The night is young [open to any ship's crew]

[Ari Deschain]

It had been a busy day for the Atlas. They had come into Persephone to look for some work and also to pick up some necessities for their infirmary, food stuff for the kitchen, and some spare parts for the engine. Ari had spent most of the day working in the engine room, doing some maintenance work and cleaning up from a little oil leak that had happened earlier. As such, she did have some oil and grease stains on her clothes. That was pretty much standard for the mechanic, though. It was pretty hard to find any clothing that she owned that was not stained from her work.

Now she had the rest of the night free.
Of course, she headed for the bar.

None of the crew of the Atlas was with her. They were all off doing their own business, but she had hopes that at least Stoot might join her later. Until then, it wasn't as if she couldn't find someone to talk to. The bar was pretty crowded.

She threaded her way through the crowd and went straight to the bar. Slamming a hand down, she hailed the bartender. He took her order and came back quickly with a large mug. Taking it in both hands, she found an empty stool and sat on it. Facing the door and eyeing the crowd, she sipped at her drink.

[phantomseige]

Leighton peered inside the box that was now securely in his arms. An old friend had sent him a package - more specifically, an old friend from medical school had sent him an old stethoscope; the use of which had been covered in, "Minimal Technology Medicine and Trauma" (also known as "grandpa's doctoring 101" to the students) - an elective that had sounded interesting to Leighton. It ended up mostly being a history class where the students got to play with old and antiquated medical equipment that seemed a decade away from a museum exhibit. This specific stethoscope, however, had been a gift from his old buddies for getting the highest score of all the students enrolled in the class.

And now he had it back. It was one of the trinkets he regretted leaving back home. And apparently Paul had the good sense to realize Leighton would want it.

A shout to Leighton's left snapped him out of his thoughts. He gazed over just in time to see a man ejected from the door of a bar, as though the building had spat the gritty traveler from its stomach. A second man soon followed, angered and quite clearly in a rage. The ejected man stood, pulled a gun, and everyone stopped for a moment. The enraged man unclenched his fist, muttered a rather crude word under his breath, and walked back in the bar. Everyone continued on their way, and the ejected man, saving what dignity he had left, glanced left and right before heading down the street.

Leighton approached towards the bar, unsure if the fight had been particularly large or brutal. As he walked in, still clad in his out-of-place clothing - white shirt, black slacks, with yet another old joke from med school, his black lab coat, covering it all - he saw nothing unusual, just a loud, raucous tavern full of drunkards and undesirables, and the smell of whiskey that invaded his nose.

He was about to leave when someone shoved him inside to get in. He nearly tripped, recovering by grabbing the nearby unused coat rack. The man who had pushed him made no word of apology, although now Leighton was painfully aware of the several pairs of eyes fixed on him. He quickly regained himself, unsure of what the people watching him were expecting; he just knew that their stares made him uncomfortable.

[radegrasan]

Rade picked another nice night to go and have a drink. He sat in an alcove all by himself near the exit, trying to enjoy his whiskey. He hadn't been in the tavern for an hour or he had already seen three fights and at least two people that got a little too frisky with a waitress and were kicked out as well.

Persephone never was a friendly place to live in to begin with, but Rade had noticed that the last ten years it had been decaying more rapidly. There was a time when he cared about it, but now he couldn't care less anymore. Piloting the Riley took him all around the 'Verse, but still he found himself more often on Persephone than he liked. As if the planet just wouldn't let go of him.

Rade then looked at the individual that had just come in. He wore what almost looked like a black labcoat, and Rade figured the individual to be some kind of scientist. It was the sort of guy the local thugs would pick on if the guy wouldn't be careful.

Rade's assumption seemed correct. The man in the labcoat was abruptly shoved back inside when he made an attempt to leave, making him stagger on his feet and grabbing a nearby coatrack. Rade couldn't help himself but to laugh at the individual in the black labcoat.

"Geez, what a tool. Almost seems like this guy has never entered a bar before." Rade thought in himself. "And by the look of things, it seems like he won't enter one ever again. Hope for his sake those thugs over there'll leave him alone."

More eyes, including Rade's were now fixed on the man in the labcoat, all wondering on how he was going to recover from making an idiot out of himself like that.

[Ari Deschain]

ooc: I'm gonna play this as if Leighton is already on the Atlas. I also am replying to the "another escape" board. I'm sorry it took so long for me to reply there. been a crazy month for me so far, and I lost track. =/

The sudden ruckus by the door captured Ari's attention, as it did with most of the others in the bar. A couple of men getting themselves thrown out. Not uncommon in a dive like this, and as they exited she smirked and took another pull from her drink. However, it was then that a man stumbled in, having been pushed from behind. He looked very out of place, and all the eyes in the bar that had been focused on the scuffle were now focused on him. It took her only a moment to realize who it was. Their new medic, Leighton, trying to regain his composure though obviously uncomfortable.

Smiling slightly, she downed as much of her drink as she could in one sip before banging it down on the bar and sliding money next to it. She stood and pushed through the crowd of people to go to Leighton. "Doc! Didn't expect ta see you in a place like this!" Winking playfully, she dusted his lab coat off as she shook her head. "We been on this rock not even a day and you're already gettin' yourself into trouble," she teased. As she spoke to the doctor, the eyes that were focused on him were sliding away and people in the bar were going back to their drinks and their respective conversations.

Ari glanced around to be sure there was not anyone else staring; she did not like the attention, especially in their business. One man caught her eye. She recognized him as the pilot of the Riley. Although they'd never really talked, she thought it a shame that the crew of the two ships didn't know each other all that well. She rose a hand to him in greeting, then turned back to Leighton with a friendly grin. "Well you certainly know how to make an entrance. While you're here, you wanna get a drink?"

[phantomseige]

"Ye-yeah, a drink should be good, I think. Hopefully." He laughed at himself. "I saw the commotion outside," he explained as he approached the bar with Ari, "and I wasn't sure what to expect in here. When people start pulling guns, things have already been going down in my experiences."

He sat at one of the stools at the bar and looked over all the bottles on the wall. The bartender made no acknowledgment of the doctor's presence until he muttered a soft-spoken, "excuse me."

"What do you want?" the Bartender spat.

"Just some scotch, if you happen to have it."

The bartender scoffed at the order, but did in fact have the drink, which he poured and handed to the doctor. Leighton looked at Ari. "You want anything? I feel like I owe you for saving me from my...entrance earlier." Leighton smiled sheepishly, embarrassed at his own clumsiness.

[radegrasan]

Rade waved back at Ari as she rose her hand up in greeting. He knew who she was, but so far he hadn't been able to talk to her yet. And apparently she also knew the man who made a fool out of himself a moment earlier.

Rade thought it would be impolite to just sit around and do nothing, and since he had nothing better to do, he figured he'd go and introduce himself properly to Ari. He picked up his drink and walked over to the table where she was sitting along with the man in the black labcoat.

"Ari, right?" Rade asked. "We haven't been properly introduced yet, but I'm Rade Grasan. Mind if I join you?"

[Ari Deschain]

Ari smirked at his response. "Hopefully? Ain't no shaky nerves a drink can't fix," she teased as they made their way through the crowd. "There was some trouble-makin', sure enough, but most of these little scuffles stop once someone flashes a gun." True enough. An argument in a bar was hardly reason enough to get one's head blown off. Sitting beside him, she watched him attempt to signal the bartend. She grinned. He was so polite. Maybe one day he'd learn that one had to assert himself to get any kind of attention in this 'Verse.

At the offer of a drink, she shrugged. "You don't owe me a thing, but I've never turned down a drink." She did as she had earlier, slamming her hand on the bar. It was loud enough to attract the bartender's attention without her having to raise her voice. "Just a beer." Turning back to him, she cocked her head. "So how you likin' life aboard the Atlas?" Leighton hadn't been with them long, but it was long enough to make some sort of assessment.

At that moment, Rade approached. She stuck out a hand as he introduced himself. "Right, Ari Deschain. Good ta meet you, Rade. The Riley's pilot? Go 'head an' have a seat." She glanced at Leighton with a friendly grin. "I say the more the merrier, yeah?"

[radegrasan]

Rade switched his whiskey in his left hand as Ari stuck out her hand to greet him. With his right hand he shook Ari's hand before sitting down.

"Right. The Riley's pilot." Rade said. "And Faye Murphy's personal pisspole."

The last was said with a bit of frustration. Rade could take a lot of abuse, but Faye's constant taunting and her futile attempts to keep a military discipline aboard the Riley were wearing thin. It had come up to a point to which Rade wouldn't just shut up anymore. Next time Faye would taunt him or address him in an inappropriate way, he'd answer her. And answer her good.

Originally, Rade actually wanted to work for Ryan on the Atlas. But then he found out they already had a pilot. Rade never even saw the guy, or heard from him during Whitefall. The Atlas seemed like it was on a constant autopilot, without anyone being in the cockpit. Even outside of the cockpit the guy seemed elusive, almost as if he didn't exist at all. Normally by now Rade should've ran into him by accident already, yet the guy remained nowhere to be seen.

"So how's life on the Atlas, guys?" Rade asked.

[phantomseige]

"Slow," Leighton answered before he could stop himself. He coughed, embarrassed, before he took a drink. "I mean, in between jobs, you...know how it is."

Leighton took in Rade's words, thinking through what he said and how he said it. Finally, he put the glass down and turned to the pilot. "If you don't like it, why not do something about it?" he asked. "Find a new boat, if nothing else? If you're a halfway decent pilot, I can't imagine it's too hard to find something. Try and get on a good job and save up for your own ship , even." Leighton wasn't exactly the best person to talk about changing circumstances - he had been on the run for longer than he wished to admit - but he still could hear the sound of resentment in Rade's voice, but also the subtle intonations of courage and strength, and Leighton had no doubt that Rade would consider his words, at least if Leighton was right about his advice and analysis.

[Ari Deschain]

Ari's eyes narrowed as she peered at Rade over her drink. He was obviously bitter, and bitter enough to share his discontent with near strangers. "Murphy's a force to be reckoned with, right enough. But, I'm sure she'll come around?" This last was posed with a bit of a questioning rise at the end of the sentence. She knew Faye was headstrong and definitely in control, but the Captain didn't seem the type to give someone a hard time consistently and forever. If Rade was a good pilot and good crew, Ari had the view that Faye would work out that her alleged abuse of him wasn't going to do either of them much good.

Ari hadn't known Rade wanted to work on the Atlas. Their own pilot, Jude, was never around (I have no idea how to explain his absence in the rp lol). Leighton responded quickly to Rade's posed question, and Ari laughed a little. "Nah, you're right. It's slow between jobs since all we're doin' is floatin' around in the black. Hopefully the Capt'n will find some work here." She took a pull from her drink, her mind wandering to Hannigan and from there to Stoot. It seemed her mind was wandering to Stoot a lot these days.

She glanced at Leighton in surprise as he was so brutally honest with Rade. Now Ari was awkward, sure enough, but Leighton seemed to have her beat. Somehow she didn't think Rade would appreciate Leighton getting into his business, but he had been the one to bring it up and she tended to agree with the medic.

[radegrasan]

Rade couldn't help but laugh at the advice Ari and Leighton had given him.

"Leave? Haha, good one." Rade said as he smiled. "And give ol' Red what she wants? Like hell. I'd rather have a boss who hates my guts than no boss at all."

Rade somehow took comfort in knowing that he annoyed the piss out of Faye. It was sort of a two cutting sword. He annoyed her, and she gave him a hard time for it. And it would take a whole army of Faye Murphy's before she might have a chance to get the better of him.

"Besides, all I care about is the flying." Rade continued. "I get to fly every damn day, I can eat and I can sleep. That's all I need really."

Rade sort of believed that himself. But deep down, he knew he didn't. Deep inside, he needed friends just like everyone else, maybe a few people that actually gave a damn about him.

"And what's life without a little challenge, right guys?" Rade said as he took another drink of his whiskey.

[phantomseige]

"Simple," Leighton answered. "Not as fun, but definitely simple." It had been for him at one point. He resented the circumstances that sent him on the run, but looking back on it, he wasn't so sure he'd have liked where his life would have ended up if he hadn't fled.

He took a drink of the scotch - which he had ascertained was of poor quality at best - and wondered where the Atlas would be flying next, and whether or not he'd be needed. It was one of the conundrums of being a doctor; you wanted to be able to help, but bad things needed to happen to people before you could.

"So, any new jobs lined up for the Riley?" he asked, curious what other crews were doing. Also curious what he might have been in store for on the Atlas, as he had not seen anything that he could classify as 'action' yet.

[radegrasan]

[OOC: Sorry guys, I totally forgot about this thread!]

"So, any new jobs lined up for the Riley?"

"You kidding me?" Rade replied. "We're docked more than anything else!"

It was true. The Riley had been docked now for a long time, up to a point where it was getting rather annoying. And Rade, being a man that needed action, was getting something people called 'cabin fever'.

He joined the Riley crew to leave Persephone as much as he could, but he found himself more often back home than anything else since he joined.

"I'll tell ya one thing." Rade said. "Murphy better come up with some jobs fast or I'm jumping ship. I don't know how much I can stand being docked any longer."