard work?" She chuckles. "Mayhap you'd better find us a herd of cows after all."


Not even bothering to interject and set Saienne straight on her rambling speculations, Aradia just sits back in her seat, her booted feet up on the coffee table as she watches and listens with a faint quirk of her brow. When she thinks she can finally get a word in edge-wise, she says, "He's here to help, 'n that leaves you more time to do whatever it is you do even if that's sitting here drinking orange juice and staring intently at your PDA oblivious to what everyone else around you is doing."


Saienne regards her orange juice carefully for a moment. "Well," she says, finally, and in a quieter voice. "That ain't slander, is it? That's just truth." She frowns, her crows feet wrinkling and she scrutinises the calico rug on the floor between the couch and the table. "I just like to keep myself busy, I expect - an' most of that business comes through the PDA." Sai says, thoughtfully. "An' everyone else is so -" she waves a hand in the air, grasping for the appropriate phrase "- self contained."


Quirking a faint smile, Aradia asks, "You think so?" before her nose wrinkles up in a grin and she slumps down a little more in her seat, "Sometimes I got to sneak on out o' here and get off the ship just to find a moment's peace to myself." Resting the bottle on the couch cushion at her side, her fingers remain curled loosely around the neck to keep it from spilling as she adds, "'n I was just teasing about your PDA. I know it's necessary for your work. Just...well don't figure as life is worth looking back on down the road and realizing most o' what you did was just work."


"Did you or did you not see me dancin' these nights just passed?" Saienne says, her good humour flooding back quickly. "I was flingin' myself about out there so wild, like, I am myself amazed I didn't do myself - or someone else, more to the point - an injury." She nods a little more somberly. "But it is so, ain't it, that life in any kind of small community can sometimes get to feel stifflin'. Gettin' away from things is just necessary if one wants to retain one's sanity." She smiles, then, as Ara mentions her work. "It don't seem like work more often than not. It's just life - travellin' around, meetin' folk, an' all that." She shrugs.


"'n swindling here and there," Aradia quips with a mischievous grin, raising her bottle aloft in a small salute toward Saienne. "I saw you," she adds after a couple of small sips from the bottle, "and you looked happy, 'n like there weren't a care in the world for nothing but what you were doing right then and there." Laying her head back on the couch cushion behind her, her gaze drifts toward the aft bulkhead as she comments, "Music's funny like that, ain't it?"


"I wasn't set to swindlin' no one!" Saienne retorts, with a laugh. "Didn't get the chance to..." She nods in agreement with Ara's point about music. "Ain't it just. One familiar reel can whirl you back through the years or remind you of somewhat precious - or the opposite, if you ain't lucky." She nods again, defining her point. "That kind of dancin' has always appealed to me." She follows Ara's gaze to the bulkhead, and adds. "Didn't see you dancin'." A pause. "Did you get to, later, after I'd hustled off?"


Looking back to Saienne, Aradia shakes her head and then says, "Umm, half o' one, sort of with a nice man who couldn't dance a lick 'til I taught him somewhat." Chuckling, she shrugs a shoulder and says, "I don't mind. If I can't dance with my husband at least I can take pleasure in seein' other people dance to his music."


"I missed that an' all," says Saienne, with some evident regret. "Got interrupted in the midst of set with young Tyr an' had to high tail it back into town." She finishes off her juice and plonks the cup down on the table. "Ain't that always the way."


"There will be other chances," Aradia says with a faint smile playing across her lips. "He's very good, 'n it's not like he ain't playing all the time," she says, pausing before she adds with a chuckle, "Well granted, he usually practices in the cabin more than out here. More's the pity."


Saienne leans forward to scoop the cup off the table again. "I shall have to make a point of bein' free to listen next time, I reckon," she says. She stands up from the couch and moves off towards the galley to rinse the cup out. "An' I expect I should get some sleep or do some work or somesuch, dependin' on the time of day." She pulls the aforementioned battered PDA out of her pocket and checks the time. "Evenin'." A pause. "Looks like a little work, then."


"S'long as it's business that can wait to be done once we're off this rock," Aradia says somewhat seriously, "Ain't interested in seeing no swindling done either way out here if we got a choice, which we do." Drawing a breath, she lets it out slowly and smiles over to Saienne. "Have a good night, Sai."


Saienne shakes her head. "Not swindl- I mean, business. Work. Someone mentioned some things needin' tidyin' an' stowin' again down in the hold, an' this evening's a good a time as any for such things, I reckon." She smiles, and turns the tap on so a little water jets out into the sink. She rinses her cup. "That'll leave plenty of time tomorrow for... whatever else needs doin'."


"There's nothing living, breathin' or pooping in the cargo hold," Aradia says to Saienne with a wry smile. "Those crates will survive being a little bit out of place because Bishop got a little cocky flying into atmo with his loopedy loop stunt he pulled." Grinning as she stretches out a little more from where she's sitting in the middle of the couch with her feet on the coffee table, she takes another swig from her beer as she says, "But yes, I know. Work, work, work. Got to be done."


"Pfft," comes a familiar sound from the fore corridor. "Work is for those without the means to deligate," Max adds as he wanders into the commons, sweeping past Ara and leaving a kiss on her cheek as he heads for the galley. "Speaking of, is there coffee made?"


"Of course there is," Aradia says, turning her cheek to return the kiss on Max's as he sweeps on by, watching him with a small grin. "We were just talking about you," she says, looking to Saienne with a grin and a wink. "Is that what finally got you out of bed? Your ears burning?"


"Ain't there always coffee... of some vintage, at least?" Saienne says as Max joins her in the galley. "An' exactly who am I supposed to delegate to? Larry?" She grins in Josephine's direction as she mentions the rat. "Or -" and she looks at Aradia "- Tyr. Of course. Maxwell, you are a wise man."


"I've been out of bed... mostly," Max answeres Ara defensively as he reaches to pull a mug from the cupboard. "Restringing just took a bit longer than expected." He takes a moment to peer at his mug, and decides that 'I (club) YOU' is an acceptable sentiment for the morning before going about filling it with cream and sugar and a few spices as well as eventually putting in a drip or two of coffee. "Of course I'm a wise man. Terribly so. Fear my wiseness."


"Yeah, sorry 'bout that. The whole tuning thing when you do that is like wailing cats 'n I really needed a nap," Aradia replies, stifling a yawn with the back of her hand before she asks, "You had a chance to test it out yet now that well, it don't sound like a wailing cat...I assume."


"If the work can wait," Saienne says as she dries her cup on a tea towel. "I may as well get some sleep, an' all." She stows the cup back in one of the overhead cupboards and turns back to face the commons and the people gathered there. "I'll surface in a couple of hours, no doubt."


"Sounds like nothing of the sort," Maxwell chides as he stirs up his concoction ad takes a sip. "But yes, I've had plenty of time to 'test it out,' and I'm pleased enough." He slurps at his coffee again before looking sidelong at Sai. "Sleep is for the weak and gods... You don't look particularly deific today, so grab a pot or two of coffee and stay up, hrm? Better yet, get Tyr to do your sleeping for you as well."


"You're right, it's more of a screech than a wail," Aradia concedes, flashing Maxwell a msichievous grin before she quirks a brow and says, "Don't you go meddling, Mister Brooks. Next thing you'll be suggesting he do the sleeping for her, in her bed."


"I do believe that's one thing no one can delegate," says Saienne as she makes for the portside quarters. "An' I ain't no god, so I reckon I must just be weak." She grins crookedly at him as she walks through the doorway and disappears down the corridor beyond. A distant voice: "My bed ain't big enough for another, an' don't none of you forget that!"