GR RP "Adventures in GunRunning" ACT 18

POSTED BY: Channain
UPDATED: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 02:50
VIEWED: 20189
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SAINT JAYNE

Tuesday, July 6, 2004 6:38 PM

Jayne's turn:
LOCATION - GALLEY

Damon
"You didn't answer my question."

Jayne finishes a couple prominent hacks as he slowly circles the counter towards the table.

Jayne
"You done eating? We don't got lotsa time, so come on down and I'll show ya what I got laid out already."

Jayne scoops up his plate and waits for Damon, turning to watch the game for a brief moment. Rowan quickly looks down to the holographic table where Merz fires off shot after shot, but Jayne swears for at instant he sees her looking at him with a look like the cat that ate the canary.

SQUEE

Wednesday, July 7, 2004 6:34 AM

Damon's turn:
LOCATION - GALLEY

Quote:
Jayne
"You done eating? We don't got lotsa time, so come on down and I'll show ya what I got laid out already."

Damon nods and sets his plate on the counter before moving to the sink for a quick drink. He slurps a few swallows of water from a cupped hand. After turning off the faucet, he wipes the water from his chin with the back of his sleeve and follows Jayne to the door, drying his hand on his pants.

I'm not broken, in my dream I win...

CHANNAIN

Wednesday, July 7, 2004 1:04 PM

MERZ & ROWAN move
OOC: Channain: Two Girls and a Cue Stick

LOCATION - GALLEY

ROWAN
Gan de hao - that's called a good break ... Now, you try for the 1 next.

MERZ listens to ROWAN’s words, and can hear the approval in her voice. She drops the additional rule information into the database on this ... game ... while glancing over the table to spot the 1 ball.

ROWAN waves MERZ over to her side of the table, the 1 ball was over there. MERZ moves around the table, still attempting to match ROWAN’s style with the cue, but falling a little short of the mark. Her conscious mind is trying for the correct style; her subconscious is still trying to make a rifle out of the unfamiliar tool. MERZ notes JAYNE’s entrance, but it does not detract from her concentration on the task at hand.

Rounding the table she pauses, considering angles. Deciding that the easiest and most direct target is the middle hole on her left side, MERZ leans over to line up her shot.

ROWAN
Try to stay relaxed - tense muscles can affect your shot. Think of it more like meditation in motion, not so much an exercise - dong ma?

ah. yes that would make sense. MERZ forces the tension from her arms, neck and back, willing instead the smooth motion and controlled responses from her escrima training. Not too difficult, this is just another form of stick fighting after all. She eases up on her grip, pulls back the cue and fires again, with precisely the same force as her first attempt. After all, that one had worked well.

ROWAN jumps a bit when MERZ uses another power strike to send the 1 ball home, only to have it angle upward just enough to circle the upper cup of the rail and sail off into oblivion. Chances are pretty good it might have ended up in Book's bowl, had it been real.

Adhering to the rules, MERZ rises from the table and turns to surrender the stick. In an exact imitation of Rowan's own movements, she flips the stick twice over one hand before gripping it and holds out the lower end, exactly as Rowan had when she gave her the stick in the first place.

ROWAN (inwardly): Perfect autonomic physical mimicry and muscle memory. If she isn't a Troy, I'll eat my shoe.

MERZ's knuckles are scarred up a bit, as if she's been pounding on something and fairly recently. Seeing slivers of plastic embedded in her skin, wondering what the other guy might look like, Rowan smiles gently. She takes the stick and decides a little more information on soft, solid and hard hits is definitely in order.

MERZ notices the direction of her gaze, and looks down. She had not noticed, not enough pain. MERZ picks out a couple of the larger fragments out of her skin while listening to ROWAN’s lesson. She will attend to it more fully, later.

ROWAN: "That was a good try, Merz. Only sending a ball off the table is a foul and it loses you some points. Balls sent to the floor aren't allowed back on the table, with the exception of the 9. I guess I should have let you know that your shot depends on more than the geometry. It also depends on finesse - the power you do or don't put behind the cue ball. "

Rounding to the head of the table, Rowan eyes her shot - combination with the 2 on the left, 5 on the right - and has to leverage herself up on the table a bit in order to reach. Aiming carefully, she looks at Merz out of the corner of her eye.

ROWAN: "This takes a strike somewhere on the soft side of solid. Watch my arm and you'll see what I mean." (inwardly): She's trained to learn by observing, to defeat an opponent at their own game. A couple hours at the table, watching my technique and she'll be beating me at my own game. Literally.

MERZ: ... i see. the power of the strike depends on distance from the ball, distance to the target location and the number of objects being struck ... MERZ is concent

GEEZER

Wednesday, July 7, 2004 1:08 PM

Thorne's Move
Location: His Quarters/Galley

Thorne sits in full lotus on the floor of his cabin. The planning meeting has gone much as he feared it would, and he needs to calm down and regain his center. He breathes slowly; each exhalation releasing a bit of the emotional turmoil he feels.

Calmer now, he examines his reactions and finds that the trigger for his upset wasn't the cockeyed, Rube Goldberg scheme that the Captain had put together. No, it was the brief exchange between Mal and Inara as the meeting broke up. Smiling, he acknowledges that jealousy is the cause of his discomfort. Time to bring it out in the open and deal with it.

He realizes that he half loves Inara, but he's been in that state several times before. He also sees that there is something spacial between the Captain and the Companion. If only the dolt would admit to it. Thorne decides that he might take a hand in getting Inara what she wants, and with his decision, emotional forces realign, and his jealousy fades away.

That issue resolved, he begins to consider how best to act, within the confines of Mal's plan, to ensure that the cargo actually gets delivered. But his concentration is broken by a tantalizing smell leaking through the imperfect doorseals. Someone on this vessel really knows homestyle Chinese cooking. He might as well get something to eat, since the smell will bother him, otherwise.

Thorne enters the galley as Damon and Jayne are leaving through the other door. Merz and Rowan are just starting a game of nineball on the holotable. Should be an interesting contrast in styles, Thorne thinks, as he walks to the stove and begins piling his plate with the disguised protein, redolent of sesame and spices. Moving to a chair out of the way, he sits down to eat and watch the game.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

CHANNAIN

Wednesday, July 7, 2004 6:14 PM

Rowan’s Move
LOCATION - GALLEY

The 9 is a straight solid shot in the corner at the foot of the table. Standing straight, Rowan lowers the end of the stick to the floor, holding the shooting end in both hands. She meets Merz’ gaze again, returning the other woman’s a somewhat bashful wave as she follows Jayne out the hatchway to the cargo bay. Rowan notes that his face isn’t mangled in any sense and neither is Damon’s who follows along with them. Whatever issues Merz had wasn’t with either of them - and in any case if they had been, she would have been called down to tend to broken facial bones. It does give Rowan cause to speculate whether Troys are allowed to have inner demons. Taking out the handheld, she accesses the file and adds that thought as a notation before setting up a new game.

Looking up as she does so, Rowan glances at Mr. Thorne, contemplating the man. First he’s singing opera at the top of his lungs in a dive on Hera, then he’s doing his best to assume control of another man’s command, all the while displaying the most obvious aw shucks, ma’am demeanor she’s seen in a good long while. In her experience, fellas as observant as him generally had some manner of extracurricular training as well. Like Merz, he knew she’d been wearing colored contacts before, and didn’t seem the least bit surprised when she had to ditch them. Add it all together and it likely meant one of three things - former purple belly intelligence, former browncoat intelligence, or a whole other breed of the same species.

ROWAN (inwardly): Friend or foe, Mr. Thorne. Which will it be?

EOM

We have art so as not to die of truth ~ Neitzsche
http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=7922

GEEZER

Wednesday, July 7, 2004 7:41 PM

Thorne's Move
Location: Galley

Thorne finishes his plate of chickeny protein goodness at about the same time that Rowan sinks the nine ball to end the game. As Merz heads back to work, he feels Rowan's contemplative glance. 'She's a cautious one' he thinks. 'Always wants to know all the angles. Maybe that's what draws her to billiards. She's standing there right now, trying to figure out where I figure in her game.'

Never very far beneath the surface, his sense of the absurd suddenly breaches like a hump-back whale from earth-that-was. 'Well,' he smiles to himself 'let's see her fit this piece into the puzzle.'

He moves to the sink and rinses his plate, then suddenly spins, arms outstretched, and begins to sing (to the tune of 'On the Street Where You Live' from 'My Fair Lady') as he waltzes towards her.

I have often traveled in space before
But I never have seen such a lovely face before
Yes your eyes of green
Give me thoughts obscene
When I'm here on the ship where you live

When I see you I don't know what to do
You're as beautiful and slender as your billards cue
when you hit those balls
I bounce off the walls
Yes the walls of the ship where you live

And oh your wonderful cooking
how you spice that protein so fine
And you're so wonderful looking
That I can't wait for the moment you are mine

I have been in space with a lot of girls
Had intense affairs with beauties of a dozen worlds
For your love I'd quit
and to you commit
And we'd stay on the ship where you live!

Now face to face with the paralyzed Rowan, he kisses her lightly on the lips, giggles like a schoolgirl, and skips out of the room.

EOM

"Keep the Shiny side up"

MERCEDESTROY

Thursday, July 8, 2004 12:08 AM

MERZ move

LOCATION – TRAVELING: GALLEY TO BRIDGE TO CARGO BAY

… time to get to work. had enough fun for now. fun, yes … I begin to begin to understand …

MERZ gives ROWAN a rather tentative and silly little wave, as she reluctantly leaves the table, and falls into line behind the males. Finally remembering leaving her tool belt behind on the Bridge earlier in the day, she detours to fish it out from under WASH’s station.

The bridge is utterly deserted. MERZ glances around to make sure all is as it should be – autopilot is on, the cannon’s firing controls are locked down, and nothing that looks like an alert is showing on the console. Sufficient.

She carries the belt loose in her hand during the trot down to the cargo bay – won’t go under a vacuum suit and that is coming up soon. She has decided to assist Jayne and Damon first and then see who is willing to take a short walk with her.

If only KAYLEE was feeling up to it, MERZ would appreciate her knowledge of Serenity. But MERZ does not know her well enough to risk intruding on whatever problem faces her right now.

She enters the Cargo Bay and glances around for the men.

EOM

If Justice is the dish, then I am your waitress

GEEZER

Thursday, July 8, 2004 2:12 AM

Thorne's Move
Location: Galley door

A moment after his grand exit, Thorne pops his head back around the doorframe and smiles at Rowan.

"No. I'm not really crazy. I just like to shake things, and people, up a bit sometimes. I do occasionally drink to excess, but am sober when required. I have commanded combat spacecraft in battle, quite successfully, and the habit is hard to break. An' gosh, Ma'am, playing the hick is often good cover. I've held command rank in both the Alliance and Independent forces, and obviously have secret abilities galore. I am a friend to anyone who follows the Golden Rule, and like a great man before me have sworn eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. I believe that you and I could be friends. Just please don't try and pigeonhole me. Oh, and the side pocket to your left is projecting two millimeters too far towards this end of the table. You should fix that. Ta."

EOM

"Keep the Shiny side up"

CHANNAIN

Thursday, July 8, 2004 2:50 AM

Rowan's Move
LOCATION: Galley

Rowan lifts one eyebrow at the kiss, finding Thorne's no slouch at flirtation even if his methods are more than a little unorthodox. Brings to mind something her mother said once during their "What you should know about men" discussion when she was twelve.

Be wary of the flirtatious and the flamboyant ones, beloved daughter. They will be more dangerous than those whose feelings run deep and silent.

THORNE: "Just please don't try and pigeonhole me. Oh, and the side pocket to your left is projecting two millimeters too far toward this end of the table. You should fix that. Ta."

Is he friend or foe? Asked and answered, seems like.

ROWAN: "I'll make the adjustment, thanks. And so long as you keep your intuition to yourself from now on, ài rén, I'll be sure to do the same."

Tweaking that side pocket a bit, she quickly pulls up her music library. She chooses a lively little tune captured in a cantina on one of the more desolate rim planets, possibly at the farthest point a girl could get from civilization without careening out of the system. Thinking of those tasty dark-eyed triplets, she smiles as she tucks away the hand held and shifts the cue ball to the side between the head spot and the left rail. Leaning in, she breaks the rack of 9 and sends the 3 and 5 into the left side pocket and the 8 into the right far corner.

Looking up, she smiles back at Thorne and rounds the table to go after the 2.

EOM

We have art so as not to die of truth ~ Neitzsche
http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=7922

SAINT JAYNE

Thursday, July 8, 2004 3:23 AM

Jayne's turn:
LOCATION - CARGO BAY

Jayne walks purposefully down the steps to the cargo bay where plenty of work awaits, despite the dwindling time remaining.

"What in blazes was that woman thinking?" Jayne snaps as he approaches the remains of a shipping crate. He continues with a voice full of false concern, "Someone could slip and get hurt." He steps forward onto a fragment and dramatically slips his foot out in front of him, stumbling backwards and dropping his plate of food to the ground. The plate bounces harmlessly off the metal grate floor, but the food sprays forward into the debris.

"Now ya see, that there's exactly what I'm talkin' 'bout", Jayne nods to himself after regaining his balance. "I sure as million moons ain't sweepin' this up." He turns to Damon, and for the first time since the clean-up job Damon is given Jayne's full attention. "I done laid out the framework over by the airlock door. Come have a look. I was thinkin' we make a ramp and hinge it t'the security rings inside the airlock..."

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