[Log] Dangerous old 'Verse

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Eavesdown Docks, Persephone
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Surrounded by slums on the edges of the city, the docks are chaotic and bustling. Ships are haphazardly lined up side by side, and vendor's stalls and carts are interspersed between them. Dust kicked up by ground traffic and engine exhausts billows through the air, coating near anything that manages to remain still long enough with a film of grime.

Single voices vie to be heard over the cacophany of crowds from across the 'Verse, and are lost altogether amongst the grind of machinery and roaring of engines. Exotic scents mingle with that of the unwashed and sweaty, while there's an undercurrent of less easily defined odors in the air. Unless you're looking for clean and shiny, there's a little something for everyone to be found here on Eavesdown's docks.
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It's late evening and Will has wandered back from one of the seedier, and cheaper bars, he's looking at the sky with the expression of someone almost drunk. He sighs slightly before sitting to one side of the area waiting patiently.


Saienne stands at the foot of Grace's ramp, mostly in the shadows. Eavesdown at this time of night is not crowded, but it's busy enough, with locals and visitors alike clustered around the Good Dogs stand or passing through from the shantytown or the racetrack. The stars cannot be seen through the red-orange glow rising from the city, but the Black is up there all the same - and occasionally a ship rises up to meet it, or descends from it with a roar and a burn. Saienne stalks out from the shelter of Grace's shining hull, hatless but wearing a heavy dark coat. She has her hands thrust deep into her pockets, and she watches as William sways down from the direction of the bars and pubs and settles down patiently. "Evenin'," she says to him, quietly, her voice rich and smooth as silk.



Looking at the woman Will nods slightly to Saienne. "Evening. Going well I hope?" There's a slightly bitter note to his voice as he looks once again to the sky, then looking at ship again. "You're on Grace O'Malley, she's a beaut."


Saienne steps forward into a pool of gaudy light. "Ain't it, though?" She says, with a lop-sided smile. "An' ain't that a tonic for my nerves, an' all." She follows William's gaze to the sky, and the smile fades. "You ain't still waitin' for your bird? Good gorram... you ain't heard a peep out of them or nothin'?" She looks over her shoulder at Grace's familiar sillhouette. "I am, an' she is, at that." She nods, as if nothing more needs to be said on that subject - but she continues. "Although if you'd've seen her last month... well, suffice to say she weren't lookin' as shiny then."


Shaking his head Will laughs. "I've heard word, it's just typical delays, I've been told they're on their way and everything went quite well." He chuckles. "But this long on one world it kinda gets my skin crawling." With another shake of his head Will continues. "I'm just hoping that we're ready to leave without too much prep time."


"Well an' good," Saienne says, with an easy smile. "At least they ain't languishin' nowhere or zippin' off in the opposite direction." The smile shifts to a broad and crooked grin. "Had that happen to me more than once, truth be told." She pulls her coat a little closer around herself; Eavesdown is chill this time of night. "An' this world in particular ain't exactly... well. It surely is a skin crawlin' kind of place." She nods. "You got anythin' to carry off here when you leave, or are you just headin' some place else as fast as she can take you?"


Shrugging Will grins. "I'm looking for work, I generally don't like to have an empty ship, it's bad profit, but it's worse to spend too long without work, and it's been too long since I was in the Black." He looks once again to the sky.


"I'll keep my ear to the ground," Saienne says - and in all seriousness, by her tone. "But I reckon there's plenty for shippin' out at present." She pauses, squints over at the buildings around the edge of the dock - warehouses, for the most part, and some seedy looking office buildings. "Lotus Exports," she says, pointing. "Got a shipment of parts we just ain't able to fit in the hold alongside everythin' else we're haulin'. Way I heard it, it sounded a real sweet deal an' all."


THere's a chuckle as Will looks towards the offices with a nod. "I'll give it a look, but sweet deals tend to be more complicated than the more... difficult jobs." He shrugs. "Like you say, a lot of people are trying to get off-world it's playing hell with export fees.


"You ain't wrong there," Saienne says, with a nod of agreement. "But I've dealt with Lotus before - on a smaller scale - an' there ain't much dodgy about them." A beat. "Well, beyond the usual Eavesdown taint, that is." She glances at the offices. "I reckon they just need the space; need to clear things out." A crooked grin. "But what do I know?" She listens as William talks, nodding along with him. "Your bird," she cuts in, after a few moments. "She take passengers an' all? Or just cargo?"


William says, "She'll take passengers if the money's right, and the passengers don't bring along complications. Complications cost extra." William chuckles slightly. "Why, know someone looking to go somewhere?""


Saienne grins crookedly at William. "Complications cost extra." She chuckles a little herself, a long, low rumble of a sound. "An' ain't that the gorram truth, straight an' true?" From within one of Saienne's pockets comes a buzz of static and the muffled chatter of someone's voice. "Oh, good gorram!" Saienne exclaims as she roots around for the source of the noise. Lifting her hand out of her pocket, some electronic gadget glimmers in the neon light. "I ain't standin' yammerin'," she protests, into it. "I'm... well... all right -" she glances at William "- so I am standin' yammerin', but all in a good cause, I swear it." The device chatters again, and Saienne just shakes her head and shoves the thing back in her pocket. "So much for bein' all stealthy, like!" She comes back round to the conversation. "Oh, not exactly," she says. A pause. "Sometimes I'm called upon to part ways with our Gracie, on account of my other job. It's always good to know folks with space for passengers."


Grinning Will laughs. "I take it you're on a job? Usually I'm the one yelling, but I know the sounds." He shrugs. "Well you're welcome on my ship anytime, I remember people who've done me favours. If you don't mind me asking, what is it you do?"


"Oh, hell, I'm only watchin' the ramp so we don't get no stowaways or thievin' beggars stealin' up into the hold. It ain't like I can't do that an' talk at the same time." She grins back at Will, and nods a thank-you at his invitation. "Well, that's real kind of you, ain't it." Saienne leans back against the nearest stable object and regards William carefully. "It ain't nothin' special. I'm a courier, is all. Most usually takin' items folk don't want to trust to the postal service, although ain't I had a few jobs odder than that in my time, an' all?" She gestures back at Grace. "Sometimes Grace is flyin' in the opposite direction I need to be travellin', so I hop off, go on my way, an' meet her again later."


Looking at Saienne for a moment Will nods. "Seems to me it'd be easier for the career if you just hopped ship, I like to see loyalty." He laughs although there's a slightly bitter edge to it. "I find it somewhat rare these days."


Saienne looks at William with a puzzled expression. "Ain't no power in the 'Verse'd cause me not to come back to Grace," she says, and firmly. A pause; a frown. "Well, except if I got arrested or killed or somesuch, but I ain't done nothin' illegal an' as far as I know it I ain't got no one gunnin' for me at present, neither." She shakes her head. "She's home, ain't she?" Her frown melts slowly into a lop-sided smile, and she raises a hand from her pocket to rub a thumb along the line of her jaw. "An' that ain't somethin' I say lightly, I promise you." A beat. "I expect it is loyaly, at that. Ain't never thought on it that way, truth be told."


"Well I've been gunned for a few times, and more than a few folks over the years have tried to stop me getting to my boat," Will pauses for a moment with a chuckle. "But I know what you mean. Iriana's Joy has been home since.... well I was born on that ship, and she's old, ugly and none to easy to keep at times, but I sometimes think I'll die on her too."


"Dangerous old 'Verse, ain't it?" Saienne says, somewhat noncommittally. But she nods along with Will as he starts to talk about his ship. "Me," she says, "I was born out in the dust on Boros." A crooked grin. "Prairie girl, ain't I? An' I reckon, an' all, that's where I'll be when I die." She squints up at the sky, stars masked by the glow of the city still. "But who knows really? It ain't like you can plan it..." The familiar crackle of her iComm causes her to curse again, and dig again in her pocket for the thing. "Ain't no need to shout," she mutters at it. "I can hear you plain as anythin'." She pauses to listen, and the voice on the other end says something about supper, and it going cold if a certain someone dallies any long. Saienne turns a slightly helpless look in William's direction. "You heard the lady," she says, turning back for the ship. "I ain't gettin' nothin' if I don't go for it now." She grins crookedly. "An' there's little as would get between me an' my supper - specially when Josephine's at the stove." Before long she's bounded up the ramp, into the belly of the Grace, and vanished from view.