2023-05-13: A Pleasant Layover Without Sushi
- Log: A Pleasant Layover Without Sushi
- Cast: Eight York, Roux Louka
- Where: Ra Mari II, Eight's Quarters
- OOC - IC Date: 0097 05 13
- Summary: With Roux Louka aboard the ship for a delivery, Eight York invites her over for a chat.
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
The Ra Mari II looms in space, larger than many things but smaller than more still. There are many reasons to visit, many things to be done, and many people already there, all going about their work and their lives. It is 'evening' by the ship's standards, which doesn't do a lot for the interior lighting actually but does affect who's on shift and who isn't. Eight York, for instance, is not. Lavnadim Orlodhari however is working late. But even if she's not actually on-shift, Eight keeps abreast of happenings on her ship, and who is coming and going, so when she heard that Roux was going to be aboard, she had a message sent to her, saying that she wanted to see her, and telling her where to go if she was so inclined. The living quarters of the Captain are among the doubles on the ship, closer to the bridge than most of the living areas but still otherwise 'among' the people, as it were. The nameplate on the front indicates 'York/Orlodhari'.
And when Roux shows up, Eight will open the door in civilian clothes! Gray dress, red jacket; the bump at her belly shows fairly obviously in breezy clothes at this point, hard to mistake for much else than what it is. And she is smiling.
The room within, which she'll lead her into, is a large set of quarters; there's a viewscreen among a set of couches and chairs, in red; the kitchenette is across the way, along with a couple of doors to other rooms. It is very nice! ...But, if Roux has noticed--it's the same kind of nice her officers who have families get, rather than just the Captain's.
There is tea!
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Roux was glad to escort a delivery of what is -- probably some kind of consumable. Roux doesn't know what it is, she just got an indirect tip off and it sounded like an easy payday as well as being to what was clearly the Ra Mari II. At worst, she gets a pleasant layover. And at best...
This.
Roux walks into these quarters. Or steps up, anyway. Roux is wearing a vaguely camisole-like top (aqua blue) on top of teal leggings with a pinkish sort of sash at the waist which is standardized enough to have a faintly perceptible pocket. "Captain!" she says, cheerfully, as she comes in.
And looks at Eight.
Thoughtfully.
Then, back up and around. "You know, I was always curious," Roux continues as she folds her hands behind her head with nigh-insolent casualness. "Do you think this all counts as a promotion even if you're still at the same job title?"
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
A pleasant layover is nice, too. But Eight does like to check in with Roux when she can.
And she has such a cute outfit! Eight looks over Roux and smiles. Their relationship isn't quite one where she should comment on it, but even so, she is an appreciator of fashion. "Ms. Louka," she says, just as formal but also very warm and cheerful. "Please, come in."
She gestures towards a seat on the couch or a chair, at Roux's preference--just in that general area. "I made tea. Feel free to have some. It's low-caffeine," she says apologetically, but she doesn't think that will be a huge problem. However...
"Hm?" Eight wonders, and then laughs. "Actually, we did a little ceremony. My official rank is 'Captain' now, instead of just a commander acting as a Captain. So it's a promotion!"
Pause. "Pay cut, though, not that there's any way around that. But until lately I haven't had a ton of expenses, either..."
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
"You should call me Roux at this point, I think," Roux muses as she comes on in, walking -- and walking kind of funny -- but Eight can probably tell WHY almost immediately. She's subconsciously expecting microgravity. Even if she KNOWS it isn't there, she FEELS it. "Oh god that's totally fine!" Roux says. "Are you able to have a little bit even when--?"
She's looking at the baby bump.
"Ha!" Roux then concludes, as she sets down (thump) and exhales. Reaching for the tea. "You know, that's a lot of how I was able to save so much money," Roux says. "I did like six two-month tours with different Fleet ships! I always went back to the Jupiter Sphere at turnover, though."
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
"Roux it is," Eight answers, and is glad for that much. She does have to take a moment--but only a moment--to work out why Roux is walking that way. She's gotten used to having full gravity on most of the ship, but it's still an adjustment for a lot of people who visit.
"A little!" Eight says. "I cut it out completely at first, but my doctor told me a small amount won't hurt the baby." Eight recgnizes that, too. "No sushi, though."
Eight comes and takes a seat too, sitting a little more carefully since it's just slightly more work to get there. She picks up a cup, too. "Oh, wow, that would do it," Eight answers. "I did the same with my pay in Londo Bell. I even managed to keep it when we left," she adds, though that was some careful financial maneuvering mostly on Minae's part...
"That sounds fun, though. You must've seen a lot of places. That's part of why I joined up, you know. See the Earth Sphere, and all that."
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Roux takes a deep breath and lets it out. "Is it the ship's doctor, or are you getting a consult?" Roux asks, before pausing. "No sushi? Why not?"
She gestures a little with the tea cup, which accomplishes not spilling because this much is the same between regular and micro gravity. As she takes a sip with it. "It's a good thing too since everything there costs *weird prices*," Roux half-complains. "Food was a lot cheaper than it is here, but I think it was subsidized. And some clothes... and digital subscriptions were free but everything was local mirrors they brought in on data cans. You know data cans?" Roux asks.
"Heh," she then says. "Less than you'd think! Usually we went just out and they'd swap out the crews at about the two month point -- they had faster ships, so the trip to and from only took about a week. Have you ever seen those ships? They're like if you put a small hotel on the end of a high thrust module. They look STUPID, but they're super fast. Basically pirate-proof, especially since the courses were kind of randomized and went out of the plane of the ecliptic. And it wasn't like you'd have much to steal."
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
"It's Dr. Bidan!" Eight reports brightly. "Or it was at first; I'm going to be seeing a specialist once I go on leave. As it stands, I've seen a few, but since we don't stay in the same place, it's hard to stick with the same doctor off the ship." Then she says, "Apparently there's mercury, which could harm the nervous system. Also, bacteria and viruses that wouldn't matter much to me, but would to the baby. I should really avoid seafood in general, apparently... not that we get a lot of that aboardship anyway, of course. We've started keeping fish, but it's still in progress to get a stable population."
Eight takes a sip of her own,and listens along. "Oh, yes?" Eight wonders. "I guess it could be. That sounds strange for digital, though. What's a data can?"
"Ohh," Eight answers of seeing things. "Yes, I'e seen a few--I spend a lot of time in the Colony Fleets when I'm off duty these days, to see Lavhi's family, or spend time with him where he can be Macronized."
Look stupid, super fast... "That's a pretty clever way of doing things. We still have to deal with pirates for our supply lines, of course..."
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
"Oh my GOD how is he doing?" asks Roux, leaning forwards. But it passes for a moment, because a specialist. Going on leave. She glances off to the side, and then she frowns in thought. "Oh, like from pollution? But you could get colony fish. Right? I guess there aren't a lot of places that have saltwater, though."
Roux pauses to think. "You know," she says finally, "I DID notice that in Spain but I thought it was just local stuff. Fish fish was a lot cheaper, but shrimp cost more? I just thought it was the time of the year. But..."
Back to the topic. "At least your scale is lower, right...? There's a lot of space out there, around the asteroid belt, where it's just the occasional miner colony and the Fleet ships. It's kind of interesting... If it wasn't for, like, THE WAR, I might write a book or something."
Roux exhales.
Back to Eight, to whom she says, after a moment of uncertainty, "How do you feel about it?"
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
"He's been good," Eight says. "He's a great doctor. Obviously with everything going on lately he's had stress of his own, but he's healthy and everything. He brought Dr. Yuiry with him." Then she nods along, "Yes, exactly. Not everywhere has pollution, but unless I spend all my time tracking down exactly where my fish comes from, it's a risk. I'm also not supposed to have eggs any lower than 'over hard'. No soft cheese, either. It's a lot to keep track of! But meat's fine. Which is good, I've just, had these super cravings for meat. I think it's because the little one's half-Zentradi."
"I think it's more expensive because they have to care for it more," she agrees. "But I don't know; I'm a colony girl, after all."
But the scale is lower... "True. We're here in more inhabited space, too--I've tried to set things up so we're on track to be as close to fully self-sufficient as possible, but in the meantime it's very good to have all these places to resupply."
"I'd read it!" Eight says, and then--blinks. How does she feel about it...?
"The war?" she wonders.
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
After a moment, Roux lets out what Eight might sense was something that had been on her mind since she just got into this room:
"I mean having a baby," she half-confesses, laughing.
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
"Oh!" When Roux laughs, it's infectious; Eight laughs, too, as she realizes what was on Roux's mind in the first place. "Oh, right! Of course!"
She smiles back. "Honestly? I'm thrilled. It's been rough," she admits, "Since I had to go off most of my medications. But it's really worth it. I've been dreaming about this since I was younger. Since I was able to make my 'own' personality. ...I wanted a big family. To do what the Yorks did for me, except, from the beginning. To give someone the things I never had."
"...And I love kids," she says, with a bigger smile. "So even though I spent the last few months throwing up my breakfast half the time, it's really been worth it. And things are a lot smoother now. I mean, its gotten so I can even--" Eight pauses, and flushes red. "Ah, you probably don't want to hear that part."
"But really, it's great. I'm... I feel really fulfilled. It's dangerous timing, I know, but when it comes to living your life, if we wait for all the wars to be over, we'll be waiting forever."
She pauses. "I am a little worried, though. I have to step back from my work... And the world won't wait for me to go back. I'm going to have to trust in the crew even more than before."
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Medications. Ah, yes, Roux thinks. Right.
It's easy to forget, sometimes.
Roux smiles a little weakly. "That's really nice," Roux says, quietly. "I've thought about it too. I didn't try anything at Jupiter since... well, it was kind of clear to me that it wasn't really... like..."
it didn't feel like a home
"... the kind of place where I wanted to, like... engage with the schools?"
Roux then tilts her head. "Are you just going on leave? Like off the ship entirely? I guess there's plenty of colonies... you could probably even go live in Zeon if you wanted. They'd probably think all of this is really funny." Meaning, of course, the completely innocent and fully reformed Republic of Zeon located in Side 3, which has no affiliation other than a warm symbolic love for the original ideas of Zeon zum Deikum, and are in no way funding anybody at all.
("also what were you about to say?")
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
Eight is very stable, as Cyber-Newtypes go. ...Her moods have cycled more since she changed her medications, of course. And she has worse symptoms about bright lights and loud noises than before, plus the headaches. But she does believe it's worth it.
Eight listnes to Roux. "It would be hard out there, wouldn't it?" she asks. "I think that's fair."
"My grandmother would love it if I came to stay with her, and I probably will for a couple of weeks, at least." Yes. Clearly, just very funny! "But mostly I plan to stay on the ship. Lavhi still has his work, and so does Rena, and most of my friends are here. We designed the living quarters so that the crew could bring their families, so.. I'll be 'the families' for a while." Her smile is smaller, then--she is worried about it. But it's still real. "I'm going to be on desk work until the baby comes. If I tried to keep commanding the ship actively I'm pretty sure I'd have a mutiny on my hands just to get me to rest."
Eight opens her mouth and closes it at the last question before, "Well, I'm feeling better enough after the first trimester that I can... be with... my partners again, so to speak. So that's been really nice. I don't get sick at all in the morning anymore, and my body hurts a lot less."
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Roux only knows some of what she feels. And from what she can feel, it's always felt like she can trust Eight York.
"It wouldn't be hard,' Roux says wistfully. "That's the thing. They actually had a lot of good schools. They're rich, you know, it's just one of those things where the *place* is rich but they're not so rich that everyone's just living in luxury. We were making good money but we were just, I guess, middle class?"
We. Judau, of course.
"... So you're going to be like your own little colony fleet ship, huh?" Roux says with a wistful smile.
She then frowns. "Wait, sick in the morning? What's been going on here?" ("also you mean sex right? I just want to be sure we're not dodging each other here to be polite, if you mean like you get rage-ons I totally get it.")
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
"I see..." So it wouldn't be hard, but it wasn't right for that time, or that place. Eight's expression shifts a little as she thinks it out, feels it out. "Right. Sometimes it's just not right, I suppose. I don't know that I'd have felt able to do it if this ship weren't such a home, myself. Without that, where else would I go?"
Judau, of course. Eight doesn't have to ask that much.
"So it makes sense to me, at least."
But that wistful statement gets a similar smile out of Eight. "That's what I hope. It's not quite the same as packing the people I love into one big house... but it's not so different, is it?"
"Oh," Eight says, "Morning sickness is a big symptom. For some reason you just get really nauseous, and it's not always morning, but it kind of is a lot. It was really rough." Pause. ("Yes. Sex. I can have sex again. It's actually a huge relief, I was worried it'd be like it was my whole pregnancy.")
"I do get pretty mad too," she admits, "But sometimes that has the same solution."
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
"I just think it's interesting to consider," Roux says. "I know ships often feel kind of like... families, or homes, but nobody really encourages that, right? Like the Spacy wants you to move up through your career, or at least rotates posting if you're not in engineering... and in the private sector it's maybe the captain and even that..."
Roux trails off.
"I mean," she says, "it makes more sense in a regular ship, but this one!" She tap-taps her foot. "Here you really could raise kids and everything if the space didn't bug you!" ("cool, cool, just good to know")
"I hope that isn't like WEIRD to ask you," Roux continues with a mild, MOSTLY feigned grimace. "I just don't really have anyone I could ask? I didn't like, have this conversation with my mother and Sayla's house is like the sad lesbians convention."
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
"You're right, they really don't. I've thought about that before. If I were still in Londo Bell, I wouldn't have this chance. I'd have to just... stay home, waiting to hear if everyone got through the next mission safe. I don't really relish that idea much."
Roux trails off, and Eight smiles. "Yes. I hope to do just that! And that's part of why the cabins are so big," she says, gesturing around. "...Of course, it's also that we don't have near enough of a crew to actually fill this space with people as small as we are. Even with the mobile suits."
And space, of course, doesn't bug her! She is, as she said, a colony girl.
But Roux continues, and Eight laughs at the grimace; it's funny. "It's not at all. You can ask me anything you want, and whatever I don't know, I'll probably find out soon enough. You already got me to admit I'm still having sex while I'm pregnant, so I'm not sure what you could ask me that feels weirder than saying that out loud."
"I've been lucky enough to have people to ask about it. So if I can pass that luck along, I will. ...Do you think you might think about it soon, yourself? Now that you're around these parts again?"
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
"Do you think you'll have to close the cabins off and remodel things once it gets more crowded?" Roux asks. "After all," a glance down, "this is going to be her or his little home, right? He might want to stay in the old neighborhood! You'll have to figure that one out." Shifting forwards, she folds her hands on her knees.
"I'm glad to just be able to talk about it, though," Roux confesses. "I don't have a ton of close friends, you know! It's kind of weird, but I suppose that's normal once you're out of school and everything, right? You're either forming a family, or you're working, or you're dating... for all that we live in these wonderful machines, life can be kind of lonely."
A beat, another beat.
"I don't know," Roux huffs out. "I'd have to talk to Judau about it anyway. And probably wait for him to get over screaming about it. I think he and Leina, like, they were not... they didn't have very..."
A pause.
"They didn't have their parents in their home when they left Shangrila with the Argama," Roux concludes. "That's the best way I can put it."
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
"Remodeling is pretty easy thanks to modular design. We're just going to convert my office there," she gestures behind the couch, "To the baby's room. But after that..." She taps her cheek thoughtfully. "Maybe! I think it will get at least a little more crowded, after all."
"Well, I like being able to talk about it, too. It's hard sometimes to talk to even your old friends about having a baby. Especially when the place they are in their lives really isn't there?" She nods along. "...Mm. I know I'm lucky, to have all these people around." It can be kind of lonely, though. There's a lot...
But after those beats, "That's fair. Can't do it yourself, after all! And all it took me was a little while off birth control. I'm not even sure it was a month before I was pregnant. Though we did try pretty hard!"
So that makes a difference.
"...But I see, yes. Leina's mentioned a little about that to me, about her history. It's... hard, when you don't have it in your own background."
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
"My parents were fine," Roux says, "but -- okay I can't really visualize the baby's room, can you elaborate there? Anyway, they were fine but I didn't have SIBLINGS so I like, didn't really SEE it--"
"That's true too," Roux muses. "It's not like it's instant, or else my high school would have been way more embarrassing."
"I bet she's been thinking about this stuff too, huh? In fact I bet you're going to get all kinds of people bugging you about it, so if I'm #27, I apologize!" Roux concludes, eyes widening slightly.
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
At least Roux's parents were fine! "We're still figuring out exactly what we need to have in there, but definitely a crib, a table, a place to keep the baby's things, and a monitor. Not that I gather I'll be anywhere but nearby when the baby's born, but it's nice to have a Space." But she didn't have siblings, "Me either, so I'm going all in on advice and hearsay."
But Eight laughs. "Mine, too."
"She gave me a lot to think about, deciding whether it's all right to bring a baby up into war, but..." She trails off. "It's definitely too late for second guessing now, to me." She smiles. "There's been some questions. But I don't mind. I like talking about it. It's a good thing!"
Though, "The thing that isn't great is that now that I'm showing people want to touch me. I'm not really up for that with everyone. And there's nothing to 'feel' yet anyway."
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
"I think you were right," Roux says. "There's never a perfect time. I think that's true for everything..."
She trails off then. Her brow furrows. "That's rude," Roux says. "That's like, touching your organs right now. Like I guess the father has a reason or a doctor or something but holy *shit*. I heard about all of that but I thought it was like a rude joke!"
A pause.
"... Mm," she concludes, wondering.
"Do you want to get something to eat?" Roux offers. "I'd pay for delivery, but... I think you're the one in charge around here."
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
"I hope so," Eight says. "I'll do everything I can, in any case. This is... precious to me."
It is rude!! "It is, isn't it?" she says of organs. She hadn't looked at it quite that way. "Lavhi can, I don't mind that at all, and the doctor, sure, but it's just like you say. It's pretty weird. At least the crew doesn't generally do it."
But hm?
"I would love to get something to eat," Eight says. "Haha. I am. I'll have something brought over. Here, let's see, I've got the menu for today around here somewhere..."