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You head towards the Dining Facility.
Dining Facility
Contents:
Clara
Vendotron 3000
Obvious exits:
Atrium
You arrive from the Central Atrium.
The dustmop of red hair must be Clara, but the uniform is a Navy shipsuit, and
the set of her shoulders is one who isn't quite altogether here. Still, she
seems to be making her way through breakfast singlemindedly, absently working
through toast, eggs, sausage and tea.
Niko rubs lightly at one eye as he pads into the dining facility, making his way right over to snag a mug of chai. Chai is a happy thing, after all. After a moment's thought, he comes up with a bowl of oatmeal as well, though sans raisins, this time. Spotting you and your uniform, he pauses, then murmurs, mostly to himself, "I guess it's too much to hope that she's seen the light." With a shake of his head, he ambles over, idly straightening his uniform jacket as he does so--not that it needs straightening, of course.
You faintly hear a chime mark the hour.
Clara pauses amidst cutting a bit off the sausage at the glimmer of uniform movement, and blinks several times in your direction before words go with the mental ideas. "Heya," she greets amiably, if somewhat out of it. "Join me?" she suggests, waving her fork at the opposing chair.
Niko shakes his head as he folds himself into a seat, then downs a good quarter
of the beverage in one gulp, then rummages for a napkin to wipe his lips.
He's still getting used to this facial hair thing, after all, and definitely
doesn't want anything getting stuck in there. He'd never hear the end of
that. "Looks like I'm not the only one who's had a long night. You Navy,
now?" he adds, with an amused grin.
Clara gives the beard a sleepily approving smile, leaning back in her chair to claim her own mug of tea for a careful sip. "Not likely," she replies with a quiet laugh, then plucks at one shoulder of her uniform. "This's just the easiest uniform for travelling, especially if it involves hyper. You had a long night? You okay?" she wonders before another bite of food.
Niko nods amiably as he starts on his oatmeal. "Had a long night, and I'm fine.
Just some entertaining stuff at work. Nothing serious, just couldn't sleep
once the radio woke me up--which is why turning the evil things -off- is a
good thing--and I decided to go lend a hand." His brows quirk just a touch,
then. "Hyper? Nasty stuff, that."
"Lend a hand? Is everything all right? Is Riley okay?" Clara's entirely
susceptible to a one track mind in her current absent condition, and really
does look concerned. "Turning off the radios really is conducive to sleep,
though." She pauses to think a moment, then nods around another bite of
sausage. "Had to go home to Earth for a few days. I'm home now," she adds,
the Queen of Obvious.
Niko reassures, with a grin, "Everybody's fine. Well, Kath's pride is a little
bruised--she got called some entertaining things, and Kayce and I wouldn't
let her go after the guy who insulted her. That lady's got a -temper- on
her." He lets out a low whistle, shaking his head, though he looks amused.
"It was fun," he adds. Yes, he must have been dropped on his head when he was
a baby. "Earth, huh? Going home's always nice." And he even manages not to
look wistful.
"Smart idea...Kath would probably have torn them into a few dozen pieces. Not
much left to arrest after that," Clara teases with a quiet chuckle. "Sounds
like you did have fun though, although you SecOff types have a weird idea of
fun." The idea of nice brings a thoughtful expression and she nods slowly
over more tea. "It was. It really was, actually. Mother even came back from
her assignment on Ceti XIII."
Niko shakes his head. "Nah, we didn't have to arrest anybody. Just a bit of a
ruckus, not a big deal. And of course we've got a weird idea of fun," he
adds, with a grin. "Otherwise we wouldn't be SecOffs. We'd have a more sane
line of work." He rakes a hand lightly through his hair, absently sending it
into disarray, then starting on his oatmeal. "Ceti XIII," he adds, with the
tone of someone who is trying to sound like he knows geography when he really
doesn't. "Kay."
"Like infantry medics. We're imminently sane people," Clara notes loftily, then grins with a light of definite impishness despite the vagueness. "Ceti XIII is that technical colony in the Ceti system just past Terra. I swear the entire population is programmers. Mother'd gone there for some training."
Niko chuckles quietly at that. "Medics in general," he observes, "Are nuts.
Anybody who'd wield a regenerator..." He mock-shudders, then nods. "Oh, yeah.
I think they did some of the work on some of the analytical software we used
back on Evinast."
"Please," Clara sniffs with mock disdain. "We prefer the term 'loony'." She
grins at the shuddering, taking a moment to work through scrambled eggs, then
nods amiably. "Mother's a systems analyst for the lab schools on Terra, and
they send her for training to Ceti all the time." She thinks for a moment.
"But not today. Today is a good day to be off duty. I may call Jones and see
if he can cover for me."
Niko nods amiably. "Taking a day off now and then is a good thing, when it's
feasible. Bet Jones'd do it."
"They already had my appointments cancelled for the day," Clara muses, finally
finishing her food and settling the plate aside to work on her tea. "I may do
just that. How about you? Busy day ahead?"
Niko shakes his head. "Theoretically, no. But we can't predict what various
badguys are going to do, so I'm not altogether sure. I've actually been on
duty for a while, but, well, food is good."
Clara settles a finger to each temple, trying to look mysterious and sage. "I
predict that all the bad guys will stay home and watch the vid today, and you
will have a nice quiet day," she intones, then grins. "Food really is good,
yeah. I got them to send my bags up to the apartment, then came straight
here. Eating on board never was my forte."
Niko shakes his head. "-Being- on board was never my forte," he says, with a chuckle. "How sad is that, and me a navy guy. And, hey, it'd be great if they all stayed home, though I'm not going to count on it. And I get to go visit Butch today, too. She's the joy of my life, after all."
"I don't mind actually being on the ships themselves. It's just -getting- to
and from them that makes me a wreck," Clara admits with sheepish
cheerfulness. "Oooh, visiting Butch is fun though. At least, she's always
been nice to me. More problems with customs again?"
Niko shakes his head. "No more than usual. Just day-to-day stuff. And of -course- Butch is nice to you," he adds, with a grin. "You're a woman. I swear, I should get Kath to deal with her, but she'd probably make fun of me if I asked her." Of course, he doesn't look too troubled.
"Day to day has been insane lately, I swear. Sometimes I wonder if the customs people sit around and think up things to torment Security with," Clara exclaims with wry amusement over her tea. "Aaah, get Kath to deal with her. Kath makes fun of you anyway...what's a little more going to hurt?"
Niko snickers very quietly. "Uh, potentially a lot, if Butch hits on Kath. Though," he adds, voice a parody of thoughtfulness, "They -would- make a good couple." And the luck must be with Niko, as Kathlyn is not in the room. If she heard him say that, he probably would get smacked.
You faintly hear a chime mark the hour.
Clara does her best not to laugh, really. Unfortunately, she's still half
sedated and vastly jet-lagged, and it doesn't work. Snickering, she nods and
notes, "And if Kath heard you say that, she'd slap you silly. And then Shan
would look all wistful, probably. Have those two even attempted anything
approximating a date yet?"
Niko nods a firm agreement. "Or, worse, she'd slap me -un-silly, and then where would I be? Got to have a sense of humor, or this place just gets too insane." With a shake of his head, he says, "If they have, nobody's told me. And Shan's still mooning after her and Kath's still making the occasional comment on her... uh, frustrations. So I don't think they have."
"Unsilly?" Clara gasps dramatically, one hand lighting on her chest in mock-dismay. "Good heavens, now -there- would be a tragedy." She grins rapidly then. "I don't think you have anything to worry about, though, to be honest." The news brings a headshake and a chuckle. "The slowest courtship in the history of the civilized galaxy. Someone throw them in a pit together."
Niko suggests, all but snickering as he finishes off his oatmeal, "Or maybe have Islien or somebody sit on the pit once they're in there. Kath'd be -mad- at that, though. Have to say, it'd be fun to watch."
"We could break out the popcorn and lawnchairs to watch the screaming, yelling and threats," Clara suggests amiably, rubbing at her eyes. "Islien would do it too, you can lay odds. That's one dragon with a sense of humor."
Niko tosses back the last of his beverage and gets to his feet. "If nothing else, it'll be amusing to see what Kath does when I suggest that. Or Shan, for that matter--now -that- would be funny. He'd turn really entertaining colors. Maybe he'll be there, now. And I do need to get going, Clara. I'm theoretically on duty, after all, probably should be upstairs."
Clara gestures with her teacup before draining the last of it lazily. "Let me
know the reactions, please? Somehow, I think that'd be worth laughing myself
silly over. Getting back to work is good, though. I'll probably get upstairs
and unpack. Have a good day, hey?"
Niko nods to that, with a half-salute as he heads over to dispose of his dishes. "Will do, much as I'm able. And I'll let you know, sure. Maybe I can do it somewhere that we've got security cameras, and can run back the tape or something. Though Kath would really hurt me for that." There's a pause, just before he heads for the exit. "I think it'd be worth it."
You head towards the Central Atrium.