[Log] "Watch where you're puttin' your feet."

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Eavesdown Docks, Persephone
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At the base of the cargo ramp, Grace's captain sits basking in the warmth of the sun, her knees drawn up a little as she watches the crowds passing by. Yes, the sky is bright and clear and there's not a cloud in sight, yet somehow, Aradia seems to be soaking wet from head to toe and just starting to dry out. There's still a muddy puddle off to one side in the dirt where she'd squeezed water out of her hair.


Saienne steps lightly down the Grace's ramp, her hat at a slightly crooked angle but acting as shield against the sun's brightness nonetheless. Her face is in shadow, but the rest of her is easily visible in the sunshine - slightly shabby, certainly, but respectable. The less-than-perfect state of her attire is due to hard graft rather than lack of attention. She quickly comes to stand at the bottom of the ramp and looks sideways and down at Aradia's damp hair and the puddle nearby. "Own personal rain cloud?" She asks evenly.


"Rain?" Aradia says absently, "Oh no, don't reckon there's going to be any," before she lifts a hand to rub her brow and turn her head, looking up to Saienne with a grin. "Quite a lovely day really, ain't it?" she says, stretching her legs out in front of her and then pulling them back in to tug her boots off. "I think these'll dry faster off my feet, don't you?"


Saienne tilts her head so that she can see beyond the flopping brim of her hat. "You ain't wrong there," she says, looking up into the cloudless sky. "Ain't even so much as a breath of air." She pauses then to roll her sleeves up to her elbows, and then slips her long-fingered hands into her trouser pockets. "Reckon they probably will, at that." Sai says, nodding, about the boots. "But you just watch where you're steppin', an' all." A pause, and one hand comes out of her pocket to gesture around her at the glorious docks. "Eavesdown, ain't it?"


Plonking the boots down on the ramp at her side, Aradia wriggles her toes in the dirt under her feet, propping her elbows on her knees and folding her arms one over the other. "Yeah, back on 'sephone for a bit 'til we get those chickens out to Ariel," she says, exhaling with a quiet sigh. "I'm getting awful tired o' chickens and Ariel. I know it's good money but I can't wait to get...somewhere else once the contract's done."


Saienne shakes her head, the pheasant feather in hat being led a merry dance by the motion. "No, I meant, it's Eavesdown so watch where you're puttin' your feet..." She grins crookedly. "But I can understand what you're sayin' about the Ariel run. Reckon I'm just about startin' to recognise individual bits of Black as we pass them..." She stops though, and just nods. "You got any plans, an' all?"


Still seated on the base of Grace's ramp and still quite on the wet side of wet, Aradia chuckles and says, "Always watch where I'm puttin' my feet, except when I step in something goopy." Shrugging a shoulder at the question, she says, "Kind o' like to just take off 'n fly and see where we end up, y'know?"


Saienne's crooked grin widens. She is standing at the bottom of the ramp to the Grace O'Malley's hold, a foot or so away from Aradia. "Suits me down to the ground," she says, and then glances upwards again, into the blue. "Or up to the stars, mayhap. But it really ain't my place to quibble - some place other than Ariel or Eavesdown, an' some cargo other than chickens'd be just lovely." A beat. "An' I'm sure the rest of the folks who spend time cleanin' the hold down after a run'll agree with me, an' all."


"You can hear 'em clucking even in the commons," Aradia says, shaking her head as she mutters, "I'm beginnin' to see why Max figures 'em to be evil incarnate." Leaning back and stretching her legs back out, she looks up to Saienne again and asks, "Anywhere you've wanted to see that you ain't never got a chance to?"


"Never realised how loud chickens could get," Sai mutters. "I mean, they were always cluckin' an' fussin' back home, but never in quite such... echoey quarters. I reckon I'm with Max." Saienne purses her lips as Aradia asks her question and a frown forms quickly. "Not for any pleasant reason," she replies, with a grin. "Plenty of places I ain't eager to get to again, mind. Haven, for one, an' for obvious reasons. An' steerin' clear of Boros'd make me real happy." She shakes her head. "Never would forgive myself for inflictin' Maire on you all if we touched dirt there."


"'n I'm sure you didn't have quite so many thousands of them either," Aradia says, looking back over her shoulder with a mild perturbance that quickly fades as she grins and turns back to Saienne, "Or us on Maire." Wrinkling her nose up, she asks after a moment's pause, "Who is Maire anyway?"


"Oh, no," Saienne says with absolute certainly. "Maire on y'all. She's a gorram terror, I'm tellin' you. But you ain't wrong - we never did have thousands of the mad cluckin' things." Sai decides then that she has stood talking to her Captain for long enough and abruptly plonks herself down on the foot of the Grace's cargo ramp, alongside Aradia. "Maire," she says, "Is my sister. Resolutely followin' in my mother's footsteps, stickin' on Boros an' raisin' the next unruly brood of Olaenos." She reaches up a hand to steady her hat as she settles onto the dusty metal. The day is hot and sunny, not a cloud in the very blue sky, but the customary chaotic bustle on Eavesdown is not in the least diminished by the weather.


Despite it being hot and sunny without a cloud in sight, Aradia is soaking wet, though slowly drying, her sopping boots on the ramp on the other side of her as she looks to Saienne and asks, "Just the two o' you then? Or you got more brothers 'n sisters because just one don't seem like much terrorizing really." Wriggling her toes in the dirt underfoot again as she looks down to them, she goes ahead and immediately contradicts herself, "Course, unless she's y'know, a real terror."


A young man wearing a piece of mesh armor as an upper body covering enters from the Spacers' District, on his right hip is a non-lethal pistol, his pace is within the crowds attempting to stay blended within them as well as he can, eyes up towards the world however, keeping an eye on his direction and everything else around the docks. He seems alert; however, not overly so. His eyes drift towards the ramp of the O'Malley and his feet begin to follow suit towards it, a small smile coming across his lips as he seems to regonize an old face.


"There's seven of us," Saienne says, paying about as much attention to Aradia's wet state as she does to the vendors hawking down on the dock. "Well, six now, if you don't count Daniel, which most folks these days don't." She smiles a lop-sided smile. "But I still think on him as my brother, even if he ain't with us no more." She crosses her hands in her lap and looks into the middle distance - in David's direction; she sees him without seeing him at all. "An' I reckon she's only terrifyin' because she reminds me so much of my mother - all disapproval an' misunderstandin'." A pause; another sunny smile. "But there's mothers for you." And, mostly under her breath: "An' sisters who ain't got nothin' better to do than pry an' criticise." She leans back. "You got family lurkin' somewhere an' all?"


"Seven huh? Lu's from a family o' seven too," Aradia comments from where she sits on the base of Grace's ramp. "What happened to him, if'n you don't mind saying?" Aradia asks with a tilt of her head as she regards Saienne sitting alongside her. "Ain't much for lurkin' in my family," she adds with a chuckle in answer to Saienne's question before she notices someone cutting out of the crowds and heading toward them. Lifting her chin, she sits up straighter, watching David walk closer.


Lurking through the crowds is a young man wearing a piece of mesh armor, Disappearing into a group of people for a long moment before reappearing near the ramp of the Grace O'Malley, "Ah leave fer' 'alf ah year an ya'll change up ships and ba'come cap'ins n' shit." says the young man towards Aradia and Saienne a broad smile shooting across his lips.


"Is that so?" Saienne asks, thoughtfully. "Reckon we got somethin' more in common than I thought, then. Bein' one of seven's a challenge an' a half, I don't mind sayin'." Aradia's question causes Sai's thoughtful expression to shift to something all together more regretful. "Ten year anniversary, ain't it? Same thing as did for plenty of other folks my age." A shrug, and she falls silent, noting Aradia's change in posture and focus. As the gentleman approaching opens his mouth and speaks, the reason for the change becomes slightly more apparent to her, and she relaxes just a little.


"Captains, where?" Aradia asks with disbelief, looking over both shoulders and then staring Saienne down suspiciously. Narrowing her eyes, she asks, "Did you go becomin' a Cap'n behind my back?" Looking up to David with a smile she regards him a moment before she says, "'n I bet you still like chicken soup, too. Noodly if I remember correct." And there she sits, still quite wet with a cargo hold full of clucking, squawking chickens at her back.


David laughs as Aradia recalls his favorate dish, "Can't believe ya actually recall tha' noodles." he says with small smirk, "Gotta ask.. 'ow'd chickens manage ta soak ya?" he asks with a smirk, hands being placed on his hips in a casual fasion. "'Ow've ya been eh?" eyes look over the female sitting next to Aradia for a moment and in a seemingly polite tone he simply nods towards her and utters, "M'am." then eyes turn back towards the Captain in denial.


Saienne holds up her hands and waves them in front of her in a gesture of denial. "Ain't me. Surely ain't me. Must be talkin' about Pauline or Larry, I reckon..." The effect is spoiled somewhat as she has to grab for her hat to prevent it from being blown away by the updraft caused by the departing ship. As the disturbance in the air lessens, she lets the floppy brim go, smiles a crooked smile, and, in reply to the man's greeting, tips a lazy salute in his direction.


Now she's not only wet but covered in a fine layer of dust to boot as Aradia coughs, tongue poking out as she tries to wipe out the inside of her mouth with the inside of her shirt. Coughing a little, she splutters some more and then finally gives up and spits into the dirt at her feet. "I remembered the soup because you never tol' me your name," Aradia says finally, looking back up to David with a smirk, "'n it weren't the chickens that got me wet, it was water." Saienne's suggestions of ship's captains earns her a brief, impish grin cast in her direction before she looks back up to David again and asks, "Where'd ye disappear to?"


A small smile from David as he realises he's lacked a name with this woman for some time, "Eh? Ah' nearly fergot that ah've got no manners." he says with a small shrug of his shoulders, chuckling to himself, "Ah doubted the chickens where able ta soak ya' wifout water." he adds shaking his head, "Ah'ad ah lil spill wif' tha feds..an' they tried ta pin ah bogus murder on me.." he says with a small embarassed looking frown, "Beat tha rap, but ended up spendin' nearly all mah change on it, yanno?"


"That's what we get for sittin' out here dirtside, ain't it?" Saienne says, somewhat mournfully, whilst looking at Aradia's dusty form. Not being wet, the dust settling on Saienne's shoulders is dispensed of with a few brisk brushes from her hand. "Trouble with the Feds ain't ever no kind of fun," she says, nodding. "Whether you're in the right or in the wrong." A beat. "Six kinds of expensive an' all, ain't it?"


"Oh, there weren't no chickens what got me wet," Aradia says with a mildly perplexed look that eventually shifts into a grin and she asks, "Like that story 'bout the chicken. 'The sky is falling, the sky is falling!' You know that one?" Shrugging as she pushes herself up off the ramp, retrieving her boots as she grabs them up by the laces, she says, "I think it's time I went to find out who all's captaining around here on this gorram ship, 'n maybe go wash up some." Turning to start up into the ship, she glances back to David with a grin and says, "Seeya round, Noodle. Don't go gettin' into no trouble, y'hear?"


A small smile crosses the young man's face, "Alright, n'" he says, starting back towads the Spacers' District, "Ah'll keep mah nose clean n' all." he says smiling and waving his right hand towards Aradia before disappearing into the crowds once more.


"Not a bad idea..." Saienne says to her Captain, watching sideways as she stands and starts up the ramp. She pulls herself to her feet and says: "But I got some business in town to take care of first. Don't reckon I'll be more than half an hour, mind, so don't send out the search parties until after then." She grins her crooked grin again and sets off down onto Eavesdown, fading quickly into the crowd, nothing but the bobbing feather in her hat marking her out.